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Friday, Mar 29, 2024

TELEVISION—Telemundo’s Man in L.A.

Fernando Lopez Title: General Manager, KVEA Channel 52 and KWHY Channel 22 Age: 38 Education: B.A. in broadcast management from Cal State Los Angeles Career turning point: Coming to KVEA and taking his first position as a station general manager Personal: Married with two children Most admired person: Rick Blagiardi, Telemundo president. “He’s the one who gave me a chance and who believed in me, and stands for a lot of the things I believe in.” The manager of telemundo’s two stations in los angeles, fernando lopez, has a front seat as nbc acquires the spanish-language television network Glendale-based Spanish-language television station KVEA wasn’t exactly floundering when Fernando Lopez became its general manager nearly two years ago. But it was the proverbial also-ran to Univision Inc.-owned KMEX Channel 52, which long ago grew used to beating KVEA in the ratings by wide margins. It was late 1999 when Lopez took over and began putting his stamp on everything from programming to the Telemundo Inc.-owned station’s d & #233;cor. By stressing more KVEA-produced programs and doubling the staff of the news department, Lopez soon saw the ratings for the perennial second-place news department improve. Although KMEX continues to have the ratings edge, KVEA is closing the gap. According to Nielsen Research, the station’s 6 p.m. news program still lags behind KMEX with a 1.2 rating and 4 share, compared to its rival’s 3.0 rating and 11 share. Lopez’s job became more complicated in June when KVEA acquired the independent Spanish-language station KWHY Channel 22 for $250 million. Lopez is now that station’s general manager as well, turning it into KVEA’s sister station, but with its own independent programming. His job title could very well change again since after week’s announcement that NBC is acquiring Telemundo. Lopez says his ultimate goal is to make KVEA number one in Southern California’s Spanish-language market, but the competition gets more and more fierce all the time. Question: Last week’s announcement that General Electric, through its NBC subsidiary, is acquiring Telemundo ended a lot of speculation about it being somebody’s takeover target one way or the other. What kind of impact has all this speculation had on you and your stations? Answer: Actually, it’s a great feeling to see that Viacom and GE are recognizing us. It makes us feel good to see that interest. There’s a reason why Viacom became Viacom and GE became GE, by going after good opportunities. But if it happens or if it doesn’t happen, we’re not going to stop. We have a commitment to the people of this station. Q: Telemundo recently acquired one-time rival KWHY-TV and you’ve been named general manager of that station as well. What are your immediate plans for Channel 22? A: Channel 52 is owned and operated by Telemundo and carries programming from the Telemundo network. Channel 22 is an independent station. You want to balance that to give programming on a network level here and on a local level there. We want to keep Channel 22 local. Q: Why did Telemundo acquire KWHY? How will that acquisition help KVEA? A: You can own two TV stations in the same market and Telemundo figured that, not only are we going to be able to get a good competitive channel for Telemundo, we can do it in a very efficient way in one location. So, you have two stations that are separate entities, but you don’t need two different accounting departments and two sales departments. When you have two channels and you control two outlets for entertainment, it gives you more power. That’s why Univision is going with Telefutura (a second Spanish-language network being developed by Univision scheduled to have a Los Angeles affiliate by next year). Q: Did you know when you got here in late 1999 that Telemundo was planning to purchase Channel 22? A: No. My focus was to make Channel 52 the number one Spanish TV station in this market and that’s how I approached it. But by early December I started hearing that there might be a possibility and then, as 2001 started, I heard, “Guess what? You’re going to be running two TV stations.” Q: What’s the difference between KVEA and KMEX? A: Lots of things. The news, for instance. We try not to do the same thing as everybody else. Immigration is a big story for us. Education and crime is also important. But most of the people want to know things like how to buy a house and how to get a good job. Our counterparts (KMEX) are a lot more worried about car chases and high-impact kinds of stories which are like Chinese food that leave you kind of hungry. I think we’re more dedicated to informing and being a part of the community. Q: Univision again has the rights to broadcast World Cup soccer next year and your rival and its affiliate, KMEX-TV Channel 34, will show a full schedule of games. What will you do to combat that? A: You still need to cover that as a sports story and you have to cover the reaction from people. But not everybody likes soccer. Some people like movies and some others like other kinds of things, so you try to program like that. It’s not the first time that’s happened to us, so we have some plans for that. Q: KMEX has continued to lead in the ratings over KVEA, though its lead has narrowed this year. What does KVEA need to do to surpass it? A: This is a marathon. There is no magic bullet that’s going to happen tonight. There’s nothing here that you can do and say, “I’m going to do this and it’s going to happen for us.” It’s about consistency, having the right people doing the work day in and day out, and it’s the same situation if you’re doing newscasts in this city. Q: Some original programs that Telemundo developed last year that were patterned after mainstream TV series like “Charlie’s Angels” did very poorly in the ratings last year. Is that the end of Telemundo-produced shows that mimic those on mainstream networks? A: It was a good concept on paper, but it didn’t work for some reason. People are used to seeing novelas (soap operas) at night. It didn’t work and Jim McNamara, our CEO, was right when he said let’s go back to our bread and butter. It was a great idea that just didn’t work. Q: In the 18 months you’ve been at KVEA, you’ve put your mark on the station’s programming, but more particularly on the news operation. Why is news so important? A: I have a network-owned and operated station, so the only thing I can fully control is the news operation. So, if you have a good product, people will look at you and it has a halo effect to everything else. I was news director at KMEX and I worked in the news operations at KCBS and KTLA, so news is my first love. I knew news was the window into the community and, if you have a good news operation and you have solid journalists, people react to that. Q: What are some of the misconceptions about L.A.’s Latino television market? A: I think a lot of people underestimate the power of Spanish broadcasting. The misconception is that the Spanish TV market is not worth it and that it’s underground, but it’s not true. The numbers prove it. Just look at the Latino buying power in L.A. It’s huge ($66 billion in 1998, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce). Q: Do you feel that you’re under the gun to see these stations perform at higher levels than in the past? A: “Under the gun” isn’t the word I’d use. I put the pressure on myself because of people like (Telemundo President) Rick Blagiardi who gave me the opportunity to run these stations and I don’t wait to fail him. It’s mostly the way I am: I don’t want to fail. I don’t see it like someone saying you have three months to do something. So do I feel the pressure? No. But KVEA is the only station I know of that is doing better than last year.

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