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(Continued From Page HI)cocky,” said Hernandez in an April 1981 The Brownsville Herald story. “Maybe they know something we don’t.”SCENE II Cameron County District Attorney Rey Cantu's office. Cantu has decided not to pursue the criminal mischief charges against KVEO managers. The station looks to get off scot-free.PUB (Attorney Russell Johnson): I’m disappointed...My reaction is that nothing will happen to you if you do something like that (disconnect power lines).KVEO: No comment.KVEO eventually goes on the air while connected to CPL power lines.ACT IISCENE ILess than a year after the station goes on the air, Dean leaves KVEO. He later claims the station owes him more than $600,000 and tries to force it into bankruptcy.Dean’s attorneys later file a motion to dismiss his claim, though, leaving him facing fraud charges counter-filed by the station. Station officials believe Dean stole “tens of thousands of dollars” from KVEO in a kick-back scheme.While the fraud suit is still pending, Dean is found dead in a parked truck near Bulvcrde, a tiny Texas town just north of San Antonio. Suicide is believed to be the cause of death.THE BROWNSVILLEHERALD: Former Channel 23 chairman of board found dead! Carbon monoxide poisoning may have killed Peter Watts Dean, one of the founders of KVEO-TV in Brownsville.MORELSA GARZA (Dean’slegal secretary at KVEO): He wasn’t the type to kill himself. He was not emotional. I never saw him get mad. The circumstances werefunny.A medical examiner eventuallyconcludes that Dean died of cyanide poisoning. He is believed to have ingested cyanide pills.Circumstances of the death seem to indicate, though, that if Dean had decided to kill himself, he wasn’t quite sure how he woulddo it. A hose had been connected to the tail pipe of the truck and run into the passenger’s side. An unloaded handgun was found atthe scene.The fraud case is settled out ofcourt, with KVEO’s bank receiving most of the money claimed missing.Just months before the settlement, a former business partner of Dean’s is convicted of funneling more than $500,000 from a failed West Texas bank to Dean and a law partner of his. Dean had been a lawyer and wasn’t working for KVEO at the time of the incident.ACT IIISCENE I We’re deep within the confines of the KVEO station off the expressway on a February afternoon in 1985. With winter still under way, the weather is still cool, but activity inside has reached a fever pitch.Work has begun on the station’s second news program and supervisors have lured a local boy who has succeeded outside the Rio Grande Valley to anchor the program. Ronnie Oliveira, 29, is back in the* town he grew up in after a four-year stint at an Austin TV station, where he had been the weekly anchorman.KVEO (General Manager EarlNoel): We’re very happy to have Ronnie with us. He is an established anchorperson who has done an excellent job in the Austin market. We feel credibility will definitely be gained by having him.OLIVEIRA: We’re going up against two stations who are veryEOestablished in the Valley. But we intend to be competing head-on with them.Station officials are busy fending off questions about the last news show on the NBC affiliate. That one, a nightly newscast, couldn’t match the ratings KGBT and KRGV obtained.KVEO (Noel): There’s been long and hard soul-searching and deliberation going into putting a newscast back on the air. But in theend, it was our opinion that the station needs to be involved in the news business.OLIVEIRA: We're going to do the Brownsville station right; we’re not going at it halfway. It’s all or nothing.KVEO eventually went on-air with 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. newscasts and Oliveira became the anchor in May of 1985. In September of 1986,though, the station drops the axe on the staff and the show. Again, the cause is low ratings.MORELSA GARZA: It wasimpossible. Everyone was set in their ways with Channel 4 and 5. There was no way.(Fade to black.)ACT IV SCENE ILately, things have calmed down a bit within the former Godfather nightclub. Fewer outside distractions have distracted staff members from their jobs, giving the station a legitimate shot at being the Rio Grande Valley’s “entertainment leader,” as their slogan goes.The station had two owners within its first three years of existence, but has been sailing smoothly as of late under its latest owner, Comcorp of America.As an NBC affiliate, station officials are excited about their lineup, which includes local and national happenings. “Seinfeld,”“Frasier,” “Dateline NBC,” and “ER have been regulars atop the Nielsen ratings lately.Star Trek Voyager” is one of KVEO’s more popular pick-ups in syndication. The KVEO “Kids Club is a popular show for kids running every Saturday at 9 a.m.Scheduling has recently included such major sporting events as the Super Bowl, Wimbledon, and the National Basketball League playoffs. As an NBC affiliate, KVEO recently reaped the benefits of airing the “Seinfeld” finale, which drew a Super Bowl-sized audience and profit.NBC will carry the summer and winter Olympic Games from now to 2008, said KVEO General Manager Patti Smith.SMITH: We use the slogan The Valley’s Entertainment Leader’ because we are here to entertain. We get a lot of input from thecommunity. We picked up 'Star Trek Voyager’ because of the interest.BROWNSVILLE HERALD: Youstill don’t have a local news program. Why not?SMITH: Channel 4 and 5 do a very good job. We want to provide an alternative. People like the option. Our ratings have been very good.BROWNSVILLE HERALD: Doyou have any programming notesof interest?SMITH: This fall, we will carry major motion pictures in the afternoon. Plus we have Wimbledon, the French Open, the Ryder Cup and the Olympics. We had the NBA and the NFL this year. We share Major League Baseball.MORELSA GARZA (now a regional account executive at XHFOX-Channel 17): Early on, it was difficult. No one had cable. Channels 4 and 5 were the main channels and it was hard to get going. Now, they’ve been in the market long enough. The ratings are excellent and the programming is excellent. I can’t see why they won’t go on forever.
Newspaper Details
Brownsville Herald
Brownsville, Texas, US
Fri, Sep 18, 1998
Page 30
Full Page
Clipped by
Sammi B.
NA 13 Dec 2021
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