WXIX-TV (Channel 19) has lost its two top managers - one to a rival broadcast group and one to a grand jury indictment.
Channel 19 Friday announced that general manager Stuart B. Powell, who created a strong-performing news division at the Fox affiliate and relocated the studio, is leaving to run a four-station group for an undisclosed TV broadcaster outside Cincinnati. Mr. Powell, who had been elevated to Malrite vice president last year, could not be reached for comment. Others at Channel 19, including head of the company that owns the station, would not disclose his new employer.
Separately, the station confirmed that its longtime business manager, Brenda Craddock, has been indicted on grand theft charges following an internal investigation at the Fox affiliate. The probe, conducted two months ago but not discussed publicly by the station until Friday, found that Ms. Craddock allegedly stole about $750,000 from the station over the past six or seven years, according to Milton Maltz, chairman and CEO of Malrite Communications Group, which owns Channel 19. She left the station in September.
Jon Lawhead, an eight-year veteran at Channel 19 who most recently has been assistant manager, was named acting general manager. Malrite Controller Nick Marra and corporate accountant Pamela Fitzgerald have assumed Ms. Craddock's duties during the search for a new business manager.
Mr. Maltz talked to staffers about the management shuffle in an internal meeting Friday afternoon. In an interview afterward, he stressed that the two pieces of news were ''totally unrelated'' and that no one other than Ms. Craddock had been linked to a plot to cheat the station.
Ms. Craddock had been business manager for about 10 years when Cleveland-based Malrite bought the station from Metromedia in 1984.
''The effect on a lot of us was shock and amazement, because she was so well-liked,'' Mr. Maltz said. ''These kinds of things just throw you.''
He said his message to the staff Friday was one of trust: ''We cannot let the impact of one person who has betrayed us negate our trust . . . in fellow human beings,'' he said.
Hamilton County records show Ms. Craddock, a.k.a. Brenda Loftice, was indicted on three counts Sept. 24 for allegedly forging checks drawing on a WXIX account.
Malrite officials said they discovered the alleged theft more than two months ago and brought in internal auditors from Ernst & Young to investigate. They went to the county prosecutor's office once convinced they had enough evidence, Mr. Maltz said.
Mr. Malrite said the amount of the theft was not material to Malrite, which employs a total of 800, including 147 at WXIX. In addition to Cincinnati, privately-held Malrite owns or operates stations in Cleveland, Toledo, Puerto Rico and West Palm Beach, Fla.
No other employees have been linked to the alleged fraud, Malrite said. However, the incident did have a familiar ring.
Two years ago, a former WXIX television employee was charged with grand theft after the station concluded that a cash giveaway promotion for its Married with Children series had been rigged for several nights.
Mr. Powell had been with Channel 19 for about five years.
Four years ago, he took a $2 million gamble to create a news department and it quickly paid dividends. The city's only 10 o'clock news has boosted its ratings since expanding from 30 minutes to an hour in January 1996. It's one of the highest-rated 10 p.m. newscasts in the country.
Before joining Malrite, Mr. Powell served as vice president and general manager of WFLD in Chicago and before that spent 18 years with Scripps Howard television in Phoenix and Kansas City.
