Hogstrom leaves KCPT

KCPT chief resigns

He says departure was a personal decision. Susan Stanton will serve as interim president/CEO.

By Alice Thorson and Eric Palmer

Victor Hogstrom, president and chief executive of Kansas City Public Television (KCPT) since August 2005, has left KCPT, effective immediately, the station said Wednesday.

Susan Stanton, a former executive at a number of Kansas City companies and nonprofits, took over Wednesday as interim president and CEO.

Jay Meschke, chairman of the KCPT board of directors, declined to comment on the reason for Hogstrom’s departure, saying it was a personnel matter. He said Hogstrom has been instrumental in taking KCPT to the next level, helping place the station on firm financial ground.

"Victor was a good financial operator and not only proved that at KCPT, but also demonstrated that at his previous station in Chattanooga," Meschke said. "He raised the station’s profile in the community."

Hogstrom told The Kansas City Star that he actually left last week. He said his departure was a personal decision, but he didn’t want to go into the reasons. He said he was not asked to leave.

"My tenure at KCPT was challenging, but I am proud of my accomplishments over the three years," Hogstrum said Wednesday. "I am leaving the station in a solid financial condition, acquiring brand-new equipment, increasing local programming, raising the profile in the community, establishing services that would help secure more income for the station. "

Hogstrom said he intends to stay in TV and intends to stay in Kansas City.

"This is a man who has taken us from financial disaster to ending the fiscal year almost with 1 million in the black," said Nick Haines, who worked under Hogstrum as moderator of the station’s "Kansas City Week in Review" program. "He more than doubled the amount of local programming."

"Network television is losing audience," Haines said. "In terms of public television, we have some of the most significant increases in viewership of all the stations. We’re routinely among the top 10 public television stations in the country."

Haines said that Hogstrum did a lot of positive things for the staff, including extending employee heath benefits to cover families and making Christmas week a paid vacation.

His departure occurs as KCPT nears the end of the silent phase of a capital campaign, launched in January 2008 to help the station meet the February 2009 deadline for digital conversion.

"We anticipate to go public (with the campaign) very soon," Meschke said. "We have had outstanding success to date. We’ve raised approximately two-thirds of our goal in the silent phase."

Meschke declined to release the dollar amount of KCPT’s goal. He said the board and members of the campaign staff have great confidence in Stanton’s ability to carry out the campaign.

The station’s executive committee will conduct a nationwide search to find Hogstrom’s successor. Meschke expects it to take four to six months.

Before joining KCPT in August 2005, Hogstrom served as president and CEO of WTCI-TV, a public broadcasting station in Chattanooga, Tenn.

Hogstrom received the 2007 Media Spotlight Award for Outstanding Media Coverage of Social Welfare Issues from the Kansas City Chapter of the Missouri Association for Social Welfare.

He was perhaps best known to KCPT viewers for his weekly "One on One with Victor Hogstrum" program of interviews with prominent local citizens.

This story originally appeared July 10, 2008 in the Star.