St. Louis Post-Dispatch du lieu suivant : St. Louis, Missouri • Page 72

3 r.r ST.lDUSPOST-aSFWCH BUSINESS SATURDAY, JUNE 26, 1999 Emmis buys (DM, 6 radio outlets 4 JIIPOI IC1 i i i I- if I 1 i I ij 1 rj i I j. i CCy 1 1 fig jl "i'- KAREN ELSHOUT POST-DISPAfCH A real estate investor is interested in buying the Kiel Opera House, shown here between 14th and 15th Streets. Officials skeptical of offer for Gel Opera House By Gail Pennington Post-Dispatch Television Critic Emmis Communications Corp. of Indianapolis will buy KDNL (Channel 30) and six St. Louis radio stations from Sinclair Broadcast Group.

Emmis announced Friday it had reached agreement with former KDNL owner Barry Baker to acquire his option on Sinclair's St. Louis holdings, which include radio stations KPNT-FM, KXOK-FM, WVRV-FM, WRTH-AM, WIL-FM and KIHT-FM. Emmis already owns KSHE-FM, WKKX-FM and WXTM-FM here. Emmis now climbs from the area's fourth-largest radio interest to its second, according to JT Anderton, an industry analyst As part of the $1.2 billion deal merging his River City Broadcasting with Sinclair three years ago, Baker retained an option to buy Sinclair's radio and television properties in either St. Louis or Greenville-Spartanberg, S.C.

Baker quit Sinclair this spring to become president and chief operating officer of cable giant USA Networks Inc. On Friday, facing a Sept. 8 deadline to exercise the option or lose it, Baker notified Sinclair that he was designating Emmis to acquire the St. Louis stations in his stead. Emmis chairman and CEO Jeff MARKETS ATA GLANCE By Mark Schlinkmann Regional Political Correspondent A real estate investor is offering to buy Kiel Opera House for $1 million from the city of St.

Louis so he can reopen it as a performing arts venue. City officials, however, are skeptical of the proposal. The offer is from Samuel Glasser, whose Downtown Properties has offices here and in New York. He said that he and a group of investors also could raise around $25 million to rehabilitate the 1930s Art Deco-style building. A letter from Glasser on May 28 to Mayor Clarence Harmon cited the $1 million purchase price but not the $25 million renovation figure.

sue devised by Palm Capital Investors of Boca Raton, to raise money to reopen the building. Engelhardt said that group must provide more detailed information on that plan's financial feasibility for it to be seriously considered. Meanwhile, the Opera House is one of the downtown locations being studied by a group led by St. Louis attorney Alan Bornstein. That group is interested in establishing a museum for Smithsonian Institution artifacts.

The Opera House was closed in 1991. Kiel Center Partners said they would reopen the Opera House but never did. The group spent about $2.5 million on it and is responsible for maintaining it. Mark Sauer, Kiel Center president, could not be reached for comment Friday. Harmon has said that the amount in the letter seemed low to him but that he had given it to Comptroller Dar-lene Green.

Green said she didn't take the offer seriously because of the amount. However, an aide, Steve Engelhardt, said Friday that Green was willing to consider further information from Glasser or other would-be developers. The city owns the Opera House but leases it for a dollar a year to Kiel Center Partners, a group of major local corporations. "Any city in America needs money," Glasser said. "Here's an asset producing a dollar a year and doing the public no good." In January, a separate group locally based Kiel for Performing Arts Inc.

proposed a tax-exempt bond is Dow Jones 10552.56 try I 500 1315.31 Smulyan said the amount paid for Baker's rights was nominal. Emmis will negotiate with Sinclair on the price of the stations. The sale is subject to approval from the Summer workers help boost jobless rate to 3.6 in May Baker Bloomberg St. Louis 221.96 St. Louis area unemployment rate 5.0 IE 3.o NuTTm Yen 121.43 I AM 1999 A 0 1998 While unemployment rose to 3.6 percent in May, it is still better than the 4.3 percent rate in May of last year.

Over the past year, the total number of non-manufacturing jobs in the metro area increased by 19,100, Clark said. However, manufacturing employment fell by 4,400 positions over the year. The area's total civilian labor force in May was just over 1.35 million. The average hourly earnings in nearly all industries were unchanged between April and May. And most remained on the same par as the hourly wages in May 1998.

The best average hourly wages $23 an hour are found in construction, auto and aircraft assembly. The lowest average hourly wages are in textile and apparel manufacturing, less than $10 an hour. By early fall seasonal employment trends should start kicking in again, lowering the unemployment rate, Clark said. "By fall we could be in the 3.0 to 3.5 percent range," Clark said. "And that's with, the continued layoffs at Boeing.1 The service industry take up'the slack." By William Flannery Of the Post-Dispatch An uncommonly large influx of new job seekers has driven up the area's May unemployment figures.

"The area's unemployment rate increased from 3.4 percent in April to 3.6 percent in May as another 15,900 workers entered the labor force," said Randall Clark, labor analyst for the Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations. "The increase is mainly due to student summer job seekers starting early," Clark said. "Between March and May about 27,000 came into the labor force. Normally the increase is 11,000." While the unemployment rate is up, so are the number of new jobs. Between April and May, 11,400 jobs were added in the 12 Missouri and Illinois counties of the statistical metropolitan area.

"There were strong increases in construction and the manufacturing of non-durable goods, like food products, chemicals and plastics," Clark said. In audition, there were large m- crease's'ih jobs in retail trade, amuse- Federal Communications Commission. Last year, the Sinclair radio stations earned $26.3 million and carried 22.4 percent of the local market. Emmis earned $20.5 million and carried 15 of the market, Anderton said. Emmis, ranked as the nation's 10th largest radio group, owns 13 FM and three AM stations, including a major presence in the nation's largest broadcast markets, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

Emmis also owns two radio networks, six television stations and several regional magazines. For the last year, Emmis has focused on building a television station group. The acquisition of KDNL is an important move into the 21st largest TV market John Beck, Emmis' general manager in St. Louis, said the deal will give Emmis almost one-third of the local radio market The group is likely to sell at least two stations to meet FCC rules, he said. Diane Toroian of the Post-Dispatch PvttibueA infotmtim for, ths.artjvv cle.

Euro 1.0428 Source: Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations ment and recreation. More workers were hired by governments to do summer maintenance, Clark said. Despite the continued layoffs at Boeing, manufacturing employment increased slightly, up by 200 jobs. "The change in the' unemployment rate for June will not be has high as normal with all these early summer 30-Year T-Bond ob seekers, Clark said. "Normally ie unemployment raie wiu go up oy 0.5 percent between May and June.".