Arizona Daily Star from Tucson, Arizona • Page 33

Pfte Arizona Uatla Sfar TUCSON, TUESDAY, MARCH 16, 1982 PAGEOfyfe In brief H-m (fa ei' hn ijjj u. I hi Ij I 1 lu'Ufcrtnf itf J. 1 1, chest containing the first U.S. cars! hit lowest sales level in 7 years The Associated Press Domestic auto sales by the five major U.S. carmakers plunged 31.5 percent in the first 10 days of March to their worst daily sales level in seven years, the companies reported yesterday.

The reports pointed to continued trouble for the auto companies as the industry's 'biggest member, General Motors sought new concessions from its United Auto Workers union employees in a second day of bargaining. Members of Congress, meanwhile, heard union and Ford Motor Co. officials pitch for restrictions on Japanese imports. The major auto companies are desperate for an economic turnaround. Chrysler Corp.

reported its car sales plunged 33.3 percent in the first 10 days of the month GM reported a 32.9 percent drop, and Ford said its sales were off 24.9 percent. Volkswagen of America slipped 40.9 percent, and American Motors which reports only monthly sales, plummeted an estimated 41.8 percent. GM proposed a 2'i-year contract that seeks greater concession than the UAW granted Ford. The offer would freeze wages of 320,000 hourly workers, defer three cost-of-living raises for 18 months and eliminate nine paid personal holidays a year and a December Sunday bonus payment. The contract offer was presented to the union in Detroit as the two sides worked to solve GM's financial problems and grant workers greater job security.

Under the 31-month contract signed two weeks ago by the UAW, Ford workers accepted a wage freeze, elimination of eight paid personal holidays and deferred cost-of-living allowance increases for nine months. In its offer, GM proposed several provisions not present in the Ford agreement, including a halt to a 10-cents-an-hour cost-of-living boost GM workers received earlier this month and a request that action be taken against worker absenteeism. In return for the concessions, GM said it would expand Supplemental Unemployment Benefits and improve income security for high-seniority employees. The automaker also would allow the union some involvment in decisions on the subcontracting of work to non-union and overseas facilities and give autoworkers a profit-sharing program, GM said in a statement. GM also said it has offered a two-year moratorium on plant closings the same as at Ford.

In Washington, Donald F. Ephlin, head of the UAW's Ford department, told congressmen, "We are willing to meet up to our responsibilities, but we do need help from Congress in addition to what we were able to do." Ephlin and Peter Pestillo, Ford vice president for labor relations, were in Washington to brief members of Congress on, details of the new Ford labor contract, i Ephlin urged congressmen to support so-called "local content" legislation that would require that by 1985 90 percent of the content of motor vehicles sold in the United States by any manufacturer would have to be produced in this country. Ron Mwlvaicak. Th Arizona Dally Star of Special Reserve Instead, Special Reserve will be after the Michelob market and will be priced accordingly about $2.80 a six-pack. Miller's marketing strategy will be aimed at those who already drink a premium beer, not at converts from the regular beer market.

The focus: single men aged 19 to 35 who "feel good about themselves." With questions on the beer out of the way, the audience waited to get down to the business at hand sampling the new product. A gold-painted trunk was unloaded from the back of the armored truck, carried ceremoniously to the front of the room by Mark Russell of Finley Distributing and Kim Calhoun, a "Miller Girl" who helps with promotions. A small group of amateur beer tasters pronounced the brew "very drinkable" and didn't dispute Miller's claim to brewing a rich-tasting but smooth drink. Miller employees unload a Stylish debut given fancy new brew By Laura Stone The Arizona Daily Star A hotel luncheon. An armored truck.

Company touts in matching blazers. A gold chest. All for a new beer. Miller Brewing Co. was in town yesterday to promote its newest product and make sure the media were around to tell about it.

Beginning March 29, Miller Special Reserve, a new "superpremium" beer, will be on sale in Tucson and in five other cities around the country. The beer already has been tested in San Diego, Denver and Rhode Island. Yesterday's fanfare began shortly after noon. The media, distributors and liquor merchants began gathering in a conference room at the Doubletree Hotel to be beered and dined and hear the pitch about the new product. Outside waited a Purolator armored truck, with the beer "guarded" by two uniformed security men who sat in the front seat, chatting amiably.

"They've got to guard the beer from the guards," one said jokingly about the seriousness of the assignment. "I'm getting thirsty," the other commented, looking longingly to the back of the truck. In the hotel, television lights brightened the windowless room as Miller executives touted their new product. After a chance to taste Miller's other beers Miller High Life, Lite, Lowen-brau and Magnum (a malt liquor) ev- The product sweats out its first Tucson appearance From wire and local report Salaries will be frozen for six months for 7,000 workers at National Steel company representatives said yesterday, projecting a loss for the first quarter after a disappointing profit last year. The nation's fourth-largest steelmaker, based in Pittsburgh, did not estimate its loss.

Besides the wage freeze, stock-option plans and vacation bonus incentives will reportedly be suspended. Profits fell 29 percent from 1980 to 1981, in what British Petroleum Co. Britain's largest company by revenue, described as a "generally depressed business environment." The drop came despite increased earnings from Standard Oil Co. (Ohio), the Cleveland-based company in which British Petroleum holds a 53 percent interest. British Petroleum reported net income for the year of $1.94 billion, or $1.22 a share, compared with $2.74 billion, or $1.72 a share in 1980.

A natural-gas export sale to the United States has been concluded by British Columbia's Westcoast Transmission Ltd. The sale will indirectly result in an increase in gas sales worth at least $36 million a year to the province, Westcoast announced in Vancouver. Texas Gas Transmission Corp. of Owensboro, has agreed to buy 55 million cubic feet of gas a day starting Nov. 1.

The second-largest printing company in the United States will be sold for $251.3 million to an investor group organized by financier Edward L. Scarff, the company, Areata announced. An agreement is expected to be signed in the next few days, spokesmen of the Menlo Park, company said, and stockholders will vote on the issue in May. The agreement includes a cash payment to holders of Areata common stock of $37.50 a share. The stock closed yesterday on the New York Stock Exchange at $33.75, up $1.75.

Despite a businessman's plea for no tax increases, the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee said he believes additional revenue will be needed to reduce the size of federal budget deficits. Sen. Pete V. Domenici, was confronted on tax issues after a speech in New York to the annual convention of the American Paper Institute. The planned Soviet pipeline to West-em Europe will supply 20 percent of the European Economic Community's natural-gas requirements by 1990, an economic community spokesman said in Brussels.

By then, Soviet gas will represent 4 percent of the overall energy use of the economic community, said the spokesman, who asked not to be identified. The share of Soviet gas imports at national levels will vary from country to country, he said. Cities Service Co. is negotiating to sell its industrial-chemicals division at Copper-hill, to a Texas investor, company officials confirmed. Spokesmen at the company headquarters in Tulsa, and at Copperhill reported that Houston investor Bruce Davis has proposed to buy the division.

Cities Service announced in May that it was considering selling its Miami, copper operation and the Copperhill unit. The company said, however, that it would continue to operate both facilities if it could not attract buyers. Japan has been warned by the European Economic Community that the 10 community nations are seriously considering trade protectionism as a solution to their economic problems. In a meeting with Japanese trade envoy Masumi Esaki in Brussels, Community Commission President Gaston Thorn said the current economic recession with 10 million unemployed in Europe is eroding the commitment to free trade, economic community sources said. The era of propeller-driven aircraft has ended at Piedmont Aviation Inc.

in Wilmington, N.C., and the regional airline is fully in the jet age. Piedmont, the largest 737 operator in the world, retired the last of its fleet of jet-powered, Japanese-made Namco YS-11 propeller planes Sunday. Christened the "Shenandoah Valley Pacemaker" when it was bought 13 years ago, the plane joined five other YS-lls being offered for sale in Winston-Salem. General Motors rebate program offering up to $2,000 on some 1982 vehicles has been expanded to include cars and trucks ordered by customers before March 31, said the leading U.S. carmaker.

The promotion, begun Feb. 1 after contract talks with the United Auto Workers union collapsed, originally included only vehicles delivered by March 31, the company said. The expanded program was reportedly prompted by requests from customers who wish to order qualifying cars and trucks to their specifications and still take advantage of the cash bonuses. A new Louisiana law requiring labels on foreign beef amounts to a trade barrier that could trigger sanctions by other nations, an importer testified in New Orleans. William O'Reilly, president of New York's John Thallon also said domestic importers might retailiate against the Port of New Orleans by shipping foreign beef through other U.S.

ports. O'Reilly testified on behalf of an injunction to prevent enforcement of the Louisiana beef-labeling law. American Airlines won't honor tickets given away free or sold for minimal amounts by a carrier that went into default, the airline advised travel agents in a move that could hurt such troubled carriers as Braniff International Ajrways. In a clarification of the airline default protection plan that was approved by the Civil Aeronautics Board last week, American said that it would only honor, on a standby basis, regular tickets of a carrier that' went into Houston firm agrees to purchase Channel 4 eryone settled down to watch a slide show about Miller and its newest offering. During the last 10 years Miller has marketed its way to the No.

2 position among U.S. breweries. It now accounts for almost 22 percent of U.S. beer sales, up from 4 percent. Anheuser-Busch, with about 30 percent of the market, ranks first.

With the introduction of Special Reserve, Miller hopes to capture a larger share of the fast-growing market for premium beers. Sales have grown about 25 percent a year for the last 10 years, said Leonard Goldstein, Miller's vice president for sales. The Milwaukee-based company made its entry into the premium market in 1977 with Special and Dark Special Lowen-brau. Special Reserve isn't expected to cut into Lowenbrau's market because the beers have distinct tastes. years, is to continue in that post.

Diamond said he and the other investors in Channel 4 decided about 2' months ago to sell the stat'on because they had "put everything into it that we could, and for the station to continue to grow, we felt it needed to become part of a group." He said Communications was the first and only company contacted about the possibility of buying the NBC affiliate, adding that the station was never "put on the market." "We sought an organization that had experience in the Southwest and one that would continue the community involvement that we've established here in the past 10 years," Diamond said. Jack Harris, the head of Communication's broadcast division, called Channel 4 a station with "the ideal profile we were seeking in any expansion." Communication's president is Texas Lt. Gov. William P. Hobby, who was in Tucson yesterday for the announcement.

His company is impressed with both the Stocks IBM led the active list, up 1, at 58y8. Among other leading computer and technology stocks, Digital Equipment rose 2l2, to 74; Texas Instruments to 14y8; Hewlett-Packard 1 to 39V4; Data General 1, to 31V4; Datapoint 1, to 21; Prime Computer 1, to 19; and National Semiconductor 1, to 20. Analysts said the stocks bene'Ued from tinue its emphasis on news. "We're not a conglomerate, we're a communications company," Harris said. "In Houston, we were putting news on when it was still a novelty because our company's background had been in newspapers.

Even after stations came along, we were the only station in Houston with news for about three years." Channel 4 is being sold by Diamond, a local businessman and investor; Donald Pitt, of the law firm of Miller Pitt; Richard Bloch, a member of the board of the Los Angeles entertainment production company Filmways Jack Gumbin, a local businessman; and Nancy Pitt. Diamond, Donald Pitt and Bloch are also major owners of the Phoenix Suns professional basketball team. They bought Channel 4 in November 1972 for $2.75 million from the Pulitzer Publishing which was under a court order to divest itself of the station after purchasing The Arizona Daily Star in April 1971. By David Hatfield The Arizona Daily Star Tucson television station KVOA, Channel 4, is being sold by local investors to Communications a Houston-based company that owns The Houston Post. The agreement was announced yesterday by officials of Communications and by Donald Diamond, president of the station.

Both sides declined to reveal the purchase price. A source, however, said the sellers were asking close to $30 million. The price could become public once official paper work is accepted for filing by the Federal Communications Commission, which must approve the sale. The paper work probably will be filed later this week. Provided things move smoothly through the FCC, approval for the sale is expected within six months.

Spokesmen for Communications said the firm doesn't plan to make any changes in management. Jon Ruby, who has been Channel 4's general manager for seven station and the community's growth potential, Hobby said. "This opportunity just fit us like a glove," he said. "We're not entering into this with any preconceived notions," Harris said. "I've known Jon Ruby for a long time, and we will rely on his expertise in running this station.

We're not a highly centralized company making all of our decisions in Houston." In addition to the morning Houston newspaper, Communications operates KPRC-TV, the NBC affiliate in Houston; WTVF-TV, the CBS affiliate in Nashville, WTOK-TV, the ABC affiliate in Meridian, and KPRC radio in Houston. In addition to Hobby, Communications' main shareholders include his mother, Oveta Culp Hobby, and his sister, Jessica Hobby Catto. In recent years, Channel 4's "Eyewitness News" has become the highest-rated local newscast on Tucson television, according to both Nielsen and Arbitron ratings. Harris said he expects the station to con buying by traders looking for "bargains" and covering previous short sales of borrowed shares. The day's biggest loser was Kaiser Steel, off 134 at 264 following word that a private investor group had dropped its offer to buy the company for $55.25 a share.

Wickes Cos. fell yB, to 4. The company said David J. Primuth resigned as president. Precious-metals stocks turned upward late in the session, following the lead of the gold price, which was upS6.40 an ounce at High-tech issues rally in mixed trading on Wall Street NEW YORK (AP) Depressed high-technology issues rallied as the stock market turned in a mixed showing yesterday.

The market showed few ill effects from the news at Friday's close of a jump in the money supply. The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials, which had fallen 9.99 points last week, recovered 3.62, to 800.99. Declines slightly outnumbered advances in the overall tally on the New York Stock Exchange, but the exchange's composite index rose 0.36, to 62.88. $324.20 on the Commodity Exchange in New York. ASA rose 1, to 29y2; Homestake Mining 1, to 21; Dome Mines to 11; and Campbell Red Lake Mines to 10.

Toys Us climbed to 30'2 on higher quarterly earnings. National Health Enterprises, traded on the American Stock Exchange, rose 1, to 21. The company agreed to be acquired by National Medical Enterprises for $22.50 a share. Big Board volume slowed to a four-week low of 43.37 million shares from 49.60 million Friday. I.