The Philadelphia Inquirer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 13

4 Sunday. July 24. 1983 Philadelphia Inquirer 13-A 48 round no buyers Why Channel it quits: Calling tions Inc. relinauislu'd its license for "In the last couple of years, they didn't appear as aggressive as they once wene," he said. "Some of the packages have gone elsewhere in the market." Presumably, a prospective owner could have reversed some of Channel 48's downward drift.

"This market can support more than six TV stations if a company will invest in good programming," McCurdy said. Ironically, the only other major station to fold in recent years was a Cleveland property that Kaiser Broadcasting System shut down in the mid-1970s just before Kaiser sold all its stations, including Philadelphia's Channel 48, to Field Enterprises. Channel 48's call letters, WKBS, are derived from the Initials of Kaiser Broadcasting System. This will be the second time a to men 25 to 64, like beer or shaving lotion, you will pay a lot of money for ladvertising time on. sporting events," said Gloria Pedalino, a me-.

dia account manager at Lewis, Gil-man Kynett. "You pay a premium for them because it's a good environment. But I would say that men 25 to 64 are not a good demographic for them (Channel 48. We buy that demographic in this market, but we don't buy it on that station" Another indication of Channel 48's problematic position in the market is that it is not competing well with other stations during the most profitable time slots, according to Smith of Channel 29. "Their strength is all in the Wrong-times," he said.

"They are number nun from 0 a m. to 3 p.m. Who cares? In contrast, in the February Nielsen ratings, Channel 48 ran a solid last from 6 to 8 p.m., inc. tima that. Smith" called biggest moneymaker." Smith also contends that Channel 48 has not been as aggressive as the' two UHF statidns in buying, newly syndicated programs, "They just don't have the new product that's coming available in the next few years," he said.

"Recently they have tended to buy the things that 17 and. 29 didn't buy. They" just didn't seem to be investing in this market. "Look at this fall. I have coming on, 17 has 'Alice' and 'Little House on the and what does 48 have? They have 'Fantasy which nobody else wanted." Eugene McCurdy, president and prat mnnueer of Channel 17 Channel 12 in 1958.

In that case, "the tax benefits were better than we could have gotten by selling," said John Bonner, manager of corporate relations for Storer. Once Channel 48 turns back its' license to the FCC, the agency will begin accepting applications for a new operator. There is a good chance, in the view of Channel 29 general manager Smith, that com-' mercial station operators may not be interested in picking it up in part because Channel 17 intends to buy much of the programming to which Channel 48 now holds the rights. "It would be difficult for another commercial broadcaster to come in and find enough programming to put on the air," Smith said. "If the li-' cense is picked up, I think it would be by a specialty operation, like reli Hams said.

"But by that timd I had made a verbal commitment to 17, and I just couldn't break it." Williams' subsequent experience with Channel 17 indicates that Channel 48 may have been a poor competitor in other ways as well. The team "has. been much more successfully promoted by Channel 17 than it ever was by Channel 48, he said. "It turned out to be. the best thing for us.

In ratings, in revenues, it's just staggering what they've done They know how to sell- They're "i i Although Channel 48 tried to fill the sports- gap as best it could by signing up Big 5 basketball college games were simply no match for pro games at drawing ad- WKBS, from 1-A Because the company is privately held, it is not obliged to reveal any of its workings to the public. General manager Vincent Barresi and other company executives responded with polite but firm refusals when asked to comment on the attempts to sell WKBS. The rest of the broadcasting industry is not so reticent, however. While stressing that their assessments are only hunches, managers of competing stations and brokers who specialize in selling TV stations agreed on the broad outlines of what they think has happened at Channel 48. The picture they paint is of a station whose profits probably are small and whose ability to turn a profit will be challenged increasingly in coming years by a number of factors: The market itself is not growing, thev sav.

and broadcast television television station has gone off the air You can't make any money at that vertisers. gious or loreign language. in Philadelphia, storer tommumca' agrees. time of day." "If you have a Iproduct! that skews audiences will be saueezed even fur ther in coming years as Philadelphia is wired for cable television. Because both cable and Channel 48 are strong in mov es.

came win mean more comtetition for the station. GRAND OPEN UN The station lost its only sports draw when it lost the eers nasKet-ball broadcast contract to Channel 17 last summer. This cost it an audience adult men that is very attrao tive to advertisers. In addition, the loss deprived it of a medium that stations use heavily to promote their nonsports snows. Although some of its shows are very competitive, Channel 48 has not been aggressive in signing top- ranked new shows for the future Unattractive property in sum.

observers say. Channel 48 $0 probably was not a very attractive Thus, many outsiders do not doubt Field Enterprises' assertion that the sale of Channel 48's individual assets will bring in more cash than selling the station as a going concern. However, industry-watchers sus-nect that the sale of the assets them selves which they estimate to be worth SS million to $10 million is I not the whole story. A number of observers have suggested that such a sale. esDeciallv if the assets are sold at less than their book value, may produce tax benefits.

In that case, the value of the sale to Field Elitei prises would be" higher than the price received for the assets, Field already has sold $500,000 worth of production equipment to Channel 17. Industry observers said the market value of Channel 48's1 transmitter is between $1 million and $4 million. Charles Seymour president of Jackson-Cross a real estate brokerage firm, said the land 4h: and studio at 3201 S. 26th St. might fetch $500,000.

The remaining production equipment is estimated to be worth ntf more than $2 million and nrnhwhlv less, and rights to program ming are estimated to be worth no more than a lew million oouars. Tax advantages 'Aithnneh it is more than likely ill! 1 1 Ill that such a piecemeal sale could bring some tax advantages for Field, it is impossible to estimate those 1 1 1 mi 1 'Y4 benefits without knowing more about the comnanv. said Kon uecK- department stores' reg. prices EVERYDAY She loves to indulge. She loves to indulge in fashions.

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At the new Signature Place within The Dry Goods at Leo Mall. Bustleton below Bvberry. GRAND OPENING FRIDAY JULY 29th at 10:00 A.M. man, tax manager with the public nrrmtntinc firm of Laventhol 1 Hnrwath. It is not known for' certain what in' nrice Field is asking for the station, WW' if but industry consensus puts it at $25 million to $30 million a price general! considered too high.

"I would think it is worth maybe jMl! S15. nr $13 million." estimated Kan- Hull Smith vice nresident and gener I II WW' 'H I al manager of WTAF-TV (Channel 29). Nevertheless, sales of stations in nthpr markets are booming. Even i v7 a those stations that do not make mon ey and about half the UHF stations in the country are unprofitable, ac cording to Broadcasting magazine mw still manage to una ouyers. Kecem enies in markets smaller than Phila delphia and even of nonprofitable and barely profitable stations, have brought at least jio munon per station to the sellers, according to Electronic Media magazine.

In that context, the failure to sell rhnnel 4R is a riddle. And although part of the answer to the riddle may be Fields tax considerations, amuu-er part may be the prospects for the future nf the station. The loss of the 76ers broadcasting rights seems to be a- symptom of something gone wrong at Channel 48, and may even nave oeen a turn ing point in the station ionuues. Too little, too late Channel 48 lost the 76ers by flubbing the negotiations, first coming to the bargaining table with too. little und then deciding too late to up the ante, according to Pat Williams, the 76ers' general manager.

"We had been with them for seven years, and we wanted to continue the relationship." Williams said. "But we couldn't get together on terms. They turned us down on what we wanted. So we told them we would talk with Channel 17." Eventually, Channel 48 approached the 76ers offering even better terms than the tea, had asked for the first time around, Wil- 20 feared dead in India as Ganges ferry capsizes Associated Press NEW DELHI, India Police fear that 20 people drowned when a ferryboat capsized while carrying 42 people across the Ganges River in north- TV CI 11 iiiuia. Twentv.two oassengers survived the Friday accident by swimming to ho riuor hanks near Varanasi, police said.

The accident occurred in the north central Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, 400 miles southeast of New 0.