Clarion-Ledger from Jackson, Mississippi • Page 29

oimev MONEY FUNDS 3 1C HOBART ROWEN WILL SULLIVAN QJlic (Clarion-Jfcrloer Daily News May 23, 1982 Sunday Portfolio 1WAPT I WJTV Jj-r BT rkv" 31 16 rp 12 pT LmI Bill Pills' The Clarion-Ledger Jackson TV stations fighting ratings war By MARJORIE LEEDY tions of discrimination against blacks in With cable television making signifi been showing the popular Tic Tac as one-seventh the price of a spot on Dallas, for instance, it would be five to six times the charge for a spot on a morning Clarion-Ledger Business Writer Like the cast of a Broadway show waiting for the critics' reviews on opening night, Jackson's three commercial television stations are eagerly anticipating the results of major changes in local news programs. The changes have spurred increased competition for the coveted top-rated spot in local news programming, long held by WLBT-TV, Channel 3, the NBC network affiliate. But the past two years have seen improvements in news programming by its competitors WJTV, Channel 12, the CBS affiliate, and WAPT-TV, Channel 16, the ABC affiliate, the stations' officials contended. Jackson "is no longer a one-station town," agreed one observer of local television news who asked not to be identified. But the quality of the programs "could be better," he acknowledged.

Officials of the three stations said the viewers will benefit most from the heightened competition because they'll be watching more informative, sophisticated news programs. Improvements in the programs will be costly for the stations, but any gains they make in audience snare will boost both their prestige and their advertising revenues. Community news programming is vitally important to local television stations. "It's the only thing that gives a station an identity," said Mike Shapiro, a broadcast management consultant with his own firm in Jacksonville, Texas. station programming.

But in 1980 a 51 -percent black-owned company, TV-3 began operating the station after winning the FCC license. Even before the change in ownership, however, WLBT had begun efforts to hire more black reporters and news anchors and to improve coverage of the city's black community, local television news people have said. Since 1972, WLBT has been run by William H. Dil-day the first black general manager of a TV station in the United States. "We cover the news more thoroughly (than the other stations)," said Alvin P.

Flannes. president of TV-3 Inc. "We plan to continue to be a strong No. 1," he noted WAPT and WJTV plan to make that boast difficult for the NBC affiliate. "I see us as a sleeping giant." said Jack Holgate, general manager of WJTV.

The station, owned by Capitol Broadcasting "will never be content to be No. 2," he noted, although he conceded the climb to the top would be "a long, hard, uphill WAPT's Strickland. "This station is never going to sit still Being the best is our ultimate goal." All the talk may sound a little bit like fighters trying to psych each other out before the bout for the heavyweight title. And Jackson heard it first in 1980 after Joe Lesem arrived at WJTV as news director and Lincoln Warren took the same post at WAPT. See TV, Page 2C Dough.

During the February Arbitron survey, that game show drew higher ratings than the WJTV local news at the same time. The most widely watched Arbitron measure covers a market's "Area of Dominant Influence," a multi-county area that extends beyond metropolitan Jackson. WLBT has long been considered top-rated, with WJTV running second and WAPT third in the area of dominant influence, a ranking supported by the Arbitron ratings average for the 10 p.m. news Monday through Friday. WAPT, a UHF station, has a signal that doesn't transmit over distances as well as those of the two VHF stations.

Its signal reaches only about 69 percent of the area to which top-rated WLBT can broadcast. Signal penetration is one of major reasons for WLBT's top rating, according to WAPT's Strickland. Others cite the station's experienced news staff, including native Mississippians like Bert Case, plus quality programming, as other secrets of WLBT's success. The station's weekly Probe in-depth news program won the broadcast industry's coveted George Foster Peabody award in 1977. WLBT, Mississippi's second oldest station behind WJTV, also has a strong identity in Jackson's black community.

In the 1960s and 1970s, WLBT earned national notoriety in a 15-year dispute about who should hold the Federal Communications Commission license to operate it. Lamar Life Insurance Co. lost the license in 1964 as a result of allega cant inroads in many localities, "the survival of a local (commercial) station will depend on keeping (viewers) up-to-date on what's happening in the community," he said. "Anybody can bring you Gunsmoke," Shapiro added. "Local news, that's us, that's our signature," exclaimed Ben Strickland, general manager of WAPT.

After Clay Communications a Charleston, W.Va.-based company bought the station in 1979, the first changes the company made were in the news department, Strickland said. Local news programs are also moneymakers for the television stations. "News is a very attractive commodity (to advertisers)" because it appeals to a broad audience, explained Alan Axtell, WJTV station manager. The local evening news attracts more viewers than the national news programs. Rates for advertising on the local news shows are closely linked to the programs' audience shares because most advertisers operate on the theory that the wider the audience is, the more potential customers will hear their appeal.

The 30-minute local news shows usually include about 21 Ms minutes of news and 8te minutes of commercials. Prices for advertising on the 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. local news shows on weekdays generally are lower only than the 7-10 p.m. prime time rates and the prices for 6:30 p.m.

game shows or re-runs preceding prime time. While the rate for a 20- or 30-second spot on the 6 p.m. news might be as little non-news show or a late evening movie. To help local stations determine what advertising rates to charge for different programs, Arbitron Television, a Control Data Corp. subsidiary, and the A.C.

Nielsen Co. do regular viewer surveys that produce the closely followed audience ratings. "You have to live or die by those damn (ratings) books," exclaimed a former television news reporter, noting ruefully, "there's no other survey tool allegedly as extensive." According to Axtell, local advertisers use Arbitron ratings more than the Nielsen numbers. Arbitron is currently conducting one of its month-long "sweeps." The April 28-to-May 25 survey will reflect for the first time head-to-head competition among all three stations during the 6 p.m. local news.

During the Feb. 3-to-March 2 survey, the most recently completed study, WAPT was broadcasting its early evening local news program at 5:30 p.m. while the other two stations aired theirs at 6 p.m. WAPT ran the ABC national news at 5 p.m. and the other two stations showed their networks' national news at 5:30.

Then "ABC dropped a bombshell," Strickland recalled. As a result of the network's decision to drop the 5 p.m. national news, WAPT had to carry the network news at 5:30 and move its local news program to 6 p.m., when it had From Suit and Wire Re porta THE American Production and Inventory Control Society is conducting a seminar on "Shop Floor ControlCapacity Planning" on June 12 at the Coliseum Ra-mada Inn in Jackson. Albert V. Santera, vice president of operations for Visual Graphics Corp.

in Tamarac, will speak. For seminar registration information, write to Steve Jones, Sperry Vickers, 5353 Highland Drive, Jackson, Miss. 39206, or call 981-2811, Ext. 3183. RALPH D.

Day, president of Day Detectives Inc. of Jack-, son, was recently elected president of the National Council of Investigation and Security Services. H.C "Boo" Carroll, executive vice president of Day Detectives, has been named a regional director. MISSISSIPPI State University's petroleum engineering department has received a 1 5,000 departmental assistance grant from the Gulf Oil Foundation. The grant will be used for faculty development.

The foundation's Aid-to-Education Program also provides scholarships, graduate fellowships, capital and special grants and matching gifts to employees. ABOUT 150 high school students from throughout the state are expected to attend the fifth annual Business Week June 6 through 11 at Mississippi University for Women in Columbus. Designed to help the students develop a better understanding of America's free enterprise system, the week will include speeches by Bill Pace, director of the American Enterprise Center in Jackson; Billy D. Pounds, director or MUW's Center for Economic Education; Bill McClure, president of Mc-Clure Furniture Co. in Columbus; Don De Priest, president of Humboldt Products Corp.

in Columbus, and Katie Settle, assistant vice president of First National Bank of Atlanta. ALBERT Lamar, chief executive officer and chairman of Lamar Outdoor Advertising is the 1982 recipient of the American Advertising Federation's Silver Medal Award. The Greater Jackson Advertising Club named Lamar the award recipient and honored him at a luncheon last week. The award is the highest given in the advertising profession, according to the club. Lamar is also president of Hancock Community Cable Lamar Cables ystems Inc.

and Lamar Com-' munication Inc. THE board of directors of Home Federal Savings and Loan Association in Meridian hasdeclared a semi-annual dividend of 10 cents per common share payable July 1 to stockholders of record on June 1. Home Federal converted from a mutual to a stock charter in February. The declared a consolidated net income of 8 cents per share for the first quarter. March 31's total assets were $50,853,295.

A TEMPORARY office in Philadelphia has been opened by the U.S. Small Business Administration to accept applications for disaster assistance loans from residents whose homes and businesses were damaged in the tornado that hit the area on April 3. The office is located in the First Methodist Church on East Main Street It will be open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. through June 28.

THE nation's basic money supply rose by $2.3 billion in the week ended May 12, the Federal Reserve reported Friday. The rise was slightly above market expectations, pushing up interest rates a bit in late-afternoon trading. The new $452.5 billion level of M-l, a measure of money in circulation, is higher than would be consistent with the Fed's 1982 growth target of 2 Va percent to 5 Vt percent. "The latest rise in the monetary aggregates is likely to keep short-term interest rates at current levels for a while longer," said Fred J. ard, senior vice president of the Sterling National Bank and Trust Co.

Leonard Siegel, vice president of Josephthal said that the in-: crease in the money supply figure "will delay the Fed from easing its credit reins over the near term." However, J. Terrence Murray, chairman and chief executive of the Fleet Financial Group, a major New England bank holding company, was more optimistic. He said that, while the latest money supply totals exceeded the $1 billion to $2 billion increase predicted by most analysts, "short-term rates should decline modestly over the next four to six weeks." -v M-l is the measure of money supply that is composed ofcurrency in circulation and all check-like deposits in banks and savings institutions. When it advances above the Fed's set goals, economists and traders generally expect the central bank tore-' strict credit, causing the price of money interest rates tarise. Trucking lobby bracing for battle in Congress sues be taken up in a major package of highway bills, probably next year.

Already, the secretary has been openly offering a trade-off to the industry: bigger trucks for more bucks. In the battles that lie ahead, the politicians will take center stage. In those just completed, the economists and engineers ruled the day. As soon as Congress commissioned the study in 1978, all the key questions in the big truck fight became methodological. The first federal highway cost-allocation study, conducted from 1956 through 1965 as the interstate system was being built, was based on something known as the incremental method.

It determined See Truck, Page 3C says Lee Lane, director of an in-house think tank of the Association of American Railroads, which has been cheering on all efforts to raise the tax load on its trucking competitors. As the cost-allocation study lands on Capitol Hill, it is dovetailing with two other big-ticket, long-festering highway issues. The truckers are pressing for more permissive federal regulations on weights and sizes, and Transportation Secretary Drew Lewis is pushing to boost all federal highway taxes by the equivalent of 5 cents a gallon of gasoline. Though the White House has put Lewis' tax proposals on hold, most observers believe that the nation's deteriorating roadways and its dwindling Highway Trust Fund will demand that all three is Congress. "The study doesn't scare us one damn bit," says Edward V.

Kiley, the American Trucking Association's senior vice president. "Their methodology is preposterous It's ludicrous." But-bravado aside, the industry is already finding itself on the defensive. In its long gestation period, the report proved to be one of those rare documents that rearranged the terms of a public policy debate by looking at long-settled issues in fresh ways. "Basically the fight has been over defining a new conventional wisdom over how you should compute road use costs and the truckers have seen most of the important questions go against them," By PAUL TAYLOR L.A. Times Washington Post Service WASHINGTON For four years, the truckers had seen it coming a distant but onrushing speck in the road.

They threw up detours, jerry-rigged roadblocks, threatened head-on collisions. But it came just the same. The Department of Transportation last week released its first major highway cost allocation study in two decades, and it found, as expected, that heavy trucks are paying only 65 percent of their fair share of federal road-use taxes. The truckers, who fear the study could add another $2 billion a year to a tax bite they already consider too big, have begun bracing for a battle in Business, like people, can suffer from myopia view of the situation and looked around at the gen year 11, revenues increased only about 8 percent Myopia is a word, derived from the Greek, that RUSSELL REIN Business Editor and net income was up 5 percent both figures under the rate of inflation. From the reaction of the chief executive officer in that 1 1th year, one would think the company had failed miserably.

He took immediate action to cut all "fat" and engaged in some ranting and raving at his employees' failures. In the process, he cut some important capital expenditures a decision that a few years later cost him dearly when the old equipment failed and had to be replaced on an expensive, emergency basis that included significant production losses. That chief executive also lost a number of his best employees, who didn't have to put up with his irrational temper tantrums and decided they would be better appreciated elsewhere. That chief executive also suffered from business myopia in category two; he refused to look beyond his own business. If he had done so, he would have noticed his competitors both in his service area and elsewhere had suffered similar revenue and net income declines because of the general effect of the economy on his type of business.

Today, those competitor who took a long-term eral state of events are doing much better than the chief executive I mentioned above. Unfortunately, his myopia continues to impair his ability to notice it. So what does this mean in the current state of the business world? We are in the midst of what most economists agree is one of the worst business recessions since the Great Depression. Corporate profits in the first quarter fell an average of 17.5 percent in the first quarter, according to a U.S. Commerce Department report in the past week.

Times are tough for everybody. I have seen some fear and panic most of it unnecessary by many businessmen (and business journalists, I might add). Corporate profits have fallen significantly but most businesses are still making a profit. It is a time for many companies to assess their situations and make decisions. Many businesses will make reasoned decisions, considering the long-term ramifications of their actions, and ultimately will achieve success.

Their companies' profits may fall further, but in a year or two, when times get better, they will be able to look back and made the right decision." 4 means nearsightedness. It most often is used in a medical context to describe impairment of distant vision. But it shouldn't be limited to the medical world. Too often myopia obscures the ability of business, and businessmen, to operate optimally. In all senses medical and business myopia is a description of symptoms, not an indicator of causes.

In medicine, the causes may be genetic, environmental or the result of injury. In business, the causes are more difficult to classify. I have observed myopia among businessmen in two basic categories: 1.) an inability to look beyond the here and now, the all-consuming preoccupation with the short-term result without regard for past performance or future goals; and 2.) an inability, often a refusal, to look beyond one's circle of immediate concern, which can usually be described as one's own company and its immediate competitors. In the first category, the most obvious symptom is Jotal concern for the bottom line during a limited period. Certainly profit is the key to success in our private enterprise system, but too often I have seen businessmen actually harm their business by using a sword rather than a scalpel to solve short-term financial profits.

For example, I am aware of one business that for 10 consecutive years recorded at least an 18 per- cent annual increase in revenues and at least an 1 1 percent increase in net income. By most standards, those figures would be considered excelnt. But in f.i:.