News-Press from Fort Myers, Florida • Page 43

Soufhwesf Florida Lifestyles, Culture And Entertainment News-Press THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1974 SECTION Howq rdHoffman: Taking The Helm What's Up! At Troubled WBBH-TV 4 it i JXXC-' -J ft'' i 1 A Kews-Fress Profile 'My job is not real easy right now. I can't believe anyone in a managerial position has it real easy right now. We're all in the same boat but I can honestly say that WBBH 7s in good financial shape Howard Hoffman By LESLEY DARREN News-Press Staff Writer Howard Hoffman looks more like a professor than the general manager of a television station. But Hoffman, who took over the stewardship of WBBH-TV in Fort Myers last July when the previous general manager, Joseph Buerry resigned, is well versed in the medium. He has to be for he took over managing of the station at a difficult time.

"My job," he says, "is not real easy right now. I can't believe anyone in a managerial position has it real easy right now. We're all in the same boat but I can honestly say that WBBH is in good financial condition today." Hoffman, once a high school teacher, will make no comments on Buerry's resignation. It has been rumored that WBBH is having its share of financial problems and Hoffman confirms the rumors to some degree. "Economic conditions right now," he says, "are not as solid as they have been.

Our sales up but, like everyone else, we were caught in an inflation spiral and our operating costs were increasing faster than our sales were. Overall, I feel we're financially secure. We've got a good solid base to work on and within six months our credit will be in A-One shape." Hoffman admits the station's credit "is not the best now in some areas. To combat that we're trying to operate as efficiently as possible and to cut costs as much as we can and still develop a better on-air product." Hoffman is quick to add, "For the last two years this organization has shown a profit. Before that we were not and not many TV stations do.

No one could go into the TV business and make a profit the first few years due to all the expenditures you have to make for equipment." Hoffman was, at first, named acting general manager but in August the acting was dropped and he is now general manager and president of Broadcasting-Telecasting Services the corporation which owns the TV station. Hoffman owns stock in the corpora- -Vj tw Newsman Phillips Fired Newsman Lee Phillips has been fired from his job at WBBH-TV. Said Howard Hoffman, general manager of the station, "Lee Phillip's dismissal was based on new directions to be taken by the Eyewitness News team and further involvment of that team. "Unfortunately, Mr. Phillips, whose role in the news operation had minimized during the past year, did not figure into these plans." Phillips says he was given no notice when he was fired last Friday and as to the matter of severance pay he says, "That remains to be seen.

They indicated I would get some severance pay." Phillips has been with the station for four and a half years and was, for some time, the anchorman on the 6 and 11 p.m. news. Most recently he was assigned to anchor the Gulf Coast Today program which is seen each weekday morning. He also wrote all of the editorials which had been delivered on the news programs by former general manager Joseph Buerry. Phillips terms his dismissal as "sudden but not altogether unanticipated because of the changes going on at the station.

Of course I was surprised by it. It's unfortunate. I hoped things would last longer but they didn't. I think I contributed to the sta-, tion while I was there." Phillips says, "I haven't the vaguest idea of what I'm going to do now, take it easy for a few days, I guess. I'm an associate of Fortiner Realty, dealing with commercial real estate, so I'll, probably spend more time with that.

"I don't feel any animosity toward WBBH, I'm a Christian and I think the good Lord knows what's going on. "I like TV and I like news and I'd like to still be in broadcasting to some extent. "I love this area and I don't plan to leave it if I can help it." -LESLEY DARREN News-Press Staff Writer JUNIOR MISS: The Fort Myers Jaycee Auxilliary is sponsoring the Junior Miss Pageant Nov. 23. All senior girls attending any Fort Myers High School interested in running should contact their senior counselor for details no later than Sept.

30. Datebook On Page 2D er Cares i A. Press Photos Bv ROBERT FERGUSON With of pretty buildings with the real green fake grass and he told me the stuff had been tested in Florida over a three-year period and that the grass absolutely would not fade. He told me they would take up all the sod, and he said they spray so no weeds will grow up around it." The 16-year Lehigh Acres resident signed an agreement to pay for material and installation for her one-third acre residence. She will not say what she paid for it.

She will say only that the lawn was "expensive" "They began installing the lawn in November of 1970," she said, "and vm 1 Synthetic Lawn tioxut won't reveal how much he owns. "It's sufficient to say I'm a stockholder," he says, "and to say I own 100 or 1,000 shares is immaterial." Hoffman, 43, is a devoted family man who is well-liked by his employes. "I go to church each Sunday and I believe in my religion," he says, "and that might give you a better insight into what kind of person I am than anything else. I've been married to the same woman for 17 years very happily married and I have a deep, abiding respect for my wife and my family." The family attends St. Michael Lutheran Church.

Hoffman's wife, Marlene, is a former teacher in the Lee County School System. They have two children, a daughter, Laura, 16, and a son, Brian, 13. Tina Halsted, creative services director for WBBH, says of Hoffman, "He is an honest person and I respect him tremendously for his honesty. That's not all I respect him for. He knows and believes in television and expects the same from everyone who works with him and we do work with, rather than just for Howard.

"He sets an energetic pace that's rarely easy to ol low, but it's the pace of television where every second counts and is irrevocable. "I believe Howard is still fascinated by television, its reality as well as its potential. I work in television in hopes of forcing the reality to meet the potential and I think Howard does too, though I'm sure he wouldn't say it in the same way I Mrs. Ruth Plumb, newly elected treasurer of Broadcasting-Telecasting Services, says of Hoffman, "Since he has assumed the responsibilities of general manager, I have come to fully realize his total awareness of each of our employes. It is truly a pleasure to work with him." Chief engineer, Dave McKelvey, adds, "Under Howard there is a great feeling of rapport and cooperation Turn To HOWARD, Page 5D Haag's statements were incorrect.

"No, we didn't talk about upkeep and care of the carpet," he said. "No, we didn't talk about weeds and spraying. And we didn't talk about the possibility the carpet may fade, either. No, I don't remember how much she paid for the carpet." Asked what he did remember about selling and installing Mrs. Haag's lawn carpet, Larson said, "I remember what I want to remember." Dan Bishop public relations supervisor for Monsanto Recreation Surfaces Turn To HER, Page 10D PEOPLE POLL: Should all containers of beverages be required to have a deposit? 2D ERMA BOMBECK has much trouble keeping a comb around the house, and is chagrined to find that her husband has betrayed her trust 2D ROADSIDE GASTRONOME says there must be a piggish plot to keep the meat on barbecue ribs sparse, but a restaurant in Naples seems to be winning the battle 7D Dr.

Lamb 2D V. Inside Today's People News lawn carpet from, or Monsanto, who manufactures the "Chemgrass," replaces and installs a new synthetic lawn. A spokesman from Monsanto's home office in St. Louis said that may be a very long time. Mrs.

Haag said she became interested in a synthetic lawn four years ago. "I have arthritis in my back," she said, "and I'm not allowed to mow. So I decided it might be wise to purchase a synthetic lawn. A fellow named Cliff Larson representing Carefree Lawns of Sarasota came down to talk to me. He showed me all the literature pictures A' srf tKTxrm 1 A 1 I I i i Began A l.

i if a ft' By RANDY WHITE News-Press Staff Writer A four-by-eight foot sign announcing, "This is a MONSANTO Beautiful, Carefree Lawn" confronts travelers on Leland Heights Boulevard in Lehigh Acres. The word "MONSANTO" is in blue. The rest is neatly lettered in red. The paradox is that the artificial lawn, owned by Mrs. Anna Haag, is not beautiful.

It is not even pretty. In fact, the synthetic grass is now black from exposure to the sun, and weeds grow up through the split seams. Mrs. Haag said her sign will remain until carefree Lawns, the company she bought the A Catholic Bishop With A Big Business they worked clear in to March. I paid them in April, three years ago, and the thing had already begun to split and fade.

They sent men out to repair it until they got their check, and then I didn't hear from them again until I filed suit." She added, "I bought the thing hoping I wouldn't have to worry about the lawn again. But the day I signed the contract is when my problems really started. They ruined my underground wiring and damaged my driveway. I can't tell you all the headaches this thing has caused me." Clifford Larson, head of Carefree Lawns Of Sarasota, said several of Mrs. News-Press Photos By THOMAS A.

PRICE I 1- formed into the sacrificial body and blood. He was assisted by Father John Neff, the pastor of the church, and nine other priests from Catholic communities in the area. "Why should this surprise you?" he said in answer to a question. "I am as much a priest as a bishop. A bishop is a priest he never ceases to be one.

It is always a wonderful privilege to me to serve when I am out visiting my parishes. I thoroughly enjoy meeting and serving people." Because this is his character, it follows that his replies to both the question of amnesty for draft dodgers and pardon for former president Richard Nixon are thoughtfully answered with the light of kindness in his tanned and healthy face. "As a priest or bishop I would be inclined to agree with President Ford. It is a question of compassion and mercy as well as of justice. Now I am not looking at any of the complexities of either question.

There are many. I am saying that forgiveness is a deep consideration. We are supposed to be a nation of Judeo-Christian heritage." Regarding amnesty, he said, "President Ford's suggestion of some duty in repayment Turn To THE, Page 6D By KATHLEEN POWELL News-Press Staff Writer He is a big man with a booming voice (velvet in quiet consersation), this Bishop McLaughlin His Excellency Most Reverend Charles Borromeo McLaughlin, D.D. He came down from St. Petersburg Tuesday to officiate at the dedication of the Leonardi Santini Center for physical education and the arts at Bishop Verot School in Fort Myers.

His outlook is big, too; big and broad and compassionate as only great personalities can be. This makes it possible for him to keep a very' sensitive finger on the pulse of a diocese that coyers 11 counties and runs from Bonita Springs north to Crystal River above St. Petersburg. Makes it possible for him to talk in a forthright way to Pope Paul VI- which he has done in the past and will do again this fall. Yet his very greatness is what keeps him just as interested in individual people little people the hundreds of parishioners in his far-flung religious kingdom.

During the mass in St. Cecilia's Church that immediately preceded the simple dedication ceremony of the new Santini Center the bishop -personally placed in the mouths of many communicants the bread and wine trans BISHOP MCLAUGHLIN IN HIS VESTMENTS (LEFT) at right as he relaxes for interview.