The Orlando Sentinel from Orlando, Florida • Page 62

12 Central Florida Business December 23-29, 1996 QFDeOTlMs HOT. PS COVER STORY SYATTDOM'S NEW OPEOT Many are tuning into the bidding for WCPX By Rene Stutzman OF THE SENTINEL STAFF WDBO'-'TV CHANNEL Mi NEWS 8 iORLANDO. FLA. New news. Among the many changes to the news division at WCPX-Channel 6 have been the addition of co-anchor Grace Rabold (above right), a new set and a segment called 'Eye on Central one of the station's initiatives to showcase in-depth reporting.

In 1994, news, begar ratings. The through last 11 p.m. shev 2 crucial rati vember and mm ichard Marriott has long been the I subject of mild, amusement LI among broadcasters in Central Florida. During an industrywide buying frenzy in 1986, the hotel millionaire decided to jump into television. He paid a pricey $200 million for WCPX-Channel 6 only to see the economy slide into recession and the value of his station plummet.

Those days of bemusement may be about to end. Marriott has put the CBS affiliate up for sale, and the response has been tremendous. For the past two weeks, executives -of some of America's best-known media companies have trekked to Orlando or Atlanta to meet with station executives. They are making what some brokers, consultants and broadcasters think may be record offers for a TV station in Central Florida. (Marriott's purchase of WCPX is the standing record.) Neither Marriott nor officers of his broadcast company, First Media Television L.P., would release details of the bidding.

"We really can't comment on where we are right now," Ralph W. Hardy Marriott's attorney and a minority partner in First Media, said last week. But a few insiders, including some of the bidders, are releasing bits of information, and the picture that emerges is this: A good many A-list media companies with a great deal of capital are interested. The bidders are thought to include E.W. Scripps Meredith owner of WOFL-Channel 35; Post-Newsweek Stations Gannett Sunbeam TV Viacom and possibly A.H.

Belo Corp. and Fox Television Stations Inc. Why so many suitors? Two reasons primarily: Orlando is a dream market. Its population and business economy are projected to grow well above the national average for several years. That means a growing audience and more ad revenue, which translate into a station worth more in the future.

In February, the federal government eased ownership restrictions, allowing TV companies to increase the number of stations they own. That has freed every major TV ownership group to go shopping. Many have done exactly that, creating more demand and pushing up prices. Some recent stations have sold at 14 to 15 times their annual cash flow. Estimates of the station's sale price by broadcasters, consultants and analysts vary from $140 million to $356 million.

Pete Bowman, vice president at BIA Consulting a company that tracks TV stations, estimated the station would sell for $168 million to $210 million. Mike Gajewski, an analyst with Paul Ka-gan Associates, another well-known media consulting group, put his estimate at $200 million to $220 million. There are hints, though, that the station could go for far more than that The vice president of a major media 5 p.m. The station's old logo July 1, 1954: The station goes on the air as WDBO-Channel 6. June 1982: The station changes its name to WCPX-Channel 6.

March 1984: The station moves into a new building on John Young Parkway. March 1986: First Media a corrv pany controlled by the Marriott family, announces plans to buy the station for $200 million, a record price for Central Florida. The seller is Outlet Communications Inc. June 1991: Owner First Media Corp. takes control of the station away from Glenn Potter, the president of First Media who had run it since its purchase.

Potter had no previous TV experience and was criticized for killing oft the station's 5:30 p.m. newscast and leaving the news department understaffed and undere-quipped. Mike Schweitzer was appointed as his successor. October 1994: First Media hires Brooke Spectorsky as station president after Marriott brings in Bill Schwartz, former president of Cox Enterprises and puts him in charge of turning around the station and adding other TV properties. During the next 2 years, the company in-.

vests $5 million to upgrade WCPX. June 1935: The station debuts a new look: a new news set, graphics and co-anchor, Grace Hargis, now Grace Rabold. The changes signal that the station is going after the news audience of WFTV-Channel 9 and WESH-Channel 2. October 1996: Marriott announces the station is for sale. November 1996: WCPX, for more than a decade a perennial No.

3 in local news ratings, improves its news ratings across the board in the quarterly ratings period while the region's 2news competitors lose ground. WCPX management hails the numbers as a watershed. Source: Sentinel research 6 p.m. 11 p.m. 5 p.m.

6 p.m. if? IV luv.v.j 11 p.m. Each ratini 10,220 hous represents 9 1994-95 seas Source: WOFL-C lion in sales in 1997, up 4.3 percent from this year, according to Media Services Group. Another set of numbers ratings appears to be on the rise at the station. In November, WCPX turned in its best news ratings performance in years, although it remains in third place.

Since the fall of 1994, station President Brooke Spectorsky has overseen a $5 mil-' lion upgrade. He has poured money into news trucks and other equipment He also has made widespread staff changes, from department heads to news anchors. Instead of climbing, though, the ratings drifted downward until last month. In the November sweeps one of four key ratings periods each year that determine ad company that didn't make the final round of bidders said he expects the station to sell for 15 to 22 times its cash flow. If its cash flow is $20.6 million, a level estimated by Media Services Group, a broadcast brokerage with an office in Jacksonville, that could put its sale price at $310 million to $454 million, although many area broadcasters scoff at that price.

The fact that the station has languished in third place in news ratings may turn out to be a sales advantage, brokers said. The station is being offered either as a stand-alone property or as a three-station package that includes the Portland, and Asheville, N.C., Fox affiliates that Marriott bought two years ago. WCPX is expected to generate $413 mil WCPXI41 Th9 station's logo today.