South Florida Sun Sentinel from Fort Lauderdale, Florida • Page 65

Sun-Sentinel, Thursday, January 22, 1987 Section BILL KELLEY Television Writer Land Loibs I' 'A V' RE'S SAKE POKNATU Local market turning into alphabet soup MAJOR NATURE CONSERVANCY PROJECTS IN FLORIDA Members of The Nature Conservancy are quietly acquiring land in the name of conservation. he purchase of WTVJ-Ch. 4, a CBS station, by a wing of NBC's parent company. General Electric, continues to be the primary focus of discussion among South Florida broadcasters this ByLIZDOUP Statf Writer lorida is easy to love. Mana-E I 1 tees love to swim here, tur tles love to nest nere ana ae-velopers love to build here because people love to live V-A stV ft here.

And therein lies the problem. There's only so much space for people and manatees (and turtles and panthers), and everyone knows who's getting crowded out. But breathe easy because the good guys on the white horses have arrived, greenbacks in hand. They're The Nature Conservancy, an organization as dignified and understated as its name. Quietly, very quietly, this Virginia-based group gobbles up the good earth with an appetite that won't quit, but its aim is conservation, not condos.

This non-profit organization buys or helps the government to buy land that should be left alone, at least for nature's sake. They are Land Lords, and their group is loaded with property, money and clout. In fact, in the past couple of years, the conservancy's acquisitions have outpaced those of the federal government. So much for the image of environmental fighters as little old ladies in tennis shoes. This is more the Brooks Brothers, pin stripe kind of crowd.

"Do I look like a little old lady in tennis shoes?" asks Richard Weinstein pleasantly, posing the question from the spacious living room of his Palm Beach home where, in the distance, he has a view of an azure ocean. Hardly. Weinstein looks precisely lilra 117 fit ha Sc a ettirat-h'iita1 lumran fli SjlaU plioloMARK RANDALL The Nature Conservancy recently helped in the acquisition of the Whitc Belt Dairies. Ml-" I' week. The viewers have a more down-to-earth response: "All I care about is which station I'll be able to tape Late Night With David Letterman on," said a local wag.

Which station indeed. What we're possibly looking at is a major, three-way network affiliation shake-up. Possibly, but not probably. 'Channel 4, MiamiFort Lauderdale's CBS affiliate, was bought for $270 million by GE Property Management, a holding company of GE, which owns NBC. That means Channel 4 becomes an NBC station.

WSVN-Ch. 7, the market's current NBC station, would lose its affiliation. GE's purchase of Channel 4 will be final this Summer. Channel 4 has an affiliation contract with CBS (which has been linked to the station for over 30 years) that expires in April 1988. NBC and Channel 7 are contractually joined until January 1989.

(Expect a gentlemen's agreement to relieve the discrepancy between those dates.) Options for Channel 10 How does ABC fit into all this? ABC's MiamiFort Lauderdale affiliate is WPLG-Ch. 10. Keeping all those affiliations in mind, here are some possibilities that haven't been examined yet. Channel 10 is part of the Post-Newsweek chain of stations. Most of the stations owned by Post-Newsweek are CBS affiliates.

Why should CBS go to Channel 7, whose newscast and local programming are the weakest in the market, when it might be able to build upon its Post-Newsweek relationship and hook up with Channel 10? It's an interesting question, but it's unlikely to be a factor, Channel 10 won't want to jump to CBS. Why not? Because history has shown that the affiliate that most readily benefits when there is an affiliation shake-up is the one that remains stable. In 1979, when ABC reached into the Atlanta market and bought the NBC station (causing the then-ABC station to go with NBC), the CBS station remained stable, didn't change its affiliation and built upon its existing identity, The public is comforted to know that some things in life (and television) don't change. If Channel 10 leaves ABC and goes with CBS, it strengthens the CBSPost-Newsweek link, but at the expense of the station itself. So Channel 10 will probably remain with ABC, counting on the network to improve its ratings in the fall (ABC is in third place), and building upon the public's acceptance of WPLG's already top rated local newscasts.

Sources at Channel 10 confirm that theory. So much for that. Will CBS, meanwhile, having lost Channel 4 to GENBC, simply switch over to Channel 7 or will it grab WCIX-Ch. 6, the MiamiFort Lauderdale independent that networks have been sniffing around for several months? Will Channel 6 enter the picture? If CBS buys Channel 6, and makes it a CBS affiliate, it faces a dilemma: what to do about the drop-off of WCIX's signal power north of Broward County. The nearest northern CBS affiliate is WTVX-Ch.

34, a UHF station without a strong signal in Fort Pierce. That leaves a coverage hole that would have to be filled. The only way to do that would be to persuade one of the West Palm Beach affiliates, WPEC-Ch. 12 (ABC) or WPTV-Ch. 5 (NBC), to Jump to CBS.

Channel 5, already reportedly "petrified" over the implications of the GENBC purchase of Channel 4 (whose signal is the strongest in South Florida, and penetrates Channel 5's turf), would be reluctant. But Channel 12 just might go for such a jump. Still, it's an awfully complicated way for CBS to acquire Channel 6. What's more likely to happen Is that Channel 4 and Channel 7 will simply switch affiliations, and 1 Channel 10 will remain as it is. The irony in all of this, and the only aspect of its coverage of the story on Friday that the other local newscasts did Dot have, Is that Channel 7's owner, Ed Ansin, originally had been approached by GE, which wanted to buy WSVN from him.

Ansin turned down the offer, and GE quietly went across town, striking a deal that Ansin conceded Friday took him "completely by surprise." White Belt Dairies Location: Palm Beach and Martin counties Environmental asset: Florida panther habitat Size: 22,000 acres Cost: $23 million plus gift Year acquired: 1986 Ownermanager: South Florida Water Management District jl Lignum vitae and Shall Key LJ Location: Monroe County Environmental asset: Intact tropical hammock Size: 545 acres Cost: $1,850,000 Year acquired: 1971 Ownermanager: Department of Natural Resources 3) Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary Location: Collier County Environmental asset: Site of royal palm hammock Size: 5,760 acres Cost: $150,000 Year acquired: 1954 Ownermanager: National Audubon Society Jl Blowing Rocks Preserve Location: Martin County Environmental asset: Nesting habitat for endangered turtles Size: 113 acres Cost: Gift Year acquired: 1968 Ownermanager: The Nature Conservancy aKIsslmmea Prairie Location: Okeechobee County Environmental asset: Example of a Florida prairie Size: 6,090 acres Cost: $3,562,000 Year acquired: 1980 Ownermanager: National Audubon Society SOURCE: Ths Nature Conservancy Seminole Ranch Location: Orange County Environmental asset: Giant -wetlands protect the headwaters of the St. Johns River. Size: 28,000 acres Cost: $9 million Year acquired: 1981 Ownermanager: St. Johns River Water Management District Crystal River Manatee Sanctuary Location: Citrus County Environmental asset: Largest natural winter site of West Indian manatee Size: 34 acres Cost: $425,000 Year acquired: 1983 Ownermanager: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 0 Lower Suwannee River National Wildlife Refuge Location: Dixie and Levy counties Environmental asset: Protects mouth of Suwannee River, which is good for sport and commercial fishing and is a refuge for West Indian manatees.

Size: 31,170 acres Cost: $5,340,000 plus gift Year acquired: Between 1971 1984 Ownermanager: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (The Nature Conservancy owns a portion). left Big Bend Location: Taylor and Dixie counties Environmental asset: 70 miles of undeveloped Gulf Coast coastland Size: 70,000 acres Cost: $20 million plus gift Year acquired: 1986 Ownermanager: The Nature Conservancy owns properly but will be transferring It to the state. I unv. Mi si id.

on? vi uaiivu innjci with a taste for life's finer things, which happens to include a healthy appreciation for plants and critters. Weinstein is a member of the conservancy's state and national boards, and is as low-key as the organization itself, particularly when he talks about its work. In December, the conservancy added more trophies to its shelf by negotiating the purchase of two choice chunks of soil: White Belt Dairies, 22,000 acres of pristine land in Palm Beach and Martin counties, and the Gulf Coast's Big Bend, 70,000 acres along 70 miles of coastline. White Belt includes acres of pines and palmetto and is a habitat of the Florida fianther. Big Bend is the conservancy's argest land grab east of the Mississippi, and its largest coastal purchase ever.

"It's been our goal to get the job done," says Weinstein with characteristic understatement. "We're pretty non-confrontational in our dealings. We do business with everybody." The power network Doing business with "everybody" Isn't as tough as it. sounds, especially when you already know who "everybody" is. The Nature Conservancy's boards, national and state, are packed with powerful people developers, po-liticos, scientists and real-estate wiz ards who can get things done.

Let other conservationists stand in front of bulldozers, hug trees and file lawsuits. The Nature Conservancy won't. It docs Us business with all the decorum of a bank board and isn't In the A market to advocate, legislate or liti- tol Panhandle Rivers Location: Liberty, Franklin and Gulf counties Environmental asset: Hardwood forests Size: 69,000 acres Cost: $20 million Year acquired: 1985 Ownermanager: North West Florida Water Management District rfflj Apalachicola Bluff and Ravines Preserve Location: Liberty County Environmental asset: Habitat for rare plants Size: 4,400 acres Cost: $2 million plus gift Year acquired: Between 1982 1984 Ownermanager: The Nature Conservancy SEE LAND 4E Slnrl graphlcTODD KAANP9 Bronson won't extinguish 'Death Wish' series yet piwitjaja INSIDE FAMILIES Sex educators say basic birds-and-bces briefings should begin as early as age 2. 3 TELEVISION ft 1 1' i a I Mr. Nasty.

There Is nary a snarl from the man who was exterminating hordes on-screen before Mr. was out of kindergarten. There are quite a few smiles, In fact, and you have to listen Intently because, after 36 years In the movie business and more than 100 movies, Bronson speaks slowly, Impassively and, above all, softly. Bronson can be seen In movie houses and on billboards In the United States with ever-ready pistol In hand as his real-life wife, Jill Ireland, cuddles close for protection In Assassination. In the film he is a mild-mannered Secret Service agent who, after recovering from Injuries on the job, is given a "softer" assignment to protect the first lady (Ireland).

"She's a butlheaded, bitchy woman SEE BnONSON lit By IVOR DAVIS Now York Time Syndicate It Is painful, almost agonizing for Charles Bronson to talk about Charles Bronson. Mr. Mean of movies, as they call him, the man with the bulletproof persona; old totem-pole face. In Italy he is II Brutton, The Ugly One; In France, where a new Bronson movie Is greeted with frenzy, he Is Le Sacre Monstre. In Beverly Hills, he sips a Straight tomato Juice, tucks himself away in a private nook at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel and grits his teeth valiantly as the press takes potshots at one of Hollywood's most enduring stars.

He would rather have his teeth pulled than Submit to interviews. But there is a pic ture (Assassination to be sold, so Bronson goes head-to-head with all comers, And surprise, surprise. Bronson is no The Tortcliis, a new spinoff from Cheers with Dan Hcdaya, is a formula show about people who don't get along. But the jokes make it work. CE Movie Times 116 Advice 3E Comics 12E Fred Rogers 3E Charles Bronson, 65, stars with wife, Jill Ireland, in Assassination.

Horoscope 136 Entertainment 06.