South Florida Sun Sentinel from Fort Lauderdale, Florida • Page 84

4 Weekly Business, Monday, March 16, 1987 MEDIA Family-owned station WSVN battles net work By TOM STIEGHORST Business Writer of in or nel what 7, the 1962, is Edmund and now when television won his Ansin, called the father life license business WSVN, at to the acquired began Chan- oper- top ate it as an NBC affiliate. Twenty-five years later, things suddenly have changed. Now Ansin controls the station and its parent company, Miami's Sunbeam Television Corp. But NBC has jumped ship, and Ansin is fighting what may be an uphill battle to keep another network from swallowing one of the few major family-owned stations in the nation. The stakes are nothing less than the value Ansin and his family have built up in WSVN over the years.

If neither NBC nor CBS chooses to affiliate with Ansin, his station will be worth millions of dollars less than it was at the start of the year. Ansin, 51, confidently predicts it won't come to that. Last week, he turned to the Federal Communications Commission to prevent NBC from deserting his station. In a recent interview, the tall, silverhaired executive said he's more interested in passing the family business on to his children than to a media giant like CBS which asked about buying the station in February. "There's a general feeling that everything has its price, but, fundamentally, I'm not interested in selling," Ansin said.

Ansin said WSVN's commitment to local news, public affairs and charity events will be higher as a locally owned entity than as one more outpost in a far-flung media empire. (Although the station in January dropped the Florida Forum program a long-time Sunday morning show it has added Live at Five, a one-hour, five-day-aweek news and information program that includes similar topics.) But his resistance to selling the station and his objection to network muscle-flexing run counter to the prevailing laissez faire currents in the broadcast industry, observers say. "The Federal Communications Commission has been very much 'let the marketplace rule' and has been very reluctant to step in in such matters," said Frank Higney, an analyst with Broadcast Investment Analysts in Chantilly, Va. Ansin's dilemma began in January when NBC agreed, subject to government approval, to buy Miami's WTVJ, Channel 4, for $270 million. For the network, it was a rare chance to buy a major station at a good price one of the first since 1984, when the FCC expanded the number of stations networks can own from seven to 12.

The fact that it wasn't an NBC affiliate didn't bother network executives. But it rankled Ansin, who said the FCC never intended to allow network control of two stations in the same market. That situation will occur, he argues, with NBC owning WTVJ and supplying programs to WSVN as an affiliate until 1989. Ansin said his reaction was bewilderment when NBC executives marched into his spacious office on Jan. 16 and said a deal had been concluded to buy Miami's CBS station, WTVJ.

"I distinctly remember telling them the situation was certainly bizarre and certainly unprecedented," Ansin recalled. How could NBC program shows on WSVN and manage the business of WTVJ without hurting competition in Miami? TIMETABLE FOR APPROVING NBC PURCHASE OF WTVJ firm to NBC, files application to acquire WTVJ with Feb. 6: General Electric parent the Federal Commuications Commission. a Feb. 18: Public notice of application issued.

March 23: Cutoff for petitions seeking to deny application. I April 2: Rebuttals of denial petitions due. April 9: Replies from General Electric due. FCC has an unlimited time period to approve the application or refer it to an administrative law judge for hearings. SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, WSVN One industry analyst estimates that the value of Edmund Ansin's WSVN, Channel 7, would fall $200 million if it loses a network affiliation.

WSVN has been affiliated with NBC, but the network is seeking to buy WTVJ, Channel 4, a CBS affiliate. For CBS, the loss of its Miami affiliate meant negotiating a new agreement with WSVN or buying the station, which Ansin quickly ruled out. But a third option arose because Miami, unlike most cities, has an independent station with a widely received VHF signal, WCIX, Channel 6. So CBS began exploring the purchase of WCIX, which would be a bargain relative to WSVN because it lacks a network agreement. Ansin could not afford to sit on the sidelines while all this transpired, observers say.

"His station presumably was worth $300 million," said Dennis McAlpine, an analyst at Oppenheimer New York. "The value of the Miami independent is only about $100 million. If he doesn't get an affiliation, he's down $200 million. That's a tough thing to So last week, Ansin announced he will push for rejection of the application to buy WTVJ that was filed on Feb. 6 by NBC and its parent firm, General Electric Co.

For strategy, Ansin retained Charles D. Ferris, who chaired the FCC in the late 1970s. Ansin also has gained the backing of U.S. Rep. Dante Fascell, D-Miami.

In a letter to FCC Chairman Mark S. Fascell A TV MARKET IN TRANSITION A chronology shows that ownership changes and problems aren't uncommon in South Florida's TV industry. Sept. 21, 1983: WTVJ, Channel 4, sold by Wometco Enterprises to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts a New York investment firm, in a deal that transformed Wometco into a private company. Dec.

5, 1985: Kohlberg Kravis acquires Storer Communications. Kohlberg Kravis required by Federal Communications Commission to sell either cable or broadcast properties in Miami. I May 21, 1986: WTVJ, Channel 4, tentatively sold to Lorimar-Telepictures Corp. for about $405 million. The sale falls through four months later.

July 21, 1986: WLTV, Channel 23, sold to Hallmark Cards Inc. and an affiliate of First Chicago Bank, which bought 10 Spanish language stations for $302 million. Aug. 17, 1986: WSCV, Channel 51, acquired by Reliance Group Holdings of Philadelphia in its $357 million acquisition of five-station John Blair Co. Nov.

17, 1986: WCIX, Channel 6, sold by Taft Broadcasting to TVX Broadcast Group, Norfolk, in a fivestation, $240 million deal. Dec. 10, 1986: WBFS, Channel 33, owned by Grant Broadcasting System of Miami, files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from creditors. said NBC's purchase of WTVJ falls short of the "compelling circumstances" the FCC said in 1984 it would require for approval of such transactions. In an FCC filing this week, Ferris will argue that commission policy doesn't permit NBC to establish a "dual presence" in Miami.

Further, he charges both networks are abusing their power of affiliation. By announcing that it will end its affiliation two years from now, "NBC has damaged WSVN's status in the eyes of advertisers and programmers, to the obvious benefit of its soon-to-be-owned station," Ansin said in a statement last week. An NBC spokeswoman declined comment on the statement. At 51, Ansin said it doesn't make sense to sell the station and retire from the broadcast business. He has lived in South Florida since boyhood, when his family moved from Massachusetts to Miami.

Ansin began his career in 1957, after studying economics at the University of Pennsylvania. He worked in real estate with his father, Sidney, for five years until 1962, when they bought WCKT. The call letters were changed to WSVN a few years ago. Ansin said his three children have an interest in broadcasting. The eldest, Andrew, Jan.

16, 1987: Channel 4, WTVJ, tentatively sold to National Broadcasting Co. and a related company by Kohlberg Kravis for $270 million. 23, already works for Sunbeam. The family resides in North Miami, where Ansin relaxes by swimming and playing racquetball. Experts are reluctant to predict the outcome of Ansin's appeal to the FCC.

But mission isn't to allow NBC to own a McAlpine, of Oppenheimer, said the comlikely station affiliated with CBS. He said Ansin's ultimate objective isn't to block WTVJ's sale to NBC, but to retain a network affiliation for his station, which its studios at 1401 N. employs 230 people at Bay Causeway in North Bay Village. That means scuttling any CBS deal with WCIX, which Ansin dismisses as unfit for a network because its broadcast signal is limited to avoid interfering with another chan.nel 6 in Orlando. "You can't run a network with disadvantaged signals in major markets," he says.

It also indicates the networks and stations may have to shuffle their affiliations of long before the January 1989 expiration WSVN's contract with NBC. By moving to challenge NBC and CBS last week before the FCC, Ansin kept his hand in a high stakes poker game for a network affiliaton. It's a war of nerves. If the networks don't blink, it could be a long fall from the top for one of South Florida's biggest family businesses..