South Florida Sun Sentinel from Fort Lauderdale, Florida • Page 98

2G Sun-Sentinel, Sunday, November 5, 1995 means of advertising. The robust advertising mar T3S0 Typewriter J-irrii I fim Spell check with II I I lUJssJJ 75,000 word dictionary 'C I 184-804 List 279.99 V-" I STATIONS going concerns. Prices for those stations have accelerated two- or threefold, but they're still affordable." Paxson Communications, which owns WPBF-Ch. 25, the ABC affiliate in West Palm Beach, and moved its headquarters to West Palm Beach from Tampa in June, has not changed its plan to expand. The company wants to own as many stations as are allowed by law, plus operate other stations and affiliate still more with Paxson's Infomall TV network, a 24-hour infomercial network.

Like most others in the television business, Goodman doesn't see television station prices declining in the near future. Through the end of October, the number and dollar amount of television station transactions had exceeded the 1994 total by 5500 million. More than $2.8 billion in proposed or completed TV station sales have been recorded so far this year, according to numbers compiled weekly by Broadcasting and Cable magazine. The flurry of station trading and high value of the deals is remarkable for an industry that was declared dead five years ago. Cable television, mini-satellite dishes and the information superhighway, it was said, would put broadcast stations out of business in a matter of years.

In the early 1990s, few stations were sold and those that did trade hands sold for far less than they are worth today. Ed Ansin, owner of WSVN-Ch. 7 in Miami, bought Boston station WHDH-Ch. 7 for $215 million in 1993 just $45 million to $65 million more than Freedom will pay for WPEC for a station in one of the country's largest markets. "I know I won't buy at these prices today," Ansin said.

"These are unprecedented dollar amounts. Of course, it's a matter of judgment, but it's not worth it." Value, says broker Hepburn, is in the eye of the beholder. Companies that are buying such as Paxson, Freedom Communications and Tribune Co. have business plans that include expansion of broadcast operations. To those companies, the stations are worth higher prices.

Other factors also have fueled interest in television station ownership: 91 There is a renewed belief that television broadcasting remains the most cost-efficient T700 Electronic Typewriter Full line correction 12" paper capacity 9" printing width 184-762 List 249.99 if CORONiX PWP50D Word Processor 32K memory 75,000 word dictionary Enhanced correction system FROM PAGE 1G TV stations seen as top investments with ad rebound The New York Times Co. and Tribune which also owns the Sun-Sentinel. WPEC was swept up in a wave of television station sales that began in 1994 and has reached a frenetic pace this fall. Broadcast stations are in a trading frenzy for a number of reasons: Advertising revenues, which declined in the early 1990s for the first time ever, have recovered. Profit margins are high.

Congress is considering legislation that would allow one owner to buy more than one station in a market. "We're really at an all-time high for prices," said Ted Hepburn, a 27-year veteran television station broker based in Palm Beach. "1995 is the biggest year I've ever had in this business and 1994 was the biggest year for me previous to this one." Consider a few other recent deals: Price Communications Corp. turned a 179 percent profit in October on the sale of a television station it bought last year. New York-based Price sold WHTM-TV in Harrisburg, to Allbritton Communications of Washington, D.C., for $113 million.

Price bought the station in 1994 for $40.5 million. Also in October, Value Vision International, a Minneapolis-based home shopping network, bought a UHF station in the Seattle television market for $3.8 million. The seller, Tucson-based NW TV, bought the station last May for $450,000. Tribune Co. announced in August that it agreed to pay $70.5 million for San Diego TV station KTTY.

Two years ago, Sullivan said, he declined an offer to buy the station for $12 million. In August, ValueVision sold UHF television stations, in Akron, Ohio, and Bridgeport, to West Palm Beach-based Pax-son Communications for $40 million. ValueVision had bought the stations in 1994 for $13 million. "There's no doubt that prices are dramatically increasing," said Dean Goodman, president of Paxson's television division. "A lot of what we're acquiring are stations that are turn-around situations.

They're sold more as businesses with potential than as jxa Jr Kutr PWP4200 Word Processor 64K RAM, 3.5" 720K disk MS-DOS, Windows drive compatible 24-line 80-character Word findsuggest, block VGA monitor insertcopymovedelete, 75,000 word spell-check search and replace dictionary 184-812 List 599.99 Spreadsheet software Word findsuggest, block copymovedelete, search and replace 576-561 List 479.99 represent final dealer cost. 'As indicated by invoice. Invoice cost may not NEXT BUSINESS DAY DELIVERY 1-50Q-6S5-83C2 Fax: 1 -800-665-5010 Boca Raton Boynton Davie Oeeriield Ft Lauderdale Ft Lauderdale Hlaleah Hollywood 123N.W. 13th St Beach 260 N. Congress Ave.

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Congress is expected to pass a new telecommunications bill that will allow more concentration of television ownership and may allow one owner to own two stations in one market. If the legislation is signed into law, many existing station-group owners will try to increase their holdings. That will drive prices still higher. "I think what you're seeing now is just a prelude to consolidation that's going to happen in this industry as soon as that law passes," Paxson's Goodman said. The performance of Fox, UPN and WB have convinced the industry that broadcast networks are still superior to cable networks.

Fox has unseated CBS, as the No. 3 network for the key 18-to 49-year-old viewers on the strength of affiliates that switched allegiance from CBS to Fox. Even with a declining market share of the audience, ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox maintain a commanding hold on their audience while the rest of the market is being divided up by dozens of cable channels. Even the most woeful of prime-time broadcast programs will almost always draw a larger audience than the highest-rated cable programs. Some cable networks are considering forays into broadcasting and Paxson is pursuing a strategy of building both a broadcasting and a cable network with Infomall TV at the same time.

No one seems willing to guess how long or how high prices will continue to rise, even as no one predicts a decline in the near future. "We just had a harmonic convergence of several kinds of things," said Tony Cassara, president of the Paramount Stations Group. "But I don't think trees grow to the sky. They haven't in the past and they won't this time." Chicago Tribune staff writer Tim Jones contributed to this report, which was supplemented with information from Broadcasting and Cable magazine. taxes." deductibility 8.75! TT uoic CT7 TihaJr IFfaE Wms.

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