The Morning Call from Allentown, Pennsylvania • 47

THE MORNING GALL 90 seconds of business news, AP Business Barometer on Call INSIDE Info-tel 610-821-8300, Category 8697. It's Your Money Page D2 L.V. Ticker Page D3 Week In Review Page D4 Classified Page D7 STOCK QUOTES 610421-8300, Category 7800 SUNDAY, MARCH 22, 1998 No garbage on airwaves RN airoy rge samrpflys at WFMZ-TV Ibe ysedl "to repay debt By CLAY CHANDLER And JOHN M. BERRY Of The Vtoshington Post Garbage. That's what Richard C.

Dean saw almost every time he watched the evening news from Philadelphia. So when he built WFMZ-TV, Channel lB9, in the woods on top of South Mountain In 1976, he broadcast tasteful news about the Lehigh "He was totally frustrated with the garbage strjkes proliferating through the newscasts in Philadelphia," recalled Barry Fisher, general manager of WFMZ-TV. "It got to the point, it was a real motivating factor for him. Who in the Lehigh Valley really cared about the garbage strikes?" When Dean start-' WHAT TO DO WITH A BUDGET SURPLUS? PAY DOWN DEBT As amount owed decreases, so does interest due on remaining balance. This savings on interest leaves more money available to pay off more debt.

INVEST In schools, health care, transportation projects. Such investment could encourage growth, increasing government revenue that could be used for investment. But supply-side proponents say debt reduction is a 'castor oil' remedy of no benefit to the economy. O'Hara, a financial planner in Silver Spring, Md. "A lot of people are reluctant until I show them what a huge difference it can make to their financial situation over a long period of time." Economists are offering much the same advice to Uncle Sam With the federal government suddenly expecting surpluses estimated between $660 billion and $1.1 trillion over the next decade, a large contingent of fiscal experts is recommending that President Clinton and Congress resist calls for new tax cuts or increased gov- Please See ECONOMISTS Page D4 Imagine that after years of struggling to gain control of your finances, you suddenly come into some extra money.

Even better: Suppose you're likely to earn more money than expected every year for the next decade. How best to use the windfall? A good financial planner might recommend you start by cutting debt. "One of the very first things I tell my clients is to get rid of debt," says L. Edward ed the independent station 22 years ago, he employed about 10 people three were on camera with the news. Today the Salisbury Township-based parent company, Maranatha Broadcasting employs coimoinrDDCS IbooBc ggvit6 rS I Dan Shope IhaDceDDliiyirv Dim use K- iV I have learned Paul Samuelson's name from his enduring text "Economics." With more than 4 million copies in 41 languages, his primer has reached more than 7 million people worldwide over the past 50 years.

'1 knew it was a good book, but what I didn't realize would be its lasting power," said Samuelson, a graduate of the University of Chicago and winner of the 1970 Novel Prize in economics. "Fifty years is a long time for a book to be around in a dynamic subject like economics." Samuelson's "Economics" has been acclaimed for its conversational and uncondescending style in explaining macroeconomics, the theory of how forces work together to allow some economies to collapse and others to flourish. To read the book "is to have a glimpse of the extraordinary mind that created it: undogmatic, encyclopedic, brilliant and, most remarkably, skeptical not inclined to take it too seriously," said Stan Fischer, deputy -managing director of the International Monetary Fund. The book and its 15 subsequent up-Please See SAMUELSON Page D4 Samuelson text has sold more than 4 million copies in 41 languages. By CLIFF EDWARDS Of The Associated Press CHICAGO He's no master of suspense.

His books and articles don't have any heaving bosoms, hearts beating heavily or gun-toting terrorists trying to outmaneuver the hero. But you might learn how to transform those guns into butter. Generations of college students more than 100 with about 17 who work as on-camera talent, Part of that operation is a Berks Edition newscast to Reading and Berks County, which pushes the total of live news broadcasts per week to 32. The company also owns MBC Telepro-ductions, a premium production arm, and New Century Productions, a mobile production company providing TV coverage for major sports. Maranatha owns six radio stations from Easton to Colorado.

Revenues for the private company aren't disclosed, but Fisher said annual growth was in double digits. "The newscast started in meek terms, but every year we made a concerted effort to improve," Fisher said. "We now have four live trucks and 17 cameras, which give our stories immediacy. "We can handle a fire in a cement factory. It can tie up a dozen people at once, but we can handle it." Today, when Philadelphia television DANIEL LIPPITT Associated Press Paul Samuelson, author of 'Economics Insurers accused! of malting excess prof its "People who work here really love the Lehigh Valley, andthafs why they stay.

Barry Fisher rates," said Rob Schneider, senior staff attorney for the Southwest regional office of Consumers Union, which did the study with Texas Citizen Action and the Center for Economic Justice. Insurers dispute the figures and note that recent profitable years come after nine years of losing money on auto insurance. Bomer, who already has challenged the 1998 auto rates of two insurers as Elton Bomer is analyzing new auto rates to ensure that insurers are converting new-found profits into sufficient rate breaks for consumers. The consumer groups hope Bomer will use their study to show that policyholders are being fleeced. "This study shows the dramatic nature of the overcharges and ought to prod Commissioner Bomer to take swift action and reduce Consumer groups want the windfall passed on to consumers through lower premiums.

being too high, agrees that insurers have enjoyed healthy profits since 1996. But a couple of good years do not alone prove that consumers are being overcharged for auto insurance. Jerry Johns, president of Southwestern Insurance Information Service, said insurers have re-; duced rates $1.5 billion since 19. "These accusations of excessive profits are misleading and un- Please See PROFITS Page D3 By STUART ESKENAZI Cox News Service AUSTIN, Texas Insurance companies took in more than $1.2 billion in excess profits in 1997, according to a study by three consumer groups that want the windfall passed on to policyholders through lower premiums. Texas Insurance Commissioner TT Hi.

i r- -------i 1 1 r- I J.f ii life m-'l mm cries about the possibility of a SEPTA strike, WFMZ details another day of the Route 22 construction project. Such local coverage has made the Channel 69 News the No. 1 rated show in Lehigh and Northampton counties weekdays at 5 p.m., according to the Nielson Rating Service. Dean, president of Maranatha Broadcasting, has shown that Philadelphia garbage strikes don't sell in Allentown. But now he and his TV team most prove they can get over another hump the Federal Communications Commission.

It's requiring all TV stations in the country to convert their signals to digital by 2006. i High definition television, known as HDTV, produces sharper images by using more than 1,000 scanner lines twice the current format. Needing $2 million to $10 million to carry out the FCC mandate, Dean sold WFMZ-FM radio which he had owned since 1965 for $23 million to Citadel Communications Corp. of Big Fork, last July. But he stayed in the radio business, acquiring WEST-AM in Easton as part of the deal with CitadeL Maranatha also operates stations in Colorado, North Carolina and Virginia.

Others are proposed in Colorado and Florida. To help handle Channel 69's conversion, he moved Fisher, 39, to general manager of the TV station. He runs the station, freeing Dean to follow all operations. Fisher is a technical guy whose schooling was at Lincoln Tech and who started at the TV station two weeks after it went on the air. "Broadcasting management traditionally comes through news and sales," Fisher said.

"Now, we see a shift We're back to the days of RCA's David Sarnoff, when management was technically oriented. "Brad Reinhart, assistant general manager, focuses on news and programming. We're going through a tremendous technical metamorphosis." But there is an important factor the company has many veteran employees. "Fifty percent of the people who started in 1976 are still here," Fisher said. "And most are relatively young, with Brad at 40 and only a few in their 50s.

"People who work here really love the Lehigh Valley, and that's why they stay." Plus, they seldom have to worry about covering garbage strikes. caf --t WILLIAM P. CANNON Associated Press A forklrft operator carries a Trackman' rubber track at the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. plant in St Marys, Ohio, where union workers approved a seven-day workweek. Workers give ground to rescue city's jobs Goodyear plant wanted to run on seven-day schedule.

guarantee the plant it opened in 1940 would survive beyond 2001. "We were on the ropes," said Mayor Greg Freewalt "There seemed to be a point in time where we thought they were probably gone." Even with economic downturns that had cut what was once a work force to 650, Goodyear remains the largest employer in the city of 9,000 people. Moreover, the plant has employed generations of families and is part of the community's social fabricThe announcement last year sent union leaders and management to the bargaining table. And now, after a hard-won battle to persuade union workers that the seven-day shifts Goodyear was pushing for could save the plant, nobody mentions phase-outs or 2001 anymore. "The membership had a real difficult struggle with this.

It scared them," said John Rauh, president of United Steel Workers of America Rubber Conference Local 200L. The situation here was not unique. Today, all of Goodyear's 46 tire plants in North America are on a continuous schtxi-ule. In a pattern repeated in cities across the country, Goodyear threatened to cut jobs and scrap expansion plans in St. Marys unless workers increased their schedule to seven days.

"To have that kind of capital investment, you need to have the ability to run that equipment seven days a week," said Steve Neely, plant director of human resources. Please See GOODYEAR Page D2 By JAMES HANNAH Of The Associated Press ral western Ohio city about 60 miles northwest of Dayton, Slife lets loose with a you-got-to-be-kidding laugh. Without the Goodyear Tire Rubber plant, she says, "St Marys would be in a world of hurt." The possibility of losing Goodyear became very real last year after it announced that sales losses and competition was forcing it to phase out some operations and that the company could not ST. MARYS, Ohio The blue Goodyear sweatshirt that filling station attendant Jane Slife wears tells the whole story. Asked what the plant means to this ru S..