The Jackson Sun from Jackson, Tennessee • 24

CALL US BUSINESS JOB TIP To ask a question, make a comment or suggest a story, call: Business reporter Jeff Bennett, 425-9638. Assistant City Editor Gregg Parker, 425-9629. City Editor Christine Rook, 425-9668. Inside sales Pay: $7 an hour Requirements: computer, phone skills Job 2091646 Call Job Service office at 423-5860 from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

weekdays. Monday, November 4, 1996 PAGE 6C BRIEFLY TODAY'S TOPIC: EYE ON BUSINESS 0 ft fcoF 7 Cool 103V general manager says he's been able to capture the baby boomer market in West Tennessee with music that's 'special to By W. MATT MEYER The Jackson Sun Don't say Jerry Hunt doesn't know his market. Hunt is the general manager and sole proprietor of WMXX-103 FM, better known as "Cool 103." The station has an oldies format music from 'L CHRIS STANFIELDThe Jackson Sun Ted Charles, morning disc jockey at WMMX Cool 103 prepares to greet listeners. The station, in business since the 1970s, has gone from a top 40 station to playing a mix of the '50s, '60s and 70s.

the '50s, '60s and '70s and that's just what the baby boomer market wants. Why? They grew up with it. "This is the 1 Vhist racT8 Jtl AUTO TALKS Workers OK pact in Indiana, end strike The Associated Press INDIANAPOLIS Workers at a General Motors metal -stamping plant voted Sunday to approve a local contract and end a five-day strike that had crippled the automaker's production of pickups and sport utility vehicles. Workers immediately stuffed their picket signs into burn barrels at the plant's gates. "The pickets are off the gates and people are ready to go back to work," said Ron Get-tlefinger, regional director of the United Auto Workers union.

Well over 1,000 of the plant's 2,750 UAW members voted on the contract, union officials said, with 94 percent voting in favor. "Obviously we're pleased that we were able to reach a fair and equitable agreement," said GM spokesman Pat Morrissey. The plant is on a 24-hour work schedule and employees began returning for the second shift at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Morrissey said. Far-reaching toll Morrissey did not know how' long it would take for GM to resume operations at four high-profit assembly plants idled because of parts shortages caused by the Indianapolis strike.

In addition, some 4,800 workers at a GM plant in Janesville, were still on strike in a separate local-issues walkout The first plant shut down by the Indianapolis strike was Fort Wayne, which ran out of parts Wednesday and idled 2,250 workers. Local 2209 president Joe Burkhamer said Sunday that GM had notified workers that the Fort Wayne plant would reopen Tuesday. On Thursday, the strike idled 3,500 workers at Moraine, Ohio, halting production of Chevrolet Blazers and GMC Jimmy sport utility vehicles. And Friday, GM idled 4,700 workers at assembly plants in Shreveport, and Linden, N.J. More closures had been expected.

GM sources had cautioned Saturday that a Pontiac, pickup plant likely would close Monday. Despite the Indianapolis vote, Morrissey said a temporary shutdown in Pontiac was-still possible. Hunt OXX-1C3 FfJ (CtSllCS) Owner: Jerry Hunt Phone: 427-9611, 423-0103 for requests The station plays 'oldies' music of the '50s, '60s and 70s and is targeted primarily toward baby boomers. Ridgecrest Rd. I 2.

1 4 gll WDXI Dr. Jackson llChicasaw Dr. J.C. Penney Co. buys out Eckerd drug stores PLANO, Texas Department store giant J.C.

Penney Co. Inc. moved to add to its drug store business Sunday with an agreement to buy Eckerd Corp. for approximately $2.59 billion in cash and stock. With the acquisition of Eckerd's 1,724 stores, which had sales of more than $5 billion last year, J.C.

Penney will operate about 2,800 drug stores with nearly $10 billion in annual sales. Earnings from drug stores will represent about one-third of J.C. Penney's total sales. Consumers buying much less this year Virginia Metz of Irvine, hit a local shopping mall last Friday but came home empty-handed. "I saw 80 zillion red sweaters.

I saw 80 zillion black sweaters. I already have a black sweater and a red sweater. Why buy?" she says. Lack of original merchandise is just one of many factors causing consumers to spend more moderately in recent months than in the first half of the year. In its report on the economy for the quarter ended Sept.

30, the Commerce Department said consumer spending grew at an annual rate of 0.4 percent, a sharp decline from the 3.4 percent rate in the second quarter and 3.5 percent in the first quarter. Kiwi plans comeback after recent bankruptcy Kiwi International Air Lines is expected to announce today that it will fly between Newark, N.J., and Chicago Midway, Atlanta and West Palm Beach, when it resumes flights about Nov. 20 from Newark. Kiwi, which filed for bankruptcy reorganization Sept 30 and stopped flying Oct 15, plans a press conference in Newark Monday to discuss its comeback plans. Kiwi will use eight of its 15 Boeing 727 jets.

Kiwi also will say how many of its 1,200 furloughed workers it will recall. industry wants Canada to push airbag change U.S. automakers are trying to use a free-trade agreement with Canada to force a potentially life-saving change in U.S. air bag regulations. If the move succeeds, it would outflank a U.S.

safety agency that has resisted the change for months. Automakers say redesigning air bags to inflate more slowly would minimize the danger to children and small adults. U.S. businessman assassinated in Moscow MOSCOW A U.S. businessman involved in a long dispute over control of one of Moscow's best-known hotels was shot to death Sunday by an unknown gunman.

Paul Tatum, 39, a native of Edmond, and former Republican Party activist in Oklahoma, was killed by a single assailant who fired his submachine gun at the businessman near the entrance to the Kievsky metro station in downtown Moscow, a police spokesman said. Mexico currency slide makes investors wary MEXICO CITY Mindful of a disastrous devaluation nearly two years ago, foreign investors were understandably rattled when the Mexican peso lost 6 percent of its value last month. But government officials and many economists insist the recent currency depreciation does not signal a repeat of the December 1994 financial crisis that threw the country into its deepest recession in six decades. "This is a small adjustment," said David Martinez Serna, an economist at the University of Monterrey in northern Mexico. From wire reports station of choice for many area businesses.

Hunt said this is because Cool 103 is non-offensive, it only takes two commercial breaks an hour and the disc jockeys don't talk a lot. "We play it all the time," said Mary Haynes, manager of Savings Outlet in the Hamilton Hills Shopping Center. "People come in our store and they'll say that if they are in a down mood that this music will lift them up. It's also good shopping music." Hunt said Cool 103 is also played in Golden Circle Ford, Heilig-Meyers Furniture and even sometimes in the operating room at Jackson-Madison County General Hospital. At Cool 103, Hunt said his staff of eight is unique.

Nobody has a title, and this encourages teamwork. Hunt said his staff and his long-standing ties to Jackson are the keys to his success. "Radio's been my life," Hunt said. "I know radio and I've done everything in radio except climb a tower, I won't do that" Have a good idea for an Eye on Business feature? Call Business Editor Gregg Parker at 425-9629, or toll-free at 1 -800-372-3922, ext. 629.

music that was playing when the baby boomers were in high school or college," Hunt said. "It's special to them." It's also a format that Hunt says should be special to advertisers. One, because boomers are voracious consumers and two, because there are so many of them. "Over the next 10 years, 10,000 people a day will turn 50 years old," Hunt said. "The baby boomers are getting older, but they are still buying.

They have the money to spend." Lifelong job Hunt has been in Jackson all his life and has been in radio since.1965 when he began working at WJAK When Hunt began broadcasting on the 103.1 frequency in 1979, his was the first radio station to start in Jackson since WJAK began in 1953. Hunt said he filed in 1973 with the Federal Communications Commission to get permission to broadcast on the frequency, but it took six years for the licensing process. Hunt said that was a normal amount of time to wait "After I started 103, stations started popping up all over Jackson," Hunt said. The number of radio stations in Jackson has grown from five in 1979 to 12 currently. Hunt sold the station in 1983.

He then owned and sold a series of stations across Tennessee, Kentucky and Missouri. When he bought back WMXX in 1993, he changed the format from adult contemporary to oldies. He currently owns WDXI-1310 AM in Jackson, and WORM-lOlOAMin Savannah and FM in Selmer. Hunt said Cool 103 is his main moneymaker and his biggest station at 50,000 watts. The station is attractive to advertisers, Hunt said, because it has a large female listening base.

"Women spend more money than men do, it's just that simple," Hunt said. "They do more of the shopping, and they are who the advertisers are gearing their ads to." His other Jackson station, WDXI-1310, is a business-oriented station that broadcasts shows produced out of Colorado Springs, Colo. The programming focuses on the stock market, investments, retirement planning, technology and travel. Why he does it Hunt said his love for radio was fueled by Stax records, not stock reports. "When I started out as a disc jockey, I played Memphis blues and Motown soul," Hunt said.

"At 103, we program a lot of the music that I used to play." Cool 103 is also the Canada new No. 1 vehicle exporter if I auto industry consultant in Richmond Hill, Ontario put-side Toronto. "It means we can ship millions more vehicles to the United States than we buy, and not get beaten up like the Japanese." In fact, Canada has doubled the number of cars and trucks it exports to the United States since 1989. Last year, it sold $11.1 billion more in vehicles to the United States than it bought. By June of this year, Canada employed almost 60,000 workers assembling mostly U.S.

parts into motor vehicles about 85 percent of which were exported to the United States, DesRosiers said. steadily slashed its auto manufacturing work force until 1996, and replaced those jobs with $l-an-hour employees on piece-work assembly lines, known as maquiladoras. And the United States actually gained jobs in the auto industry, though not the higher-paying jobs everyone wants. Canada has just a 10th of the population of the United States; it is far from the minds of many Americans (only 38 percent of those polled by the AP guessed that Canada was gaining jobs). "Everyone ignores Canada, and we like that," said Dennis DesRosiers, a Canadian Canada's auto strike forced General Motors to idle more than 19,000 workers in the United States and Mexico and made many Americans take notice that the Great White North looks a lot more like Detroit.

Almost three years into the North American Free Trade Agreement, which many feared would send the U.S. auto industry to Mexico, free trade is having the opposite effect of what was expected. To prove it, look south again. Mexico which most Americans believe is gaining jobs through trade, an Associated Press poll showed Free trade is now having the opposite effect of what was expected. The Associated Press For a time, Mexico wasn't country.

It was a threat the "giant sucking sound" of industries moving south to reap high profits on low wages. Today, the No. 1 exporter of cars and trucks to the United States is no longer Japan. The new champion has created 28,000 high-paying jobs at border plants rushing to supply American car buyers. Mexico, right? No, it's Canada.

Surprised? The Associated Press A Canadian worker loads a new Camaro onto a truck at the GM plant in Ste. Therese, Quebec, Canada. By June 1996, Canada employed almost 60,000 workers to assemble U.S. parts. WED SITES SPOTLIGHT Wednesday: Conflict Resolution and Confrontation Skills.

Seminar on how to keep your cool and reach a positive solution. Garden Plaza Hotel, WEST TENNESSEE DATABASE McKellar-Sipes cargo Carina Dennis McGee of Savannah has been awarded a scholarship from Lowe's Companies which has a store in Jackson, announced that its September sales' grew by 25 percent, with sales of $838 million. Information about the company is posted on the World Wide Web at: http:www.Iowes.com 1770 U.S. 45 Bypass. CALEK3ARI For more information, call 1-800-334- 6780.

Nov. 15: How to Be the Anne Harris Schneider Chapter of the Lawyers' Association for Women. McGee has been accepted to the Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law at the University of Memphis. She gradu 18,000 16,000 14,000 12,000 10,000 8,000 6,000 4,000 2,000 0 can do for their business, how little it costs, tips on downloading, video conferencing, security and advertising on the World Wide Web.

10 a.m.-l p.m. Davis-Kidd Booksellers and Cafe, 869 N. Parkway in Jackson. $20 in advance, $25 at the door. For more information, call 664-9547 or toll-free at 1-888-377-7177.

Nov. 21: Management and Communication Skills Seminar. UT Agricultural Extension Service, 605 Airways Blvd. in Jackson. 8:30 a.m.

a.m. for Management Skills session or 1 p.m.-4 p.m. for the Communication Skills session. Admission: $35 per session or $60 for both sessions. For more information, call 423-2200 or 425-9735.

a Better Communica i 1621 3- ,208 I I Lucent Technologies has announced it will donate $2 million in wiring kits to BellSouth to link 4,000 Southern schools to the Internet. Lucent makes communications systems and software. The web site is: http:www.whatsup.com DeKalb Genetics Corp. has reported sharply higher earnings for fiscal 1996, with both domestic and international seed operations reporting substantial gains. The company posts its earnings at: http:www.dekalb.com ated from Hardin Mrftea tor.

One-day Plaza Hotel, U.S. 45 Bypass in Jackson. Fee is $79 a person or $69 each for five or more. For more information, call 1-800-325-5854. Nov.

16: Your Business and the Internet. Seminar for people who want to know about issues such as what it Tt- co at O) O) O) O) 3 3 3 County High School and Union University, with a bachelor's degree in social studies. She was a history teacher at Hardin High..