The Bismarck Tribune from Bismarck, North Dakota • 1

Coming Thursday: Bodybuilder acts out Bible stories Stephen Ambrose: Get ready for the tourist deluge2B Schroeder adds to U-Hary's track dominanceID (s THE Willi Wednesday, April 29, 1998 BismarckMandan, N.D. Call 223-2500 or Toll Free 1 -800-472-2273 Single copy 50C Police can begin ticketing violators today JEFFREY G. OLSON Bismarck Tribune I Ryan Schweitzer, left, operates the studio camera while Jerry Bartz, left, and Chuck Bartholo- Bismarck city commissioners on Tuesday passed an ordinance intended to quiet popular and incredibly loud vehicle stereos. Police may begin ticketing violators today. It's up to Police Chief Deborah Ness and the rest of the Bismarck police department to enforce the new ordinance.

After the meeting Ness said she'll brief the department today and promised that officers would enforce this ordinance "as we would any other with discretion." Ness said the ordinance allows officers to cite someone into city court if they witness a violation. If a citizen wishes to make a complaint, Ness said they should get a description of the offending vehicle may talk to the viewers during Tuesday's noon hour telecast. By MIKE MCCLEARY of the Tribune ana a license numDer possiDie. Ness said the department will be cautious of citizen demands to cite someone they believe has violated the ordinance. "We want to have sufficient evidence to bring to a prosecutor to have a successful case," she said.

"An officer has discretion and they know the information they need to take violators into court, Ness said. That's not to say citizen complaints won't result in a ticket. Ness MM Meyer Broadcasting's five North Dakota television stations represent a quality purchase in strong markets, says Sandy DiPasquale, chief New owner's goals are to increase viewers, advertising and revenue operating omcer 01 sunrise Ekberg Johnson to stay in Bismarck What does one do after owning a major media company, including five television stations and two radio stations? Television Inc. JOE GARDYASZ Bismarck Tribune "We're trying to expand our company. Meyer was for sale.

They are an excellent television group," DiPasquale said. "We feel they are good stable markets; they are well-run companies and NBC affiliates, which we like. We iust feel we nit i 1 can continue with the quality of operations they've been doing, tft I and that long term they will be ifff very profitable stations for us." In a recent Nielsen ratings survey, 57 percent of adults in the Bismarck area were watching KFYR-TV. Its prospective owners plan to invest in the station to keep it the dominant player in the market. On Monday KFYR-TV announced that Sunrise Television Inc.

will buy the Meyer stations for $63.75 million. Besides KFYR-TV in Bismarck, Meyer owns KLVY-TV in Fargo, plus satellite stations KMOT-TV in Minot, KQCD-TV in Dickinson and KUMV-TV in Williston. Another media company, Cumulus Media of Milwaukee, is negotiating to buy both Meyer radio stations in Bismarck, a Meyer official confirmed Tuesday. Barr says Sunrise is well prepared. When the purchases are complete, Sunrise will own and operate 13 television stations in 10 markets, primarily in That's the question facing Judith Ekberg Johnson, president and chief executive officer of Meyer Broadcasting Inc.

Johnson expects about six more months at the helm of Meyer Broadcasting before the sale of the stations is made final. Plans to sell the two radio stations are under way. It will mark the end of four generations in the media business. It was 1925 when Etta and P.J. Meyer took a northeastern states.

The company's goal is to own about 30 stations in small and middle television markets. said officers could interview Ness says neighbors to see if they witnessed officers will the offending vehicle, too. "And an pnfnrp npw officer can talk to the person; let them know a complaint has been re- ordinance, ceived, tell them about the ordinance. That definitely serves a purpose." The ordinance exempts car stereo competitions held by local stereo shops but other than that, a car stereo cannot be audible more than 50 feet away or the driver of the vehicle is subject to a $20 fine. The vote on the ordinance, with commissioner Connie Sprynczynatyk absent, followed more than 30 minutes of testimony and as much detailed discussion among commissioners.

It passed unanimously. More than 25 people were on hand to testify about the ordinance. Most were young people who want no restrictions on sound volume or asked commissioners to reserve commercially zoned areas of the city for them. Businessman Rolf Eggers asked for, and received, the exception for stereo contests. He runs one at Eggers Audio on West Main Avenue each year.

It draws 35 to 50 competitors from North Dakota and several surrounding states plus spectators. Young stereo enthusiasts like Kent Siirtola and Kyle Krenz asked commissioners to set commercially zoned areas of the city aside for stereos to be as loud as the owners choose. Siirtola suggested a 10:30 p.m. curfew in residential areas and also asked people to be tolerant of the car stereos. "A car only takes 30 seconds to go by and then the sound is gone." "A curfew on residential areas would be a good idea," said Krenz, a Bismarck High School student who recently moved to Bismarck from Denver.

"A $25 fine (actually $20 according to the ordinance) will only make us go louder and louder." Vern Fetch lives on 26th St. and said a 10:30 p.m. noise curfew "doesn't make sense to me. The disturbances are early in the evening hours not just when (More on STEREOS, Page 12A) (More on SALE, Page 12A) Ekberg Johnson wants to do more charity work. An insider's view of the deal JOE GARDYASZ Bismarck Tribune big risk by investing in "that newfangled contraption that sends signals through the air." Seated in her second floor office, at the same Fourth and Broadway location where Hoskins-Meyer once sold cigars, books, cameras and flowers, Johnson mused Tuesday about a future that will keep her in Bismarck.

"I'm looking to be involved with more charitable groups in town; I've always done that," she said. "I'm also considering some consulting offers." stations' $63.75 million price tag is surprisingly high, Martin said. "Speaking to several other brokers about the sale, they say this is a very excessive sale price for stations located in a more rural region," he said. Sales are based on a multiple of the cash flow the stations are expected to bring in annually. The going rate for stations these (More on DEAL, Page 12A) tracked reports about the Meyer sale for weeks.

By late March he had it down to two possible buyers; last week he learned the sale involved Hicks, Muse, Tate and Furst's Sunrise Television unit. What he didn't know until Monday was the sale price. Despite their cachet value as NBC affiliates and a reputation for being well-run the Meyer Meyer Broadcasting couldn't have chosen a better time to sell its television stations, says the author of a media newsletter. TV prices are through the roof. Pat Martin, owner of TV Business Confidential in Milwaukee, OUTSIDE Sunny today.

High in the mid-705. Wind southeast 5 to 10 mDh. Clear tonight. Low around 40. Mostly sunny and warm Thursday.

High around 80. Details on back page. At Charging Eagle Bay, trailers, tribes, corps all have a claim INSIDE KRIS FEHR Bismarck Tribune The corps of engineers' rules don't allow permanent camping except where it has granted what's known as a colony lease site. Since the 1970s, it has repeatedly tried to oust the club members, who the corps says have illegally parked there all year and installed septic systems. That violates rules that only allow camping for 14 out of every 30 days.

Club members want a guarantee, like other settlements along the lake, that they can stay. Rising says they have a right to the land since they ve been there so long. They want to develop the area primarily for club use, improving docks and adding a fish cleaning station, but say they'll welcome the public. The tribe wants to create a commercial recreation area similar to Andrus Resort on nearby Little Missouri Bay. They'll hire the Mossett family to manage improvements like a recreational vehicle park, road repair and a future concession stand.

That means cabin owners must move, either out of the bay or to the Mos-sett's private land where tney'd pay rent. Marlien Mossett, family spokeswoman, says the tribe and her family have a right to the public land adjacent to her family's private acres. Years ago, her parents created a small recre- (More on DISPUTE, Page 14A) Club. Cabin owners recently learned that the road has been public and maintained by the Bureau of Indian Affairs since 1982. Besides collectively paying more than $125,000 for something that's been free for 16 years, Rising and 53 other families fear that they may be forced from the land they've been occupying along the big lake.

The dispute over land use along Lake Sakakawea goes back to the 1950s, when construction of Garrison Dam flooded this part of the state. Corps officials sav Charging Eagle Bay remains the only public area with an access dispute; others, apparently, have been resolved. This year, both the Three Affiliated Tribes and the Halliday Marine Club have asked the corps for permission to develop the public land. It's up to the corps to decide the issue, following an environmental study to be completed sometime this summer. Once it completes its study, the corps plans to bring cabin owners and tribal officials together, Wolf said.

"Some compromise situation, I think, would be the best. (Yet) it's not apparent on the horizon," he said. No matter how the agency rules, recreation at the primitive bay will change. Here's how the debate stacks up: ADVICE 3B APPOINTMENT BOOK 13A CLASSIFIED 6C COMICS 4B DAKOTA IB DEATHS 13A ENTERTAINMENT 4D FpR THE RECORD 13A MARKETS 4C MOVIES 40 OPINION 6A SCOOP 1C SPORTS ID fwiiiiston v' rr Or I jDeTaliil VWashbum 1 Dickinson55 Mandan McKenzie H-- Mclean Mckenzie jBay Dunn This month, Bob Rising and hundreds of cabin owners are opening their vacation homes in bays along North Dakota's summer playland at Lake Sakakawea. Their modest trailers host seasonal family reunions and weekend getaways.

It's been this way at Charging Eagle Bay, and others, for almost 40 years. But there's controversy over the area's only road and two competing lease requests that could mean Rising last summer at his longtime cabin. Over the years, those owning cabins along the water paid for the right to drive across seven miles of gravel that meander through land owned privately and tri-bally, ana by the Corps of Engineers. Last year, folks paid the landowner the Mos-sett family $200 each; this season, the fee rose to $350, a 75 percent jump. "It's been a gradual fee, but it was reasonable enough," said Rising, a Dickinson man and president of the Halliday Marine Ov JASON Lllf HEH i)l Vtm 30 03 34 1 8 12S MMMMMaAdyUiHIM.