Hartford Courant from Hartford, Connecticut • 28

A28 THE HARTFORD COURANT: Sunday, May 10, 1981' Church Would Sell TV Station To Escape Legal Morass --1 i. This still picture of the Rev. W. euGene Scott is all that's shown on WHCT-TV, Channel 18. The station is unable to transmit live pictures.

Continued from Page 1 tractive brick building with a scraggly lawn on Avon Mountain. A broken control console sits in the parking lot, starting to rust. Some of the equipment inside is apparently not much better. WHCT moved out of its Asylum Street studios in downtown Hartford, citing a rent increase that would have boosted the rent to almost $100,000 a year. The cramped building in Avon is all that's left of Channel 18.

If Faith Center doesn't cough up about $7,000 in back real estate taxes by May 19, though, the church won't have even its little brick building and its transmitter tower. The town of Avon wants to sell it. Avon Tax Collector Frances MacKie has begun advertising a public auction of Faith Center's land for failure to pay real estate taxes. Church officials have tried to assure the town that they'll pay up before that date, but MacKie is forging ahead until she sees some money. Avon claims Faith Center owes an additional $15,000 in personal property taxes, and the city of Hartford claims the church owes about $107,000 in taxes on the personal property that used to be in Hartford.

Those debts are snarjed in a trio of lawsuits, one of which seeks $7 million in damages from the city over a previous tax squabble (in 1977) that featured such highlights as WHCT broadcasters barricading themselves inside the Asylum Street studios and the city seizing the Avon transmitter site and forcing the station off the air. The behind-the-scenes history of WHCT and Faith Center has often been more exciting than the programs the station broadcasts. Last year Faith Center submitted to the FCC a list of the lawsuits, stipulated judgments, and administrative litigation pending against or on behalf of Faith Center. There were 46 cases. Several of those are now before the FCC, a sprawling, octopodan federal agency notorious for failing to tell its seventh tentacle what the third tentacle is doing.

One of the difficulties lawyers face in keeping up with the Faith Center situation is the way the cases overlap. The current legal tangle dates to 1977, when the FCC engaged in a field investigation of KHOF-TV in San Ber- Americans. One of the many partnerships, wholly-owned subsidiaries and various other TELACU-af filiated corporations to surface during the negotiations is the Television Corporation of Hartford, the outfit proposing to buy WHCT. Ownership of the Television Corporation of Hartford would be shared among a group of Virginia broadcasters (most of whom are white), TELACU, and two Hispanic American board members of TELACU. Under the latest ownership proposal, neither the white Virginians nor the Los Angeles Hispanic Americans would own a majority of the station.

Washington attorney William Barnard, who represents the corporation, said TELACU would own 39 percent of the Hartford corporation. The two TELACU board members would own 6 and 4 percent, bringing the total Hispanic American ownership to 49 percent. A black Virginia Beach broadcaster named Herman Valentine would own 3.12 percent of the corporation, and the rest would belong to a large assortment of whites, mostly from Virginia, Barnard said. The combination of the Hispanic Americans and Valentine is what makes the Television Corporation of Hartford a "minority-controlled" outfit, but Tarr said Valentine seems likely to side with his fellow Virginians, giving a predominantly white group control. The situation is similar on the five-member board of directors, which includes Valentine, the two Hispanic Americans, and two whites from Virginia, said Tim McDonald, the corporation's president.

Asked if Valentine would be more likely to throw in his lot with the Virginians or with the minority owners, McDonald said, 'That would be like trying to look into the crystal ball." McDonald is also president of WTVZ-TV in Norfolk, an independent station that relies heavily on live sports, old movies and syndicated reruns of programs like Starsky and Hutch" for its programming. McDonald said Channel 18 would probably be run along similar lines if his group buysit. Tarr said his coalition is still worried that the proposed new owners will not have a strong public service commitment to Hartford and that the in. nadino, one of Faith Center's three stations. (The third is KVOF-TV in San Francisco.) FCC officials said they were investigating charges that Faith Center solicited money over the air for specifically named projects that were never carried out.

Also under investigation were charges that contributions to Faith Center weie diverted to other organizations connected to Scott and that Scott had untruthfully alleged, over the airwaves, that he donated his own money to Faith Center and received only $1 a year for his work. The investigation didn't get far. FCC investigators came back with reports that Faith Center had denied them access to corporate books, records and employes and had failed to submit other requested information. Last June, the FCC's Broadcast Bureau com- Elained in a report that Faith Center ad used "outright lies and falsehoods" to delay the fact-finding process. Last November, the commission voted to strip KHOF of its license for failing to cooperate with the government investigation of the fraud charges.

The Faith Center defense has been a First Amendment argument: that the government violates the sepa-ration-of-church-and-state guarantee by delving into the doings of a religious group. While all this was happening, Faith Center decided it was time to get out of the television business. In February 1980,, the church requested FCC permission to sell all three stations through a procedure known as a "distress sale." The proposed selling price was $15 million. The price for WHCT alone was $4 million, although a new appraisal of the station has been scheduled. A "distress sale" allows a station owner threatened with loss of a license to sell the station for 75 percent of its market value to a minority-controlled corporation.

The process is designed to create broadcasting opportunities for minority group members. What followed was an explosion of administrative litigation. Bonnie Lea, an FCC lawyer, calls the case (or cases) "fascinating," but enormously complicated. Heidi Sanchez, a lawyer for the Media Access Project which is representing the coalition of Hart ford clergy and laity calls the case "extraordinary," adding that it "has been driving me crazy for about a year." Last year, the FCC decided on different fates for all three Faith Center stations. The commission decided it would not allow KHOF in San Berna-dino or KVOF in San Francisco to participate in the distress sale.

The FCC decided to take away the KHOF license without allowing Faith Center to sell to anyone. The KVOF license was designated for "competitive hearing," meaning that other applicants would be allowed to compete with Faith Center for the privilege of holding that license. The commission designated the Hartford license for a renewal hearing, a move that could allow Faith Center to participate in the distress sale. The Hartford area coalition of clergy and laity all highly critical of the way Faith Center has run Channel 18 tried to change the FCC's collective mind. Backed by the Capitol Region Conference of Churches, the Christian Conference of Connecticut and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford, the coalition has filed a petition with the FCC, seeking to deprive Faith Center of the chance to "reap the very real benefits that would flow from the commission's approval of the proposed sale." The petition cites the station's "sordid history" and Faith Center's continued "outrageous behavior." The FCC denied the petition in a closed meeting Thursday, leaving Faith Center eligible to pursue the distress sale of WHCT.

At the same meeting, the FCC also squashed petitions by Faith Center for reconsideration of the KHOF and KVOF decisions. Sherman Tarr, vice president for communications of the Capitol Region Conference of Churches and spokesman for the group, said the coalition objects to the idea of WHCT turning a $4 million profit on a history of irresponsible behavior and indifference to local programming needs. The history of that sale dates to February 1980, when Faith Center proposed to sell all three stations to The East Los Angeles Community Union (TELACU), a community development corporation run by Hispanic terests of Hartford minorities will not be served. "The way they're talking now, it looks like the $4 million from the sale goes out to California, the profits from the station start going to California and Virginia, and what does that leave for the people in Hartford?" Tarr said. If Valentine fails to work with the TELACU people to protect the interests of minorities, the distress sale of WHCT would be "a sham," Tarr said.

Ironically, WHCT was one of the biggest bargains in broadcasting history when Faith Center acquired it in 197 RK0 General had bought the station in 1960 and had, in 1962, experimented at WHCT with the first f'pay television" format in the United States. It was a monumental disaster, abandoned in 1969 after RKO had dropped $11 million on the project. RKO tried other programming approaches, none of which worked. That station was still hemorrhaging $50,000 to $60,000 a month. After the FCC refused a power increase for the station, RKO put it up for sale for a mere $2 million.

There were no takers, and Faith Center wound up getting the station for Faith Center attorney Bruce Henderson now says the church will take the KHOF case to federal court, pursuing it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary. Henderson said the church believes the First Amendment issue could result in a "landmark" case. He said the original fraud charges can be disproven easily. All the Faith Center projects mentioned by the FCC were carried out as described on the air, and Scott really does work for $1, plus expenses, Henderson said.

WHCT officials hope one of the video machines will be fixed soon, allowing Channel 18 to start signing on around 6 p.m. with some taped pro-; gramming. Henderson said the station will even look for new, more affordable studios. Although Faith Center will continue to seek a distress sale, there is no guarantee that the FCC will aprove the current deal. In the meantime, the slide of Scott-will appear on the screen every night, with the telephone patch from Los An geles.

"It's probably the low point in the history of television production," Tarr said. Haig's Pay for 13 Months AtUTC Was $1.2 Million El i 'i v. IQ Continued from Page I These benefits would produce a net gain, either in cash, UTC stocks or a combination of both, totaling an estimated $468,437. Under the plan, UTC officers are entitled to stock at a price below market value. The difference between this price and actual market price is the officer's net gain.

If the right isn't exercised in a year, it is a "book" gain noted in company records to be collected in future years. When the right is exercised the officer may receive cash or UTC stock that can be resold later. Haig in 1980 received rights to 130,000 shares of UTC common stock at $42.51 per share. Of this, he lost rights to 98,750 shares when he resigned Jan. 21 but exercised rights to 31,250 of the shares, UTC sources say.

UTC refused to say when Haig exercised his rights, so the market price couldn't be But Haig's gain can be estimated. Jan. 21 was the last day Haig's stock rights were listed on published UTC records. UTC stock that day sold at $57.50 a share on the market, so Haig's shares had total market value of $1,796,875 on Jan. 21, the day his nomination as secretary of state was confirmed by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

In essence, Haig would have paid $42.51 per share on Jan. 21, a total of $1,328,437. The difference between this and the market total is Haig's estimated net gain. f. On the other side, Haig lost out when he surrendered stock rights to the' 98,750 shares, which on Jan.

21 held af potential net gain of about for Haig. In leaving UTC, Haig also lost $133,200 in compensation on his remaining at the company. This had been credited to him in 1980 but was to be payable only after added' years of He also lost about $27,600 in insur- ance benefits. Salvador Holds I 6 in Slaying of 4 U.S. Women Continued from Page 1 The victims of the ambush were Sis-3-ters Dorothy Kazel and Ita Ford, both 40, Sister Maura Clarke, 46, and lay! missionary Jean Donovan, 27.

The; slayings led to a temporary suspension i of military and economic aid to El Sal-? vador by the Carter The aid was restored later in Decern- ber and has been expanded by Reagan. The women's burned-out van was found beside the road from San Salva-i dor's airport to the capital and the bo-1 dies were nearby in a scooped out grave. i UP1 Protesters wearing nuns' habits stood throughout Alexander M. Haig fingers at the secretary of state. They were protesting U.S.

military assis-commencement address at Syracuse University Saturday, pointing accusing tance to El Salvador. Some shouted obscenities. Story on Page A15. Irish Trapped by History Sands' Death Evokes Historical Mythology Hunger Striker Worsens due to deteriorating vision. He said change will have been effected at a level far deeper than that of political surface, at that level where the mythology of a people is born and nourished.

It may well be that Margaret Thatcher and her government are correct in defining their armed enemies as criminal rather than political. A government any government which does not do so places itself in the absurd and dangerous position of conspiring with a challenge to its own legitimacy. But that government should at the same time maintain a shrewd and healthy awareness of the specific price that it must pay, in any given instance, for its correctness. In the present instancethe price is likely to be a very heavy one, the contribution to the republican cause of a martyr who has borne testimony through his own miserable sufferings of his willingness to sacrifice to his cause not only others but himself. Thatcher's government seems not to understand the full weight of such a testimony upon the Irish imagination.

Such failures of the imagination are themselves central to the historical tradition of British rule in Ireland as when the British commander, Gen. Maxwell, transformed an initial Irish indifference to the 1916 Rising by stretching out over a week or more, and in small batches, the executions of its leaders. Something more is now involved, though, than Britain's traditional lack of imagination in dealing with the Irish. Historical mythology, as opposed to historical fact, has played so powerful a role in the shaping of Ireland because mythology is the special prov gives considerable substance to this belief. The loyalists of Ulster are not, on the whole, a lovable people.

Indeed, it is a treasured and explicit portion of their own historical tradition that they are not lovable, but rather are stern, dour, righteous and implacable. They have defined themselves, perhaps fatally, upon negations, upon a bellicose certainty, not as to what they are, but as to what they are not that they are not rebels, that they are not papists, that they are not Irishmen as their opponents define that word. Their solitary affirmation aside from a sectarian zeal which had a more appropriate home in the 17th century is their "loyalty." Their sense of identity as a people, and they are a people some three centuries old, rests upon the myth of loyalty to Britain, and the campaign for a united and independent Ireland must, therefore, be for them a direct and lethal threat to that identity. But they are loyal to a Britain which has not existed for a half-century or more a Britain of Union Jacks and Kipling poems set to music and memories of the Zulu and Boer wars. The death of Bobby Sands will change little in Northern Ireland.

It may seem so at first, upon the evidence of headlines and television images. There may be death, brutal senseless deaths, and violent demonstrations, more violent and more widespread perhaps than any in recent years, but after a while, after a few weeks, the province will sink back into its apparent hopelessness. The true Continued from Page 1 nists who are sustained by the British government and by the tanks and guns of the British army. There is considerable truth to this argument, but it is a disastrously insufficient one. For one thing, it leaves out of account the deeply ambivalent attitude of the Catholic population of the north toward the IRA.

It is a simple fact that every sustained IRA cam- Eaign of terror during the last 10 years as, without exception, been greeted by most Catholics with shocked and shamed loathing. They were campaigns of terror, incidentally, in which Sands was morally implicated up to the hilt. And yet the indivisibility of Ireland, and therefore the right of all Ireland to be free from British rule, is perhaps the oldest and the deepest of all Irish political passions. The IRA, with its campaigns of murder and arson, has been singularly unable to enlist that passion. But the extreme protests of the H-Block prisoners, culminating in Sands' sacrifice of his life, may well be seen by many as giving to their cause a dignity which heretofore it has lacked, and a dignity which draws from the sorry centuries of Irish history a portion of its strength.

Neither is it easy for Americans, and especially for Irish-Americans, to see that the Protestant loyalists of Northern Ireland are equally caught in history's nightmare. They believe, rightly In my opinion, that they, and not the British army, will provide the IRA with its ultimate targets. And the IRA, when it speaks not of rebellion after Sands' death but of civil war, ince of a weak and conquered people. And Britain, buffeted and battered in recent decades by fate, providence, inflation, racial turmoil, the loss of empire, is, in her own slow and stately fashion, joining Ireland in the rank of weak nations. Only Northern Ireland provides her with the opportunity to see herself as she believes she once was stern, unbending, magisterially impartial, the beneficiary of a divine plan which had so organized history as to entrust to her, with confidence, the destinies of other peoples.

Several errors of perception have flowed from this excursion into mythological thinking, of which one is pertinent at the moment. It is the fact and Britain knows it to be the fact that the great bulk of Northern Ireland's Catholics are repelled by the murderous violence of the IRA. But it is also the fact and Britain seems unable to understand that it is the fact that they think of themselves not as British but as Irish. And they regard the unification of their country as both just and necessary. They are well aware of the difficulties that attend such a resolution, and in particular the difficulty created by a loyalist resistance.

But they have memories, imagination, a passionate involvement in history, traditions of rebellion, of sympathy for desperate causes, of a human, illogical respect for martyrdom. Perhaps, being Irish, such things are central to their sense of identity. Britain has served them ill, and perhaps herself as well, by conspiring with the IRA to bestow upon them so ambiguous an icon as the body of Bobby Sands. Continued from Page 1 Belfast. He was hospitalized and reported "seriously ill.

Officials said at least six other members of the security forces were wounded in attacks in Ulster Saturday. A British soldier was shot in the chest by a sniper while on patrol in West Belfast. He was reported in very serious condition. Five policemen were injured when an exploding firebomb was thrown into their patrol car in the Ardoyne area of north Belfast One youth was arrested. In Londonderry 300 firebombs and 60 acid bombs were thrown at police and troops and more than 20 people were arrested in a nightlong rampage that stretched into early Saturday.

More than 600 people were evacuated lrom their homes in Newry in the early morning hours because of a bomb hoax at the city gas works. The stepped-up attacks came a day after guerrillas fired 10 mortar rounds at a police station in South Armagh near the Irish border, causing no injuries but damaging the building. A committee spokesman said Hughes, 27, has a patch over one eye Hughes' condition was "worsening at an alarming rate." Britain has refused to meet the hunger strikers' demands and IRA inmates have vowed to join the fast one by one until they are met Funerals were held for a police officer shot to death after Sands died May 5 and for a member of the extreme leftist Irish National Liberation Army who was killed by his own bomb. In the Belfast suburb of Belvoir, six Royal Ulster Constabulary officers in full dress uniform carried the casket of slain policeman Philip Ellis from a funeral service in the Church of Transfiguration. Ellis 33, was shot to death May 6, a day after Sands died, and his casket was followed by his weeping widow Paula and their three children.

"We want peace, we want justice, we want the right to live and we want no more wasted lives," Bishop Robin Eames of the protestant Church of Ireland told a packed congregation at the funeral. In another part of Belfast, Liberation Army member James Powers, 21, was given a funeral with full "military including the customary salute fired at the graveside..