The Times Leader from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania • 37

Profile '88, Wilkes-Barre, PA, Saturday; March 5, 1988 Business Industry 9 TV WBRE-TV Channel 28 Began as: WBRE-TV on Jan. 1, 1953 Firsts: First area station on the air; first station in U.S. to broadcast at 1 million watts of power (1955); first remote facility (Wil-liamsport 1979) Current owner: Northeast Television Investors New York Network affliliation: NBC First news anchor: Franklin Coslett Number of employees: 100 Coverage area: Serves 22 counties, from Stroudsburg to State College and Pottsville to the New York State border as well as 120 cable systems Power: 4,120 kilowatts; it has been strengthened three or four times in the past 35 years BUSINESS sl2L. WNEP-TV Channel 16 Began on Sept. 7, 1953 Firsts: First station in U.S.

to air at 1.5 million watts of power (1957); first local station to use news helicopter (1 979) Current owner: The New York Times New York Network affiliation: ABC First news anchor: Tom Bigler Employees: 125 Coverage area: Serves 22 counties and 1'hundreds" cable systems. Power: 1.15 megawatts, began with 360 kilowatts. TIMES UADERDON CAREY WBRE Employees at WBRE-TV shown recently in their news studio (Continued from page 4) Coslett. events that occurred tqr 3 p.m. couldn't make the 6 o-clock news.

It took about an hour to an hour and a half to develop news-reels, and It took additional time edit it so it made some sense; Now, said Coslett, "A good tape man can almost edit in his head." At the back of the pack was the station that now leads the area in ratings. WNEP. 'Channel 1 6 was really backward at the Scanella said. He recalled talking with one of that station's photographers. He said he had used up his al-loted amount of film and as a result the station wouldn't shoot any news events for the remain- ing week of the month.

WBRE was also first with live capability from the field. The value of that is" drama-- tized by the coverage of the Knox Mine disaster in 1959, when a coal mine under the Susquehanna River collapsed and millions of gallons of river water poured into the network of mines. The disaster ended coal mining in the Wyoming Valley. do recall that that was one of the most grueling stories," said Coslett. "That was one of the more dramatic ones." At the time, the station could only broadcast live if the camera on location was within sight of the station.

With the aid of Bell Telephone, the station was able to broadcast live as crews dumped entire railroad cars into the swirling river-bottom hole to plugit. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, all the family owned stations were bought by media corporations. Family-owned television stations had grown out of date. "It was like a black-and-white television set," Baltimore said. "The days of family owned television stations were over." Southeastern Capital of Denver.

bought WDAU-TV, the forerunner of WYOU-TV, and owned the station for two years. Then the company sold it to Diversified Communications, of Portland, said Ellen Boylan Fick, promotion coordinator of WYOU-TV. Southeastern had built the WYOU-TV, Channel 22 Began on June 7, 1953 Firsts: First to use satellite news vehicle (1987) Current Communications Portland, Me. Network affliliationsCBS First news anchonTom Powell Employees: Just over 100 Coverage area: Serves 33 counties; on 113 cable systems Power 1 million watts; began with 316,000 watts. station up to a point, and then decided to sell to the larger company, she said.

Diversified owns four other stations. WNEP-TV was sold to Transcontinental Television, which became the Taft' Broadcasting and in May 1973 was bought by a group of local investors, headed by former Gov. William Scranton, Frank Henry and Thomas P. Shelburne. They sold the station to The New York Times Co.

on Dec. 30. 1985. WBRE was the last family-owned station to be sold to a corporation. The Baltimore family sold it to Northeastern Television Investors in February 1984.

During the changeover to poration-owned stations, WNEP got its big lead in the ratings. During that time, the other two stations did little to compete with it, Baltimore said. "Both of the other stations Just kind of sat back," Baltimore said. "We allowed them to build up ablg lead." On Channel 16's big lead in the market, Scanella said, "We stood stagnant, while Channel 16 went crazy." Baltimore said. "We felt we had done as much as we could.

The timing was just right." Baltimore stayed on in his current position of vice president and general manager. He saw why the chains could cut costs where the family couldn't. The company, for example, demanded annual budgets, a -mainstay in most businesses, but not a necessity in a family-run affair with decades of practice in paying the bills and counting the receipts. "Our priorities were different," Baltimore said. "We wanted to make some money and have some fun.

The broadcasting business is a lot of fun, period. It's show business." Baltimore said he's met nu merous stars, including Walt Disney, Lome Green and Johnny Carson. He's also been able to get tickets to NBC-produced events- such as the tennis competition at Wimbledon. "It's not as static and predictable as so many other businesses are." Baltimore "It keeps you on -your toes, and that's what makes it fun." But Scanella said the fun hasn't gone out of the business, just because the stations are owned by larger companies. With the coming of Diversified Communications, the challenge of competition is back in the business, Scanella said.

"We've got enthusiasm," Scanella said. "I'm as excited today as the day I started." PHOTO COURTESY OF WNEP-TV ANCHORS Jacqueline Boulden and Gary Essex were local news anchors on WNEP-TV, Channel 16 in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Boulen moved on to Orlando, fta. and Essex to Denver. Essex came back to WYOU-TV, Channel 22, in 1985 and left two years later.

Baltimore said the family decided to, sell WBRE because it recognized that competing against the more efficient chains would be difficult. "Every station reaches a point where it's time to be sold," The owners of WDAU were for five, to seven years to sell the station to Southeastern Capital at the time, and didn't want to keep up with WNEP's spending only to sell the station, he said. ii II 1 I i It YOUR HEADQUARTERS FOR: QUARRY SUNKEN TU3S FOYERS CERAMIC TILE MEXICAN CUSTOM MARBLE TIREFtACES SHOWERSENCLOSURES COUNTER TOPS LUXURY.VINYt TILE. KITCHENS 1 r. WALLPAPER MOSAICS HARDWOOD FLOORS SLATE i (KA A Dm Til HARDWOOD FLOORS AS LOW AS CERAMIC TJLE STARTING AT $195 SQ.

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