The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 365

1 ft 03 t'1 Art Also available in light blue. Orient yourself to Chinese Splendor. hts low blood pressure. And while WSVN is Miami glitz, Ansin is Massachusetts drab. "I'm much more of a New Englander than I am a.

Miamian," he says. Others rarely glimpse the soul beneath the precise sentences, the conservative suit, the impassive countenance. "In the 19 years I've known Ed, he's gotten upset twice so you'd notice it," says WSVN general manager Robert Leider. Adds David Mugar, who sold WHDH to Ansin: "Ed plays his cards closer to his vest than any-body I've ever known." Through WSVN and his real estate empire, Ansin has become one of the wealthiest people in America he paid half of WHDH's $215 million purchase price in cash. According to friends, Ansin lives by the proverb "Waste not, want not" Divorced, he resides in a modest condominium on Miami Beach.

His elder son, Andrew, 29, owns a condo in the same building. When Ansin travels, he stays in a hotel room, never a suite. He drove a leased Buick until recently, when he switched to a gray Cadillac. On vacation in Paris, he chided a companion for buying expensive postcards. When Ansin took over Channel 7 in Boston, he fired creative services director Richard Weisberg.

Although the station's practice in such a case had been to give two weeks of severance pay for each year of employment, Ansin paid Weisberg for only one week per year. The difference amounted to $30,000. Although Ansin donates $100,000 a year to United Way, charities are not his priority. His most valuable philanthropic act was inadvertent: His ex-wife, Toby Lerner Ansin, used part of her settlement from their 1983 divorce to help found the acclaimed Miami City Ballet. "There are people who have 5 percent of his income who give millions of dollars," says one Miami fundraiser, who asked not to be named.

"In my opinion, he's hidden behind his TV sta- EMERALD CREEN AUBUSSON COURISTAN The foundation of any great room. Splendor 80 line handknotted rugs from China. From Couristan Save $700 to $1400. crs. ia Scatters, oversize and runners on sale, too.

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