The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 366

tion. He says, 'I represent the community. If I give to you, I have to give to Therefore, he gives to no one. If you walked into another station, they would give you 10 commercials in prime time for a good cause. If you go to Ed, he wouldn't talk to you.

He'd send you to someone who would give you one commercial at 2 a.m." Yet Ansin's affinity for his station's controversial format transcends dollars and cents. Like his station, he's a maverick. He disdains traditional arbiters of public opinion, relying instead on his own judgment and that of a few close friends. He rarely joins committees or professional organizations. Ansin doesn't mingle in Miami society, preferring to play racquetball on public courts or stroll alone on the boardwalk.

He dated WSVN anchorwoman Sally Fitz for years, ignoring the inevitable gossip in media circles. (They eventually split up, and Fitz recently married a Miami attorney.) Like the typical WSVN viewer, Ansin is concerned about crime and cynical about politics. When Florida adopted a 5 percent tax on advertising and other services in 1987, national firms canceled $82 million worth of ads. Virtually all of Florida's broadcasters then contributed money to a lobbying campaign which ultimately succeeded to repeal the tax. Except Ansin.

Much as he disliked the tax, he refused to donate to what he suspected was a slush fund for legislators. "They were raising a vast amount of money, out of proportion to what was necessary," says Ansin, a registered Democrat. "I looked at the amount and said, 'Where's this gonna WALLOWING THE LAST REMS nants Ansin's of a brother, burger and Ronald, fries, parks Ed his silver 1974 Mercedes convertible in front of a timeworn factory building in Athol. Now occupied by a coffin maker, it once housed the Ansin Shoe Manufacturing the source of the family fortune. "I used to tell people that my father started the shoe company in one room, until he corrected me one day," says Ron Ansin, 59.

"He said, 'It was a big Like their 89-year-old mother, Sophie, who lives under 24-hour nursing care in Miami Beach, Ed Ansin has fair hair, blue eyes, and a reserved manner. But Ron, who has brown eyes and salt-and-pepper hair, looks and acts like their late father, Sidney, who was gregarious, impulsive, and philanthropic. Ron is prominent in Democratic politics. In 1974, during the Water- 1985. This past June, Ron arranged gate scandal, Ron produced a widely a dinner with his brother and Dukashown television docudrama based kis at a Back Bay restaurant, where on the Nixon tapes.

A longtime the ex-governor sought to dissuade friend of US Sen. Edward Kennedy, Channel 7's prospective owner from he boosted tourism as state commis- polluting Boston airwaves. sioner of commerce and develop- A WSVN profile of the Ansin ment under Dukakis from 1983 to family might start with a close-up a bleeding hand. Morris Ansin, Ron and Ed's great-grandfather, cut off his thumb to avoid serving in the Russian army. He emigrated in 1875 and started a junk business in Lynn.

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THE BOSTON GLOBE MAGAZINE, AUGUST 22. 1993 21.