Santa Maria Times from Santa Maria, California • 25

Santa Maria Times Sunday, May 21, 2000 B-11 TV: Stretching limits Music download program banned Bakersfield. Continued from page B-10 only about a fourth of the job. "We believe as a station, we've got to be a forum for an exchange of ideas. A lot of people in our business don't view that as journalism," he said. "if a station doesn't care," READ: Continued from page B-10 Also this week, the Home Builders Association of the Central Coast will be holding a general membership dinner meeting at 6:45 p.m.

Thursday at Embassy Suites in San Luis Obispo. Ava Carberry, a principal of Color Design Art, will present the results of a recent survey of 3,500 home buyers as to what they want in a home. Cost is $30 for members and $35 for nonmembers. Reserve by Monday to 546-04 18 (fax 546-0339) Contact John Read at 925-2691, ext. 2220.

Jkj added, "they're (the view Morning anchors Jerry Olenyn and Kelli Saam were engaged when they came to the station early this year from the South. They are now married and anchor two hours of programming from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. Dan Shadwell and Rachel Smith do the 5 o'clock news. Steve Villanueva and Renee Kohn are the current weather forecasters, updating conditions often for viewers wanting to know whether the Central Coast will get sun or rain.

But so far, they haven't been seen posting Florida sun on Santa Maria rain. the popular MP3 format, which is used to copy songs from CDs onto hard drives. At another GolinHarris office, Buss said the company was having trouble backing up e-mail and found that huge quantities of disk space 4.5 gigabytes worth were taken up by MP3 files. "It's like potato chips, you can't download just one," Buss said, referring to Napster users' penchant for downloading several songs instead of being content with just one. About 100 universities have enacted bans or restrictions on Napster because students were clogging high-speed Internet connections with MP3 transfers.

Businesses also have high-speed connections, so GolinHarris' ban came as no surprise to Napster watcher David Gould. "It would make sense that SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -A Chicago-based public relations firm has banned employees from using the Napster music-downloading program after it was discovered that 80 percent of one office's Internet traffic was from music downloads. GolinHarris International, which has 13 offices in eight states and three countries, told its employees via e-mail Tuesday that Napster is off-limits because the program is sapping the company's resources. "I got concerned that if 80 percent was going to Napster, how much of the bandwidth was left for e-mail?" said Barrett Buss, GolinHarris vice president for information systems. Napster, based' north of San Francisco in San Mateo, is a free program that allows online users to search each others' computers and exchange music stored in people are using Napster at work," said Gould, who operates a Web site that serves as a forum for Napster users but not as a conveyor of MP3s.

Gould, of Charlotte, N.C., said he knew of no other businesses that have banned the program. Dan Wool, a spokesman for Napster, said he had no information on other companies banning Napster, but said the ban likely had more to do with workers slacking off than with dwindling computer resources. Napster currently faces numerous music copyright infringement lawsuits from the Recording Industry Association of America and artists such as Metallica and Dr. Dre, who say the program cheats them out of royalties. GolinHarris has offices in the United States, United Kingdom and Japan.

ers) are going to Know it. I he camera doesn't lie." The station may be somewhat unique in having two married couples as anchors. Drew and Ncrissa Sugars, wjio hold the 6 p.m. and 1 1 jm. slots, came with Orvkerlcy to the station from ACKERLY: Consolidating to serve Continued from page B-10 ruplions available to the consumer.

Helping to draw them in wis local programming, not only a consumer-friendly issue but rjtfi 1 CC mandate. "When people watch local Titus, people are looking for a reflection of their communi- irks," Watson said. The goal of the Central High rents displace non-profits 'ahfoinia Station Group is to iliYik the three counties into a unified broadcasting force. This iurill be accomplished through a fiew studio in San Luis Obispo land through combining sources with Santa Barbara's outlet. The Ackerley Group is counting on technology to help drive the process through a system called Digital serve the areas of the market," he said.

Watson is enjoying being able to spend money on new facilities, a stark contrast to last decade, when The Ackerley Group, like most media companies, suffered from a fall-off in advertising and sold assets to stay healthy. Some broadcast companies went bankrupt while Ackerley employees took a 10 percent pay cut across the board, Watson said. "We got through it," he added. "The company put the balance sheet and finances in good order." Watson said Ackerley is still an aggressive investor in properties, a model that has characterized the company since its founding in 1975, when an entrepreneurial outdoor advertising salesman named Barry Ackerley purchased Obie Advertising in Seattle and formed Northwest Communications. A hardbound, full-color company history, dedicated to the employees, describes the ability of Ackerley, a one-time Better Homes Gardens salesman, to acquire distressed properties and build teams to turn them around into profitable ventures.

Along the way, Ackerley, with active involvement of his wife Ginger, convinced venture capitalists to see his vision as he acquired outdoor advertising companies, then radio and television outlets and the Seattle Supersonics. The Sonics franchise, purchased in 1983, was another "distressed property." Ackerley not only turned the then losing team into a winning franchise, it put $20 million into a $110 million stadium renovation and started an NBA women's team as well. In 1988, Ackerley, as Ackerley Communications, became a public company on the NASDAQ exchange, moving in 1997 to the New York Stock Exchange. In 1994, the company launched Full House Sports and Entertainment, a complete sports marketing company and the business arm of the Seattle Supersonics. Two years later, Ackerley Communications changed its name to The Ackerley Group and named Ginger Ackerley co-chairman in recognition of her contributions in developing corporate philosophies for charitable giving, marketing, human resources and community relations.

Barry Ackerley is still chairman and CEO, while son Chris Ackerley is co-president of the group. Daughter Kim Ackerley Cleworth directs the Ginger and Barry Ackerley Foundation. TtntralCasting, a fiber-optic sWem linking back office systems and hooking studios together seamlessly from a production standpoint. This allows us to invest Steve Katz said. "But we're talking about a quadrupling of the rent in our building.

That's incredible." Equal Rights Advocates, a nonprofit women's rights law firm, which also prepared for a doubling of its rent, also faces quadruple rent and learned that a dot-com is waiting to fill its offices and pay 6 12 times the current rent. Equal Rights Advocates has to be out by Aug. 1. Wayne Hazzard paused to swallow tears after talking to his landlord. Hazzard's dance studio, Dancers' Group, has been offering classes and hosting performances in the city's Mission District for 18 years, but the building has been sold and the new owner has proposed raising the studio's $3,100 monthly rent to $12,000.

"I just don't know how we can make that work said Hazzard, one of the studio's founders. "It breaks my heart. I just feel like it's the end of an era." Nonprofits are a big part of San Francisco. One of every 1 1 jobs in the city is linked to the arts or a nonprofit, Supervisor Gavin Newsom said. SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -The city that prides itself on its compassion for the less fortunate and its tradition of culture and tolerance is struggling to hang onto its good souls and bold artists.

The dot-com boom transforming parts of San Francisco is displacing nonprofit arts and social service groups. The vacancy rate for commercial space is between 1 and 2 percent, rents are up 250 percent over five years, and nonprofits simply can't afford to stay. The very people who have given San Francisco its enduring liberal character are in danger of disappearing. "I do not hesitate to use the word 'crisis' because that's the kind of situation we're in," Glynn Washington, administrator of San Francisco Human Services Network, told a supervisors' committee last week. One after another, free clinics, legal defense funds and nonprofit dance troupes are hearing bad news from landlords.

"Rents are tripling, quadrupling in some cases. Sometimes tripling and we're happy about it because we thought they would go even higher than that," said Washington, whose Human Services Network is an umbrella organization for more than 70 nonprofit social service agencies. Staffers at nonprofits also "encounter personal rent hurdles. A room in someone else's house costs $1,000 a month, forcing artists and activists to give up their passions and take other jobs. Get a few of them together and you'll hear story after story.

The International Children's Art Museum let its staff go, closed its doors and put its 3,000 pieces of art, collected over the last 25 years, in storage. Its rent rose 50 percent and it was unable to find other, affordable space. The Cartoon Art Museum is in court fighting its new landlord, who wants to nearly triple the rent. "If the new owner prevails, we'll be out of business," director Rod Gilchrist said. Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, which has been giving free legal service to environmentalists nationwide for 30 years, had budgeted for a more modest rent increase.

"We could actually afford to pay double the rent," development director rjifore in news, which is what f-Sv Feel is our mission." Watson it also releases money to into HDTV high defini-utmfytt television. P5j-The three major population winters Santa Barbara, Santa rUTiiia, and San Luis Obispo vfrv a "real challenge for any of ownerships to adequately ICABLE: Hooking up fHEntinued from page B-10 Plwokup with speeds l()() times EfiJter than the conventional modems, is beins intro- Sshved to new markets, mostly jmnieiropoiitan areas. le couldn't say when Barbara Bank Trust Commercial- Loan s. Santa manager for Falcon Cable in Malibu and Thousand Oaks in the mid-1990s, Weingardt was in managerial capacities for Century Cable in the VenturaRedondo Beach area and for Group Cable in Northern California and Hawaii. At the beginning of his career, he was a maintenance technician and construction lineman for San Luis Obispo's Sonic Cable, acquired later by Charter Communications.

Weingardt said the cable company spends millions to upgrade equipment and carry the popular programming. Asked how much it costs to get one major station, he would say only "a lot." Sometimes the company has to make difficult choices when stations such as ESPN raise rates to cable companies 15 percent. Comcast knows it can't cut ESPN programming so Didyou hear about the banker who gave a group ofkicb a lift to the prom? it So he called his Financial Services Relationship Manager, Kelly Silva, at Santa Barbara Bank Trust. She took Spencer's loan application over the phone, and the following day, he got his loan and he made his purchase. Saturday the kids made it to the prom in the largest limo around.

Now you don't have to be caught without a ride to get a business loan in 24 hours. Simply start a relationship with the bank serving more area businesses than any other financial It was only a few days 'til the prom and ten high school friends wanted to go together, but every limo in town was booked. Spencer Winston, owner of Spencer' LimouAne Taunt, knew of a ten passenger stretch limo mic.isi ummc win reacn me Jntral Coast, but when it does, PiO'iav bring with it a customer Polity to target the program-tug preferred by the viewer. Mii the manner of the search" common with Mrttemet users, customers will he able to use their remotes to programming schedules 'di all the programs dealing a certain topic. Or.

you'll Iv able to find out what's play-Ltug on all stations at 8 p.m. a week from now. Comcast's Internet service -It ill compete with the DSL service being marketed by telephone companies and others. It will require a cable modem installation to access the hybrid conventional cable and fiberoptic lines over which the Internet will be accessed, weingardt said. "I he convergence of the Internet and television is going very big," Weingardt said.

is planning later this year to consolidate its regional headquarters in a new building to be leased from GB2 Properties, an Irvine company Uiat owns land at 2323 Way. GB2 President Bob Griffin Vaid the foundation slab for a concrete 'rift-up building will be poured Morello Construction 'tit' Santa Maria is supposed to complete work Oct. 1. single-story building, SI .8 million, will have a 'rap-around glass window, an "Interior with 18-feet of clearance, an "overabundance of parking." and a 700-square-foot lobby with four payment counters three conventional coun-. ts and one designed for with disabilities.

Griffin iaid. Comcast will still have an JoYfice and studio in Lompoc. ut most of the 70 employees ftjH work out of Santa Maria. Weingardt added. He began ith Comcast in November after working for the "company in Simi Valley and kpfange County.

A regional I institution. We can help your business when you need a solution in the stretch. for sale in Los Angeles, but it was already Wednesday and the prom was Saturday. Si Ccmcost Times Staff Signal distribution: Satellite, microwave and over-the-air broadcast signals transmitted to Comcast "head-ends in Santa Maria and Lompoc. Signals assigned cable channels and distributed to communities by fiberoptic and coaxial cables, the former for long distances, the latter for short runs to neighborhoods.

Scrambling: General Instrument addressable converters descrambte encrypted video such as premium and pay-per-view programing. No converters needed for basic cable on cable-ready television Programming: Can be added with a phone call. Pay-per-view events automatically added to customer's converter with a phone call and billing system that recognizes the customer through automated number identification technology. Channels: 56 in Santa Maria area, 58 Santa Ynez Customers: Santa MartaOrcutt 25.200; Santa Ynez VaHey, 19.000 Utilities: 335 miles of cable, Santa MariaOrcutt; 320 mries, Santa Ynez. Cable passes 34.000 homes in Santa 26,200 Santa Ynez Internet aecs: Comcast CrJirse corning, da' 8 p-ic uncertain SMTI BflRBIRI BMK 8 TRUST We can help your business in ways you never knew existed.

Member FDIC Santa Mama 335 East BetteravU 925-8700 Santa Maria 1500 South Broadway, 925-5573 Solving 591 Alamo Pintado Suite C. 688-25 11 Buellton 157 West Highway 246. 688-0540 Los Ouvos 2445 Alamo Pintado Suite 101. 686-1778 Lompoc 200 North 736-4524 North Lompoc 1307-C North 735-8882 Vandenberg Village 3787 Constellation 733-3515 With other neighborhood oftices throughout Santa Barbara and West Ventura Cou nties YmZ I www.sbbt.com UHCtfl 3 1 i CI 2 9.