The Daily Oklahoman from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma • 42

July 1, 1990 THE SUNDAY OKLAHOMAN Growth Mutual Funds May Console Stock Loser Business Almanac Malcolm Berko in the sunshine nearly every day. Here is my suggestion. There are at least a dozen growth mutual funds whose long-term records would put the research departments at many wire houses to shame. You can find their names in Forbes, Business Week or Money magazine. Invest $5,000 into four of those funds, and forget you own them until you put away your working shoes and are ready to cash in on Social Security.

DEAR MR. BERKO: I rolled over my $40,000 individual retirement account to a very large brokerage four years ago. Since then, I've had four brokers, each with a different plan. This has resulted in selling stocks before they go up and buying them before they go down. My IRA is now worth $20,000.

What do I do to ensure a successful retirement? P.E., Wilmington, N.C. DEAR P.E.: If you've visited Manhattan, you know that Wall Street is a thoroughfare with a river on one end and a cemetery You must always be aware that some of us are "articulate incompetents." We know the buzz words, and we weave them with irresistible logic. But we're salespeople, not money managers, and we are paid only when we generate commissions for our firms. We don't make a dime if we just watch your stocks appreciate. And finally, your $40,000 account is not meaningful to many of us.

A purchase of 100 shares of common stock at $50 earns us about $23. Sanitation workers in San Francisco make $25 an hour, plus benefits, and they're on the other. Some of us are fortunate and sail the East River in our yachts while others move in the direction of the Trinity Church Cemetery. Your experience is shared by many investors at wire houses across the country. And, you are as much to blame as those four meatballs who barbecued your account.

If you arrive home to see your house burning, how long will you watch the flames before calling the fire depart ment? When working with a broker, you must recognize that some of us, like sharks, will die unless we are in constant motion. We only make money when we sell you things, and you only make money when our advice is on the mark. Sadly, most of our research has missed it (measured by the Dow Jones Industrials) by a wide margin during the past four years. Your account is proof of that. ten burn, FX.

Readers may write Berko Co The Oklahoman, PO Box St. Petersburg, M74J-02M. Creators Syndicate Profits From Page 1-C TV, Channel 4, where he last was station The Sunday Oklahoman provides nonprofit, business-related organizations free listings for seminars and meetings each week in Business Almanac. Listings must be submitted on a form provided by The Oklahoman. The deadline for completed forms is Thursday noon prior to Sunday publication.

Listings cannot be taken over the telephone and are limited to one per week per organization. For more information, contact Dan Bush, business editor, at 231-3284. For forms, call Sandi Davis at 231-3109. Meetings MONDAY: The Independent Order of Foresters 7:30 p.m., Suite 1414, United Founders Tower. Program: Business meeting and child abuse prevention film, "The Next Volunteer." No cost.

Contact: Mary A. Williams at 942-1837. TUESDAY: Charles J. Civens, Delta Group, 7 p.m., Will Rogers Garden Center. Speaker: Steve Stagner, Association of Landlords of Kansas, on "Methods of Organizing of Landlords." No cost.

Contact: Beebe Birchall at 789-5315. THURSDAY: Oklahoma City Economic Roundtable, member of NABE, 11:30 a.m., Ap-plewood's. Speaker: Mary Beth Guard, vice president and general counsel, Oklahoma Bankers Association, on "Ramifications of Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act." Cost: $8. Contact: Steve Hiebsch at 272-3583. Agenda MONDAY: National Association Of Purchasing Management reports its manufacturing economy index for June U.S.

Commerce Department reports construction spending and foreign investment for May. TUESDAY: U.S. Commerce Department reports factory orders for May. WEDNESDAY: Independence Day, financial markets, banks and many businesses are closed. THURSDAY: Domestic automakers late June sales.

FRIDAY: U.S. Labor Department reports unemployment for June. Television WEEKDAYS: This Morning's Business, 6 a.m., KAUT BusinessDay, 6:30 a.m., CNN on OETA Nightly Business Report, 6 p.m., OETA FRIDAY: Wall Street Week, 7:30 p.m., OETA (repeated 12:30 p.m. Sunday) SUNDAY: Adam Smith's Money World, 1 p.m., OETA. $67.27 $71.15 $63.05 $61.72 jSS Million Million Million Million BBS $70LBBMfi i pj 1985 1986 1987 1988 jfl Source: National Association of Broadcasters JgB 'j Di iane Olson, The Oklahoman Graphics land rental, Kirby said.

Still, one TV executive said Kirby's statement is just conjecture from someone who has few positives to draw from the rest of his station's performance. But Channel 5 is not conceding" the news battle. A two-year restructuring plan of the station's news effort is nearly completed, Kirby said, with some new talent still to be hired and the 5' p.m. newscast to be reformed. A stronger station signal will be in place by fall.

"Until we are satisfied with the product, we can't be worried about ratings," Kirby said. "The ratings will come." It could have been worse, they say. "With all the changes we've made, a lot of stations would have seen a bigger decline in ratings," said Sheila Phipps, station promotions director. "We haven't seen rymple said that KWTV is a closed company and accounting is spread across several Griffin entities. Martha Griffin is chairman of Griffin Entities, formerly Griffin Television, and Griffin Food both based in Muskogee.

Information on profitability would have to come from the board of directors for the Griffin companies, Dalrymple said. But a glimpse of the financial performance was provided by the Griffin entities in a lawsuit they filed last fall against Harm. The Griffin companies went from a profit of about $1.6 milhon in fiscal 1985 to a loss of $2.18 milhon in the fiscal year ended June 30, 1989, the lawsuit said. During most of this time, Harm was president of Griffin Television and Griffin Food. KOCO's profitability is due to diversification of its revenue sources videocas-sette sales, production of commercials and has the best newscast for a viewer to watch to learn of the day's events.

Not necessarily, according to an analysis conducted by a University of Oklahoma bert. "If we do that consistently, we'll gain the types of viewers we want for our television station," Gum-bert said. "Over the last three years, Channel 4 has done a good job at that they've shown substantial ratings increases over those years." Making Money the New-Fashioned Way Ratings aren't everything to making money in the Oklahoma City market, says KOCO's Kirby. On the surface, the comment seems ridiculous in an industry that holds its breath four times each year while viewer numbers are measured. But considering the significant ad revenue drop for the market in 1987 and 1988, the statement resembles the language of other Oklahoma business people who have had to alter the norm to survive.

Only two stations contributed on the plus -side to the market's $141,000 in pretax profit in 1988 KOCO and KFOR, Kirby said. The stations have the second- and third-rated news programs in the market. The NAB says its market survey does not reveal which stations are profitable. When asked whether his station made a profit in those statistically tough years of 1987 and 1988, Dal Jeweler Come To The Point- Connecting Ptofirf. COMPUTER CENTERS Hefner May, In Quail Plaza Sales: 751-2781 Service: 751-7925 Despite all this, Kirby says the stations are not as competitive as they were in 1979.

The TV market is not as profitable, either. Big Bucks Stopped Here Ten years ago, the six commercial stations locally made nearly $6 million in pre-tax profit, according to a market survey conducted by the National Association of Broadcasters. Even the onset of Oklahoma's second recession of the decade, in 1986, didn't keep stations from having a bigger year nearly $7 million in net earnings, the NAB said. But in the late 1980s, the local TV market nearly lost its horizontal hold. Pre-tax profits for the six commercial stations declined from nearly $7 million in 1986 to a paltry total of $141,000 two years later not even enough to pay a top prime time news anchor's salary.

NAB figures will be released soon for 1989. "Obviously, you guys (the market) were hit hard from a decline in advertising revenue," said Mark Fratrik, NAB vice president and economist. Total time sales of advertising reached a peak of $71.1 milhon in 1986, the NAB said. The local ad pie then shrank by 11 percent to $63 million in sales in 1987. Portions diminished another 2 percent in 1988.

Market observers say the second recession, triggered by falling oil prices in 1986, finally caught up with the TV market the following year. Stations were initially shielded from the downturn by political advertising during major state races. The effect was far-reaching. Lotta Shakin' Going On The profit and ad dip measured by the NAB survey seems to jibe with oth-er market occurrences. Former KWTV general manager and Griffin Television Inc.

president Duane Harm urged his station owners in 1986 to sell the broadcasting company since it probably was at the zenith of its worth $80 million, according to court documents filed in association with a federal lawsuit. They declined, Harm said in the documents. The Oklahoma television market headed into a "descending revenue picture," he said. Then consider Knight-Ridder former owner of then KTVY. It bought the NBC affiliate for about $80 million in November 1985 from the Gannett said a former sta- "Some of the higher audience levels are at 6 and 10," Thrash said.

"It's a more attentive audience advertisers pay a little more for news." Local news programming represents advertising revenue that all goes to the sta-tion. The 10 p.m. newscast is the most watched of the day, and a difference of one rating point between stations at that time period can mean up to $40 more for a 30-sec-ond spot on the favored channel. During network-originated programming, affiliates receive a residual from the network for commercials. But that stipend is dwarfed in comparison to what the affiliates can get for their own commercials during the news and the show that precedes it.

"You'll make more on one 30-second spot than on one hour of (network) prime time," Thrash said. Rock Around the Clock How big are the revenue stakes in news coverage? Channel 5 says it potentially lost at least $208,000 annually in boosted ad revenue from Channel 4's alleged infringement on its 24-hour news trademark an advertising theme for KOCO, according to hearing transcripts filed in Oklahoma County District Court. Channel 5 argued that Channel 4's action caused confusion in viewers' minds and denied KOCO the immediate recognition associated with its new ad campaign. KFOR (formerly KTVY) countered that the words only described a service and were not an advertising slogan. The four-word phrase was generic and could not be registered and protected, they said.

In an interview with The Oklahoman, KOCO general manager Tom Kirby said the circumstances leading to the lawsuit are more symbolic of the market's competitiveness than the actual court action itself. He said it reminded him of the race in early 1979 between KOCO and KWTV to get the first helicopter in the air. KFOR general manager Bill Katsafa-nas testified he went with 24-hour news and programming on May 11, two days earlier than planned. This was after he learned from a CNN official on the evening of May 10 that KOCO was trying to land a news package for its own round-the-clock venture to begin May 14, Katsafanas said, according to the KOCO is more likely than the other two stations to devote news time to stories judged newsworthy by the other stations and The Oklahoman, says professor David L. Jaffe, in a study completed last December.

Jaffe recorded late-night newscasts from the affiliates during two weeks in February 1989. KWTV received the nod on weather and KFOR on sports. In other scrutiny, The Associated Press this year selected Channel 5 as the best newscast, while United Press International chose Channel 9. But KOCO has taken shots for what some consider a softer approach to news coverage. "Channel 5 is a promoter toy drive, education, community involvement a lot of stuff that doesn't have a lot to do with news," said Micah Smith, a TV columnist in sever-al of Oklahoma's weekly newspapers.

But viewers have come to expect community involvement from stations, Kirby said. "This town tells TV stations they want them to do a good job on stories," Kirby said. "Eleven to 12 years ago, it was who's more involved in the community. Now, there is an assumption of that's what stations are already supposed to do." At KFOR, "we provide an honest, personable and professional account of the news every day," said recently named news director Jerry Gum- tion executive. More than three years later, Knight-Ridder sold KTVY for $50 million to Palmer Communications of Des Moines, Iowa, confirmed Ken McQueen, Palmer vice president of television operations.

McQueen said he could not confirm what Knight-Ridder paid for the station. Efforts to get a response from Knight-Ridder were unsuccessful. The media chain sold the station and eight of its other commercial affiliates in early 1989 to reduce a billion-dollar debt from a corporate acquisition. But the ad revenue picture brightened last year, KWTV officials say. Total advertising dollars rose 10 percent over previous year figures, compared to a 2 percent rise nationally, said KWTV, quoting year-end numbers provided by stations to the firm of Price-Wa-terhouse.

Though NAB numbers aren't in, 1989 would have been a bad year for the independent stations and a good one for affiliates, Kirby said. That's because of the failed bid early last year to take two of the independents out of the commercial market. Those stations didn't buy programming or do promotions due to the near certainty of the deal. "The affiliates benefited from that," Kirby said. "Now, all three affiliates are scrambling to improve their profits." Broadcast News For most of the last decade and so far into the new one, KWTV has held a significant viewer edge in news coverage, according to Arbitron Co.

ratings. Channel 9's coverage "is a good, honest, fair representation of what's going on in Oklahoma and Oklahoma City," said Jerry Dalrymple, KWTV vice president and operations director. Its newscasts stay away from "soft news," he said. Thus, the highest ratings mean KWTV said. "If I had had house payments, it wouldn't be so easy.

"I can't complain, really. We've had a good business. I haven't been making a million dollars lately, but we're making a good living." In recent years, Brown slashed overhead to keep profits on track. At a time in his career when he would like to be taking it easier, he's been working six days a week. Brown said he will miss his customers, while conceding he doesn't always remember a face.

But he always remembers a "piece" he created. Many of his custom-ers will remember, too. One long-time cus-tomer who heard about the store's closing returned recently with all the jewelry her late husband had given her. She wanted to reminisce, Brown said. "She was married to a doctor.

He loved her and he liked to buy her nice things. She brought all of them in, and we talked about each piece, and when he had given her each one. She remembered every one." Brown said providing such customers lasting pleasure is what he will miss most. "Jewelry is fun. If I sell you a car, you love me then, but six months later, you hate me when it starts giving you trouble.

"A lot of jewelry I've sold will outlast me. That's the rewarding part of it. Jewelry stays with you forev- From Page 1-C making school at 15 and later studied diamond-setting: Daughter Teri Brown Hudson joined him in 1979. She worked by his side un-til two years ago, when she left for a management opportunity in the computer industry. Hudson said she enjoyed working with her dad, but had difficulty adjusting to the rigors of a family-owned business and the toll it takes on family life.

A deal to sell the store to two of his employees recently fell through. So, with no one to leave his business to, Brown decided to close the store. Brown has accumulated more than 1,000 custom molds during his 44-year career. He said his going-out-of-business sale will continue until the inventory is sold out. Offerings range from a simple gold necklace to a $22,000 marquis diamond.

As with most other area retail businesses, it's easy to parallel the Brown store's fortunes alongside those of the oil industry. The store now employs three, but had as many as eight employees during the peak of the oil boom. But Brown is philosophical. "It's shame it (the oil boom) ever happened, really," he said. "It was a false high.

It was awful easy to make money in those days." Brown considers himself fortunate that he retires with virtually no debt. He has lived in the same, modest condominium for 12 years. "It was easier for me to gear down," he I A BOQ-767-OB6B a Monitor $439 TZ, Ss97999st Power Mate Power Mate oq 286 Plus -Jm $979 mI" $749 7. OQC 8U9B6 16-bitCPU. 108 MH Mfg.

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