The Record from Hackensack, New Jersey • 93

D-5 BUSINESS nvestor's lutton THE SUNDAY RECORD. NOVEMBER 18. 1973 I i takes on TV option I. I I yi Tsz-'-if'-'A 0 t- the aiant ff of Channel 68, hopes financial broadcasting will prove a good investment. Eugene Inger, general manager stock market would sink after the 1968 presidential election.

It did, and Inger had a successful show. Success meant that viewers soon were asking for investment advice, and because all financial advisers must be registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Inger had to keep his mouth shut. 'So I registered' "I discussed this with my mother one night and she said, 'So, go So I registered." Registration meant the start of E. E. In-1 ger Co.

and its weekly investment newsletter, the Inger Letter. Since 1968, E. E. Inger Co. has expanded into Southern California real estate, portfolio management, investment seminars, and television shows in- Los Angeles and Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

It was Fort Lauderdale that led Inger to New Jersey. In 1972, while t. E. Inger was developing, Blonder Tongue Laboratories of Old Bridge bought Channel 68 from the Walter Reade Organization better known for owning movie theatprs Isaac Blonder, a partner in the television equipment manufacturing firm, said he planned to make Channel 68 a pay television station. But his plans were aborted when a one mentions any dollar amounts, but Inger describes it as a goodly sum) and became its general manager.

When the debts are paid, Inger will own 50 per cent of Blonder-Tongue Broadcasting. Blonder will remain president of Blonder-Tongue broadcasting and his partner, Benjamin Tongue, will be secretary-treasurer. For his goodly sum, Inger gets to put In long hours at Channel 68's West Orange studio, in a two-story frame house on Eagle Rock Avenue, and in its other studio, in Manhattan. His office with the messy desk is on the second floor; the first floor contains the broadcasting studio and equipment. Give 'em finance Blonder's approach to programming Is simple give 'em what nobody else does.

Most of what Channel 68 gives is financial news the only station doing so in the metropolitan area. From noon, when the station begins broadcasting, to 4:30 p.m. and from 7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. a ticker tape with New York Stock Exchange quotes runs across the bottom of the screen.

Inger analyses market developments See TV, Page D10 falling stock market took away his funds for the station. "I didn't have enough money," says Blonder, who had formed a separate company, Blonder-Tongue Broadcasting, to run Channel 68. By September 1974, Blonder had enough money and Channel 68 was ready again. But this time, Blonder made it a UHF station featuring New Jersey news, old movies, and syndicated shows such as "Hopalong Cassidy," "Dobie Gillis," and "The Bob Cummings Show." Off the air The station may have been different, but the results were the same. In three months, Channel 68 was off the air.

"I ran out of money," says Blonder. By early 1975, Blonder heard of Inger and began, negotiating for his financial show, "Wall Street Perspective." When he first talked with Blonder, Inger was doing a daily financial show on cable television, writing his weekly newsletter, lecturing on investments, and driving one of five Corvettes he has owned. But by the time contracts were signed, the deal mushroomed into this: Inger became a minority stockholder of Channel 68, assumed the station's debts, (No ays By MATT CAHILL uilnttt Wrlttr i If ugliness didn't keep Eugene E. Inger out of television in Los Angeles In 1968, can a messy desk deter him in New Jersey In 1975? By the fall of 1968, Inger's only job was playing the stock market not an unusual occupation back then, when the market was more sprightly. He recently had quit the research department of the New York investment firm Horn-blower and Weeks-Hemphill, Noyes and was no neophyte to stocks.

But to keep abreast of the market, Inger tuned in a TV show on fi-' nance one day. The format was one man reading the latest market prices. Dull show, thought Inger. "I called up the station manager and told him what I thought of the show," says Inger. "We started talking and he told me that I ought to come down to the station and that he'd put me on the air if I wasn't ugly.

Far from ugly "Well I'm ugly, but he put me on the air anyway," Inger says jokingly. A 31-year-old bachelor with California-sun-bleached blond hair, Inger is far from ugly. For Inger, that television show was to form the basis for his own business and eventually was to lead him to his present job general manager of UHF Channel 68, WBTB, in West Orange. It's a station with a string of "onlys" after its name the only financial station in the New York metropolitan area, the only English language commercial station in New Jersey, and the only station broadcasting youth hockey games. Inger presides over Channel 68, which began broadcasting in October, from a metal grey desk cluttered with letters, memos, and financial publications.

"I know it's messy but that doesn't matter," he says of his desk. "I sell a good part of the time and I'm trying to build a sta-. tion." Earlier attempts to build Channel 68 failed, but Inger has succeeded in his own at-j. tempts at financial television. On his first show in Los Angeles, he predicted that the By HARRY ANDERSON Los AngtlM Tlmt Niwi Strvlct By RONALD SOBLE Lm Anatltt Tlmti Ntwi Itrvlc SOUTHFIELD, Mich.

This affluent Detroit suburb has become the scene of Street's hottest shootout In years. The gunslingers practically look down each other's throats on heavily trafficked Northwestern Highway where, less than a mile apart, are the offices of Merrill Lynch Pierce Fenner Smith and Hutton Co. Merrill Lynch, the nation's largest, securities firm, filed an antitrust suit in Detroit federal court accusing Hutton, its fastest charging competitor, with system atically raiding its office here and luring away four of its best salesmen. (It lost the first round of the case last week when District Court Judge Philip Pratt refused to grant Merrill Lynch a preliminary injunction calling on Hutton to return records of Merrill Lynch customers in the possession of four Merrill Lynch salesmen hired by Hutton. (Pratt ruled that Merrill Lynch failed to show irreparable injury.

(Merrill Lynch has indicated It will pursue the case further.) Aggressive competitor The case is seen by the securities Industry as far more than a local example of brokerage proselytism in a profession swarming with examples of cutthroat competition. "They want our accounts," declared a Merrill Lynch They're not hiring our people, they're hiring our accounts." Another Merrill Lynch executive snapped, "It's about time we stood up." The litigation is a showcase for the sudden emergence of Hutton as the most aggressive competitor the much larger Merrill Lynch has had to contend with in years. The case also spotlights the combative character of Robert M. Fomon, who in five years has risen from relative obscurity to become Hutton's guiding light and Wall Street's most talked about executive. "We don't pick on Merrill Lynch," says Clarence G.

Catalio, manager of Hutton's Southiield operations. "We get applications from other firms, too." The 35-year-old Catalio, working out of an office cluttered with art deco, has promoted the Southfield office into one of Hutton's top revenue producers in the country. Among Catallo's pursuits are racing one of his seven Porsches, raising quarter horses, and acting as a national distributor for other Hutton offices for T-shirts which are imprinted with a parody of Hutton's and Merrill Lynch's advertising messages: "When E.F. Hutton talks, the thundering herd listens." The atmosphere is more subdued in the nearby Merrill Lynch office under the stewardship of office manager Frederick R. Pickard.

Neither Pickard nor Catalio could talk about the federal antitrust case filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit Recruited 'team On Aug. 29, four of Merrill Lynch's Southfield account executives James Bond, Paul Camilleri, Arthur Ciagne, and John Kulhavi moved as a team to Hutton's nearby office. Of the 42 Merrill Lynch brokers in that office, the four had produced $380,000 in commission revenues or 11 per cent of that office's total in the first six months of this year. The "team" concept meant that they specialized in various areas of the securities industry and traded information on some 4,000 accounts.

A special office was built for them in Hutton's Southfield facility. In the case before Pratt, Merrill Lynch charged that Hutton's hiring of the team constituted part of a nationwide scheme against Merrill Lynch and the brokerage industry to eliminate Merrill Lynch as an effective competitor. (Hut-See HUTTON, Page D-9 p-ZM una- tit CALCULATOR m. '(jj ij Consider intended use before making a choice A percentage key, to simplify working with per cent figures. Some calculator experts also recommend buying a memory key, which allows you to store the answer or a portion of one problem while working on another.

That adds up to $10 to the price, however. There are practical things to consider in shopping for even the simplest calculator: Power source. Is it powered by batteries or is it rechargeable? The average consumer who uses his calculator only a few times a week probably doesn't need the rechargeable feature, which adds about $10 to the price. Battery-powered calculators usually take either several penlight-size units or a single 9' volt unit. Wilson suggests that the penlight battery models might be better because the replacement cost of the smaller batteries is usually less than for a single 9Vi volt unit.

Both types of batteries normally last 10 to 15 hours. A rechargeable model runs 5 to 10 hours on a charge. Most battery-powered calculators offer an optional AC adapter, which costs $5 to $10. Unless you plan to use the calculator for hours without a break, you probably don't need an adapter. Warranty and service.

Almost all the calculators sold today offer a one-year warranty on parts, and most retailers offer a 30-day exchange period. Things to consider in looking at calculator warranties include: Does the manufacturer have service centers around the country or will you have to send the machine to the factory if something goes wrong? Will the retailer take care of warranty service if you return the calculator to him or will you be responsible for sending it to the manufacturer? Display of numbers and "touch" of the keys. Most calculators use one of two display types: diodes or gas tubes. The ity and warranties, and the American companies have had the edge in technical innovation," Wilson says. Wilson's assessment has been supported by several consumer rating tests which have consistently ranked U.S.-made calculators above the imports in overall quality.

Among major U.S. companies in the calculator field are Texas Instruments Rockwell International Hewlett Packard and National Semiconductor Corp. Retailers and manufacturers suggest the best way to avoid bewilderment and mistakes when you go shopping for a calculator is to decide, in advance, exactly what you will use the machine for. If, like millions of others, you want a basic calculator to help with everyday arithmetic, including income taxes, the experts offer a number of suggestions. "Most average consumers tend to underbuy when they shop for low-cost calculators," says Robert E.

Hilchey, vice-president and general manager of microelectronic products for Rockwell International. "A lot of people have more mathematical ability than they think they do, and they buy less of a machine than they could potentially use." Hilchey and others say that the average consumer should buy a minimum amount of fairly sophisticated mathematical functions on a calculator even if it's only going to be used at the supermarket They suggested a "basic equipment load" including: Eight-digit display with floating decimal point (Some cheaper models can handle only six digits and have a fixed, two place decimal system.) The four basic arithmetic functions plus a constant key. (The constant allows you to multiply or divide a series of numbers by the same figure without continually reentering the multiplier or divisor.) The ability to change the total from plus to minus, to indicate when you've gone into the red. (Some basic models simply stay at zero when you've subtracted too much.) If you've been in the market for a pocket calculator, you already know there are plenty to choose from. Advertisements, offer a dizzying variety of electronic marvels priced anywhere from $9.95 to $2,000 and capable of anything from simple addition to individually programmed scientific computation.

Even if you want just a simple calculator to balance the checkbook or add up grocery prices at the supermarket, it's worth doing some comparison shopping. Prices vary widely for nearly identical calculators, and a number of manufacturers and retailers say that price alone isn't a guide to value. The calculator buyer of a major Southern California department store chain offers his price rule: "A good, four-function (addsubtractmultiplydivide), basic calculator today should cost well under $20; a machine with a memory key should be under $30. From there on, it's as individual as buying an automobile it depends on what optional equipment appeals to you." One reason buying a pocket calculator has become somewhat confusing is the proliferation of brand names. Some U.S.

manufacturers market low-cost calculators under several brands, and the same holds true for imports from Taiwan and Hong Kong. Ia addition, intense price wars over the past two years have driven a number of large manufacturers and importers out of business, making selection of a reliable brand even more difficult "Generally speaking, the quality of U.S.-built calculators has been slightly higher than the imports." contends Bill Wilson, calculator buyer from Tarn's a Los Angeles chain of: office supply and stationery stores. "U.S. machines have also tended to have better serviceabil- See CALCULATOR. Page D-.