The Herald-News from Passaic, New Jersey • 48

Bus Jersey By John A. Mura Herald-News Staff Writer The new owners of WHT, a' pay-TV service, will soon offer a multiple-program service that is expected to include Home Box Office and the Bravo Channel along with its current SelecTV movie channel. "Our target is mid-summer," said Bruce DeCourt, marketing director for Cooper Wireless Cable, which as Pay TV of Greater New York, acquired WHT last year. By June 1, DeCourt said, Cooper Wireless Cable, which has offices in Fairfield and The Bronx, N.Y., expects to begin transmitting its scrambled signal over Channel 60 from the World Trade Center. Current WHT fare is broadcast over WWHT, Channel 68, in West Orange and Channel 67 on Long Island.

ning and it works," DeCourt said. "But we still have some technical considerations to work out." The company will offer viewers the premium channels on an "a la carte" basis at a fee that roughly equals cable TV rates, he said. Viewers would be able to switch programs through new unscrambler boxes. "We'll just translate all of their viewing channels to our own channel," Decourt said. "It would run in the $22-per-month range for one premium channel and basic service.

It would be around $30 for the whole package." Company officials said the decision to transmit from the World Trade Center, instead of from West Orange and Long Island, could affect signal clarity for up to 5 percent of its subscribers. The company has been contacting fringe-area viewers. to determine whether an alternate distribution system can be set up to service them. "We've been to all the homes in New Jersey that we've been able to contact," DeCourt said. "We don't expect a large fallout of viewers in this The marketing director said there are about 7,500 WHT subscribers in Bergen, Passaic, Hudson and Morris counties.

In Essex County, about 1,500 TV sets are connected. DeCourt said the pay TV service was primarily offered where cable service is not offered, in the outer boroughs of NewYork and throughout New Jersey. The company does not intend to go head-tohead with cable firms for viewers, DeCourt said. WHT to give viewers choice of programs Until last year, the commercial station and the pay channel were jointly owned by Wometco Enterprises of Miami. A buyout put Channel 68 into the hands of the privately held Wometco Broadcasting which has decided to run programing all day.

The WHT pay channel, meanwhile, was sold to Pay TV of Greater New York, which trades as Cooper Wireless Cable. DeCourt said the pay channel will still use WHT as its call signal but that the letters no longer stand for Wometco Home Theatre. Current plans call for WHT to offer its viewers up to six programs that would be received over Channel 60 through leased unscrambler boxes attached to television sets, DeCourt said. "Technically, the system is up and run- Electronic clerks luring consumers at increasing rate By Cotten Timberlake The Associated Press Kiss those surly salespeople goodbye! Now you, can browse though merchandise and buy it at an electronic kiosk similar to those automated teller machines that have become so popular with bank customers. A colorful and always courteous presentation on a video screen lures you.

A voice, in stereo, welcomes you. The machine accepts your credit card, gives you a receipt, and has your purchase sent to you. You can, for example, buy Avon cosmetics or Florsheim shoes from "Uniport" machines, which were developed by ByVideo Inc. of Sunnyvale, and are being installed in a variety of locations, mostly malls, across the country. Other systems, with a more varied and longer list of merchandise, use outside vendors to fill the orders and the retail location is compensated for allowing the machine to be placed there.

For instance, you might pick a video cassette recorder from among 3,000 items listed in the Comp-U-Card International Inc. "Shopping Machine" at a supermarket in Montvale. The machines offer consumers convenience and efficiency. And, since stores that use their own machines can reduce the expense of maintaining inventories, shoppers might get better prices. There are about 1,500 "transactional" systems currently in place around the country, says Thomas Rauh, a San Fransiscobased management consultant in retai predicts, there will be SHOPPING MACHINE AP Wirephoto Debbie Vanderbogart of Atlanta studies a selection of microwave ovens available though The Shopping Machine.

too, uses simimachines to demonstrate its food-processing equipment. And are being developed to consumers in major pursuch as cars and real es- says. he also expects informational machines to place by the end of the dec- of the transactional and machines are beinstalled in locations, Economic slowdown predicted 50,000 of them, each averaging five $60 transactions a day. "We're looking at retail sales of $5 billion to $10 billion by 1989 a year going through that type of a channel," Rauh says. Walter Loeb, a retail analyst with the investment firm Morgan Stanley says, "There will be some form of this electronic shopping in the relatively near future because it will work well, because it will be easy to use and it will have the merchandise consumers want, at attractive prices." William McDonald, president of Electronistore Services Inc.

of Chicago, which has developed a transactional machine, says: "We're seeing it not as a replacement or displacement. It's an addition." The electronics revolution also has brought machines that offer only information about products to the shopper, but do not perform transactions. "We call it a 'para sales clerk It enables the consumer to learn about the important product features," says Stewart Sims, executive vice president of American Videotext Services Inc. Debbie of New York. His company is in- microwave troducing an informational "Shop-R-Aide" this month.

Cuisinarts Information machines have lar been installed in 155 Computerland Corp. outlets and 120 inde- terminals pendent stores, says Mark help Bunzel, founder and chairman of chases, Compu Vision of Santa Clara, tate. Calif. Rauh: The Compu Vision machines 50,000 feature, for example, information be in on International Business Ma- ade. chine personal computer Most and Apple Computer Ma- informational cintosh, he says.

ing HOT SPRINGS, Va. (AP) The U.S. economy will suffer a "decided slowdown" over the next 18 months as a result of the country's disastrous international trading performance, top American business leaders predicted Friday. While the leaders of America's biggest companies did not forecast a recession this year or next, their outlook was decidedly more pessimistic than the Reagan administration's current projections. They forecast overall economic growth this year of 3.1 percent, with an even weaker 2.2 percent level predicted for 1986.

This would be sharply lower than the 6.8 percent growth rate turned in during 1984. The administration is forecasting growth of 3.9 percent this year but the workplace, health spas and beauty parlors are also being used or considered. Companies also are experimenting with selling financial and travel services this way, Rauh says. Avon Products Inc. of New York is enthusiastic about its transactional machines, which offer 180 of its products.

The company has installed eight Uniports in malls and office See SHOPPING, Page B-10 and 4 percent in 1986. But the executives said they were cheered by Senate passage of a deficit reduction package early Friday, calling it a vital first step needed to fight the twin problems of soaring budget and trade deficits. The forecast came from the Business Council, composed of 200 corporate executives from such industry giants as Exxon, General Motors and International Business Machines. The business leaders convene twice a year at the posh Homestead resort in the mountains to hear briefings from top government officials. The spring session, which began Friday, is focusing on trade and what needs to be done to staunch the country's record trade deficits..