The Miami Herald from Miami, Florida • 420

THE BIG SWITCH Plot twists in station swaps outdid Dallas ol II SUNDAY JANUARY 1 1989 44H THE MIAMI HERALD ORT PIERCE GRADE A This graphic shows the viewing area at CBS's Channels 6 and 12 Viewers outside these areas may need an outdoor antenna to receive CBS dearly CHANNEL12 BOCA RATON FORT LAUDERDALE FORT MYERS NAPLES Wolfson Ansin Tisch Wright CHANNEL 6 Viewers in West Dade and Broward counties may have better reception because fewer tall buildings obstruct the signal Some viewers inside the areas may still experience recep-ion problems GRADEA Better Channel 6 reception possible but may be costly By JUAN CARLOS COTO Herald Entertainment Writer Is it snowing on 60 Minutes at your house? affiliation shake-up might change the way CBS comes in especially if you have an antenna atop your home or apartment complex WCIX-Channel 6 the new CBS affiliate has a shorter signal reach than other South Florida stations because its tower is 40 miles south of the competition How well you receive Channel 6 depends on where you live The solution may be as simple as turning your antenna south though that might disrupt reception from other stations If turning help you still might be able to improve reception But going to cost you In South Dade it could be about $110 In North Dade maybe as much as $130 In Broward County possibly $200 Of course cable is an alternative About 52 percent of Dade homes subscribe about 35 percent of have it For improving antenna reception the essential element and technicians say essential in Broward and North Dade is an attachment that picks up Channel 6 only A small one costs about $40 but it works effectively only south of Northwest 36th Street in Dade said Sandy Ross owneroperator of Antenna Systems in Kendall North of that probably need a bigger attachment which costs about $60 Additional expenses: a coupler (about $25) to the antenna miscellaneous hardware (about $5) and labor (about $40) In North Broward where Channel signal is especially weak a booster for the attachment (about $60 or $7 0) might help Or viewers can forget the attachments and tune to West Palm new CBS affiliate WPEC-Channel 12 which reaches into North Broward But even with improvements your reception could be garbled by buildings trees or other obstruc- KEYsKo SOURCE: FCC and Television and Cable Fact Book RICK BROWNLEEMiami Herald Staff tions said Bill Chouimard owner and operator of Total Satellite in Hollywood The signal is There are pockets of bad reception all over Broward especially to the east where there are many obstructions he said Even Miami Beach and parts of Northeast Dade experience interference from downtown buildings Ross said If you live in West Dade or West Broward where there are few obstructions you might do without attachments But Chouimard is ready for the big switch going to be bad no doubt about it" he said His company gets at least six calls a day from viewers hoping to improve reception lot of people even know going on and when it happens going to be confused" he said lot of people have their favorite programs and they gotta have them like their medicine the Channel 6 owners In 1986 the price for Channel 6 was about $90 million This time the negotiated price was $59 million The numbers looked even better compared to the $270 million that NBC paid for Channel 4 in 1987 As one CBS executive said a lot of signal problem you can live with for that difference If you put that money in CDs make more money than these stations The same day of the 6 announcement CBS revealed that it had also signed up Channel 12 in West Palm Beach as an affiliate By persuading Channel 12 to switch from ABC to it CBS could make up for Channel weak signal in North Broward The 6 deal probably would never have happened without it Channel 12 liked the idea because it picked up a whole new audience in Broward Alex Dreyfoos Channel 12 owner says CBS approach him with this offer until June 1988 This tends to substantiate contention that buying 6 was not its first priority Tax credit incentive But another priority previously unreported gave CBS real incentive to make the buy The clock was ticking on a tax credit worth of millions of from the 1986 sale of its St Louis station It would have expired today had not CBS re-invested the proceeds in another TV station like Channel 6 Ober admits that the tax credit was a factor in desire to buy some station but insists it was never a in the Miami decision Some feel CBS will eventually find the Channel 6 situation too tough a ratings obstacle and that Ed Ansin could have the last laugh Maybe Ralph Renick the onetime symbol of Miami television sta-bilility as the anchor of CBS-affiliat-ed Channel 4 and today ironically a commentator on Channel 6 offers the ultimate perspective "Col Wolfson used to say there were only three things in fife that were certain: Death taxes and Renick recalls quoting his old boss at Channel 4 he was quite right" Herald staff writer Joan Chrissos contributed to this story network agreed to demands for the same affiliation payments it gave Channel 4 The hang-up Malara insists was absolute refusal to re-align with CBS prior to today Jan 1 1989 the day required to give up NBC what sent CBS back to Channel 6 he says CBS says Malara was terribly uncomfortable with NBC-owned Channel 4 controlling CBS programming sort of like trusting a Ford dealer to sell cars for General Motors said to Ed repeatedly is my preference that we be affiliated with you But I wait till January to make a deal He was so convinced that buying Channel 6 real I said you ignore this at your Channel Leider though contends that CBS was willing to wait until 1989 to make the switch just not so says Malara CBS cancels trip In April of Ansin was scheduled to go to New York to sign he thought a contract with CBS But Malara canceled the meeting no sense in your coming Malara says he told him if not going to move off Jan 1 Channel 7 insists the issue had become irrelevant CBS move to Channel 6 until Jan 1 anyway Leider points out if I had to wait anyway why should I affiliate with counters Malara I had to wait screw him Why not buy an Channel 7 now charges that CBS never negotiated in good faith CBS wanted only to buy into Miami Ansin and Leider feel They allege CBS wanted to force Ansin to sell just the way it tried to get KKR to sell Channel 4 at a cheap price Failing that they say the network bought 6 CBS acknowledges that it talked on and off with Channel new owners the TVX Broadcast Group Inc and Salomon Brothers But Malara says an Ansin-affiliation remained its first choice That choice changed Malara says only after he canceled the New York meeting with Ansin Shortly thereafter Eric Ober the president of owned-stations division initiated more serious discussions with Lawton Chiles to introduce an addendum to an FCC appropriations bill that would have mandated a full hearing on the purchase Nothing worked As he pursued those avenues Ansin promised his staff that somehow Channel 7 would be either an NBC affiliate or a CBS affiliate when the smoke cleared He was still promising two days before CBS announced on August 8 1988 its surprise move to buy Channel 6 It was a move that almost everyone believed CBS would never make because of signal deficiencies Almost everyone thought CBS was merely bluffing to extract the best affiliation deal from Ansin Ansin declined to talk to The Herald for this story accusing the newspaper of publishing in the past out lies" from CBS According to Malara the TELEVISION from 1A the famous NBC headquarters building in Rockefeller Center is known and called CBS' chief Laurence Tisch He caught his competitor on the tennis courts in St Thomas in the Virgin Islands told him we had just agreed to purchase WTVJ Channel 4 the CBS affiliate in said Wright was very gracious said they were looking at the station too would have preferred to purchase it themselves We get into it in any detail but I think he was NBC and its parent company General Electric had just spirited from under the not-so-watchful CBS Eye a much-desired plum at a downright nifty post-Christmas-sale price of $270 million Never before had one network bought affiliate The Big Switch came off because NBC defied tradition And because CBS looking for even a bigger bargain later gobbled up Miami's Channel 6 an independent station with a minimal audience and a weak signal But oh what a price tag: just $59 million Almost forever it seemed Channel 4 had stood as a pillar of TV stability Indeed up until 1985 anchorman Ralph Renick had been anchored in the same anchor chair since the time of Milton Berle For 35 years Tumbling dominoes The first de-stabilizing domino tumbled with the death of Channel 4 founder and owner Mitchell Wolfson at age 82 in January 1983 Wolfson known as Colonel" had always told people that his beloved Wometco a jumble of a corporate empire with disparate time from movie theaters to the Miami Seaquarium to Coca Cola bottlers would never be sold Not even after his death have taken care of all he once said have confidence in the executors of my will The company will not be sold and it will not be broken He was dead wrong The colonel's oft-mentioned for the company was never found after his death His associates concluded as one put it that secret plan was never to He never even designated a successor as corporate chairman On Sept 21 1983 his heirs agreed to sell Wometco to New Kohlberg Kravis Roberts Co investment firm in what was then the largest leveraged buy-out in history more than $1 billion KKR has since made other record-shattering mega-deals that make the Wometco buy-out look like small change the latest $245 billion for RJR Nabisco After KKR bought Storer Communications in 1985 it put WTVJ back on the market again Storer has cable TV systems in South Florida and Federal Communications Commission rules prohibit single ownership of both a cable system and a TV station in the same area KKR had lots of suitors and was preparing to hold an auction Gannett Westinghouse and Time Inc were among the rumored buyers But a huge pre-emptive bid by Lori-mar-Telepictures producer of such television shows as Dallas Knots Landing and Falcon Crest made that unnecessary In May 1986 in the midst of a bull market for television stations KKR reached agreement to sell WTVJ to Lorimar-Telepictures for an astonishing $405 million a price that was nearly 21 times the annual cash flow That rocked the industry The norm was 10 to 14 times cash flow Wall immediate reaction: Lorimar had grossly overpaid for the Miami station Within six months the KKRLori-mar deal had collapsed Channel 6 factor Although public blame was attributed to a softening national ad market the trepidation of financiers and the deterioration of prime time schedule some KKR officials believed an additional factor was at play independent station WCIX-Channel 6 in Miami It too was for sale at that time by its then-owner Taft Broadcasting And CBS let it be known that it might be interested in buying it despite the weak signal in Broward If CBS were to buy Channel 6 then Channel 4 could no longer be a CBS affiliate It would become the independent Independent stations make nearly as much money as network affiliates and thus worth nearly as much Suddenly the station that almost sold for $405 million was only worth a fraction of that Almost overnight interest in Channel 4 dried up All the buyers disappeared says Tony Cassara KKR's man in charge of the Wometco group Then CBS came to see him It offered $175 million for Channel 4 No more Question: Was previously professed interest in Channel 6 merely a ploy to force KKR to sell Channel 4 on the cheap? Or was the network simply a good shopper and exploring all its options in Miami? The answer depends on who you talk to GREAT NEWS AS SEEN ON TV Oriental Palace HUGE YEAR END CLEARANCE STARTS TOMORROW SAVE WITH THE LOWEST PRICES OF THE YEAR ON Cassara is strident on the issue CBS want to buy the station" he says wanted to steal it They felt they would show us and the rest of their affiliates that particularly in a market with a VHF independent an independent station on the low end of the dial such as channel 6 they could have a drastic effect on a station by threatening to pull the affiliation and leave us as an independent WCIX as a clearly used WCIX as a club to try and force us to sell WTVJ for less than it was Peter Lund became president of the CBS owned-station division right around the time all this was happening interest in WCIX was he insists "We saw it as a tremendous asset opportunity I can understand people at WTVJ being upset because this apparently did drive down the price but there was never to my knowledge any Machiavellian plan afoot always more fun to have conspiracy theories but really not Larry Ultimately Lund says CBS decid- ed at that time the Channel 6 deal just good enough The biggest bugaboo was Channel 6's weak signal The lost audience the network thought then would doom it to third or even fourth place Tisch particularly feared that Dan news would take a beating The network evening newscasts are so close that South Florida alone could tilt the national ratings So the Channel 6 deal died But KKR was still left with Channel 4 an unacceptable CBS offer and everyone else too nervous to touch it only alternative: a buyer unafraid of CBS pulling its affiliation And that could only be another network Cap CitiesABC interested Cassara approached NBC thing was kept under the tightest of wraps because of the competitiveness" recalls Pier Mapes the president of the NBC network division he says to make sure that Tisch get wind of GENBC was interested But asking price had to drop And GE knew without other viable bidders that it would Recalls Bob Walsh one of negotiators then have to be a brain surgeon to understand what was happening I just smelled it And waited And when KKR came back after the first of the year with a price I felt was reasonable $270 million I wait any New FCC rules Why was NBC eager to break precedent and buy Channel Because the FCC had changed the rules It was now allowing networks to own more stations And owning stations makes a network more money than merely affiliating with them Says NBC chief Bob Wright: had a sign out on our front lawn saying like to purchase a TV station in a top 20 market Please call this number if you have such a station to sell The fact one net work had never bought another's affiliate in a hundred yeare was just a function of well not doing So on that Friday in January 1987 Wright made his phone call to the Virgin Islands resort In Miami Beach that same Jan 16 NBC got ready to drop the other shoe on WSVN-Channel 7 owner Edmund Ansin Two of Bob lieutenants the long-time network president Mapes and boss Ray Timothy had already checked into the Doral Hotel on Miami Beach Mapes had phoned Ansin suggesting casually they grab a bite to eat Only 15 days earlier NBC had renewed affiliation agreement for another two years was probably one of the worst moments had in my 25-year career" says Mapes known Ed a long To Channel 7 general manager Bob Leider the first sign that something bad was about to happen was when he saw Timothy who usually visit affiliates no" Leider said when he saw him Timothy remembers reaction to the news was a perfect gentleman He was upset sure but a class act said Expletive with a For Ansin the loss of his 25-year relationship with top-rated NBC he would later estimate would cost him $75 million in the value of his station Maybe another $100 million if he affiliate with CBS and had to become an independent Nonetheless recalls Mapes Ansin got up and said terrible news stand in the way of our having So they went down the block on the 79th Street Causeway to On The Bay and Mapes ordered flounder and Ansin ordered stone crabs and fish was small and platter was large and eyeing the 6-foot-6 240-pound Mapes Ansin told the man who had just helped cost him $75 million to dig in Ansin picked up the check a good says Pier Mapes Back in St Thomas Tony Malara president of the CBS Affiliate Relations Division came off the tennis courts with Tisch CBS calls Ansin Malara called Ansin CBS it seemed would soon be a network without a Miami station and WSVN would soon be a Miami station without a network Malara said Ansin was about the turn of events He really want to talk about affiliating with CBS until he had explored all his options with NBC Malara characterized Ansin as man set in his ways And with a lot of pride He get over NBC It was the damnedest thing He was personally hurt by this whole experience with NBC and forget it He clearly continued to think something would happen with Ansin in fact tried to make something happen He tried to stop the GENBC deal for Channel 4 in the courts with the FCC and in Congress He charged that NBC's buying another station while still affiliated with him was He charged NBC and CBS of engaging in a to influence the Miami marketplace and force down station prices He lobbied Sen THIS IS YOUR GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF OUR LOWEST PRICES EVER ON THE WIDEST AND FINEST SELECTION OF GENUINE HANDWOVEN ORIENTAL RUGS IN ALL FLORIDA SELECTED CHINESE PERSIAN INDIAN DHURRIES ALL DRASTICALLY MARKED DOWN TO CLEAR FOR THIS ANNUAL EVENT SHOP OUR EXPERTS WILL BE ON HAND TO ASSIST WITH YOUR SELECTION vanted! 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