The Fresno Bee from Fresno, California • 1

and more travel Dubrovnik Zagreb the Dalmatian Riviera UNDERSTANDING HOW IT IS TEMPO The Fresco Bee FINAL EDITION Copyright 1986 The Fresno Bee 75C FRESNO CALIFORNIA Sunday Morning November 2 1986 Tale of a retail war: Electronics appliance outlets flood market By IRWIN SPEIZER Bee staff writer clined as a result of the heightened competition is difficult to determine dear is that the appliance and electronics sales business has never been tougher in Fresno "The strong ones will survive and the weaker will perish" said Gary Fracolli president of Handy Andy a Sacramento-based company that opened a store on West Shaw Avenue last year "Right now there aren't any markets we're in that are as competitive as Ironically Handy Andy and other retailing chains were drawn to Fresno by the combination of a wide-open market and a growing population of middle-class households with the money to buy pricey consumer commodities like stereos and videocassette recorders The fierce competition now seen in Fresno mirrors similar skirmishes See Retailing PageA8 Fresno over the last year and an other chain opened its second Fresno County outlet in Clovis Advertising is up as are price claims and sales gimmicks Some consumers have taken the cue and are price shopping as never before "I've been going from place to place ad to ad looking for the lowest said Gerald Baltezore of Go-vis as he waited at the door Friday morning for the new Circuit City store to men for business He was shopping for a miniature television but he was being cautious about his choice of retailer "I'm leery of a place closing down" Baltezore said Cathe Hutchison was drawn to Gr-cuit City by an ad for a portable television and decided to see what the new store had to offer "I just wanted to check it she said Whether prices actually have de Color televisions Walls of color televisions 1 Hundreds of color televisions winking from shiny new showrooms Over the past year Fresno has been flooded with color televisions as well as stereos washing machines and refrigerators Some of the largest appliance and electronics dealers in the state and nation have simultaneous opened new stores in Fresno touching off a retailing war as sellers scramble for buyers said Ed Cutler Jr owner of The Superstore a Fresno independent store lot of places won be in business two years from now" Four major retailers of electronics and appliances have crowded into Fresno BesRalpti Thranetwry Mark Shirin of Ventura TV takes the new competition head-on Seeking a Mass audience US hostages reported in Syrian hands Hussein condemns Arab terrorism F8 i By JOHN RICE Associated Press and the Syrians would release the Frenchmen before Nov 10 It said the Syrians were considering releasing two of the Americans but did not say which two The station which speaks for the anti-Syrian Lebanese Forces Christian militia has good Lebanese security sources but has been inaccurate at times in the past Its report could not be independently confirmed In Damascus Syrian Information Minister Yassin Rajjouh asked about the reports of an imminent See Hostages back page LARNACA Cyprus Hostage negotiator Terry Waite dropped from sight Saturday after announcing progress in efforts to free Americans kidnapped in Beirut Lebanese television said six American and two French hostages already were In Syrian hands The Lebanese Broadcasting Corp said the eight hostages were in An-jar in east Bekaa Valley Carnegie attacks colleges Urges changes in operations Fresno BeeDiana BakMca FTOshmen low In academic skills C9 Michael Jordan of Channel 49 mans camera as the Rev David Duran celebrates Mass at SL Chapel in Fresno Fresno diocese takes to airwaves tonight By CHRISTOPHER CONNELL Associated Press WASHINGTON Hie Carnegie a balance between religious and educational The Rev David Duran the diocesan vicar of By LANNY LARSON Bee television writer Its research included surveys of thousands of faculty members and students and first-hand inspections of 29 campuses The 242-page report written by Carnegie President Ernest Boyer echoes some of the same criticisms that US Secretary of Education William Bennett has leveled at the campuses Boyer said America's higher education system remains envy of the but "the undergraduate college the very heart or higher teaming is a troubled institution "Driven by careerism and overshadowed by graduate and See Colleges back page Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching issued a harsh indictment Saturday of the undergraduate colleges saying they are more successful at handing out degrees than in educating students The prestigious Princeton NJ-based foundation delivered its blast after spending three yean and $1 million on a study of the quality of the 2000 four-year colleges that enroll more than 5 million students tial viewers about 500000 of them Catholic But Harrison intend for the station to appeal only to Catholics Channel mission statement says designed "to deliver programming of a religious educational and instructional content as well as entertainment suitable for family viewing primarily to the people of the San Joaquin Harrison said it will try to "strike seph Madera will push a specially made switch at the Holiday Inn in Visalia and KNXT Channel 49 will broadcasting from Blue east of Visalia The station is licensed to Visalia and has studios in Fresno and Visalia Marv Harrison the former Fresno television down Hippo Jr is general manager of Channel 49 He said there are about 2 million poten finance said shortly after application was made that it wasn't the aim of Channel 49 programming to evangelize "Yes we will sign on and sign off with The Holy Rosary' And we will have a lot of other Catholic See Diocese Page AS Putting a television station on the air has taken the Catholic Diocese of Fresno a surprisingly short 30 months during which the diocese had to raise money make allowances for condors and weather protests of American Indians Tonight at 6 o'clock Bishop Jo State elections results could have profound national impact Democrats leading pack in some areas California voters will decide court future By WILLIAM ENDICOTT Bee Capitol bureau chief SUNNY High: 79 Low: 46 Saturday high: 74 Details Page A2 Briefly Told J8 Business F4 Classified XI Crosswuid NMMMG6 Deaths -B6 arm 1 Forum -3 1 Metro 61 Real Estate J1 Sports Spotlight XI Tempo Travel Cl found in a recent survey of five counties in the heavily populated Southern California area that only 42 percent of the registered voters he questioned had "a great deal of in the election And Secretary of State March Fong Eu said Friday she expected a historic low turnout of 59 percent more than 10 percent below the average for a gubernatorial election year Explanations for the disinterest range from speculation that voters have been turned off this year by See California back page diction two days before the election in part because voters are expected to turn out in record low numbers almost everywhere There also remains some chance that the split could be equal with 50 seats held by each party leaving Republicans in control because Vice President George Bush would break tie votes in his constitutional rote as president of the Senate If that happened there would be an intense focus on an otherwise obscure Democratic Sen Edward Zorinsky of Nebraska who has hinted publicly that he may be See National back page ment salaries and a growing bilingual population as it moves into the next decade For the most part the long campaign season has been marked more by form than substance There have been no debates between the major statewide candidates and there has been an unprecedented dependence on sharp personal attacks encapsulated in 30-second television spots The prediction by pollsters and state election officials is that a record low number of ballots will be cast Pollster Steve Teichner said he By MICHAEL SHANAHAN Bee Washington bureau WASHINGTON Late trends in a half dozen key states are favoring the Democratic Party's drive to regain control of the US Senate in Tuesday's midterm elections To hold off the shift toward the Democrats Republican candidates around the country are counting on a massive national campaign to get their supporters to the polls and on President Reagan's immense popularity But the final outcome remains extremely close and beyond firm pre- SACRAMENTO Having been bombarded for months with political rhetoric and campaign commercials California voters finally get to take their revenge Tuesday in an election that will determine not only the future of a governor and a US senator but the makeup of the California Supreme Court What voters do also could have a profound impact on the leadership of the state Legislature and on how the state deals with the multiple problems of AIDS toxics govern.