The State from Columbia, South Carolina • 57

FR CLOSE 8,490.67 32.89 Grant Jackson, executive business editor CLOSE $294.30 $2.20 Fax number NYSE F5 CLOSE $15.35 $0.10 settlement, F4 Oil: 771-8480 NASDAQ F6 Dow: How to reach us Ex-financier Gold: 771-8376 BUSINESS Milken to pay $47 million in COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA THE STATE FEBRUARY 27, 1998 SOUTH CAROLINA And news from the region Software development office planned on Main Conita Technologies Inc. i is opening a software development office in Columbia at 1200 Main St. to engineer the company's "virtual assistant" software. Initially, Conita will employ eight people. The company's virtual assistant technology allows people to retrieve data off their computer system by calling a "voice" generated through the software.

The voice interprets and responds to questions and commands. Jeff McElroy, president and chief executive officer, said Conita hopes to have the product to market by the end of this year. Minority center grant The S.C. Statewide Minority Business Development Center has received a $637,574 grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce's Minority Development Agency to provide management and technical assistance to minority businesses in South Carolina.

Companies that are at least 51 percent owned by an ethnic minority can receive the services of the center, including one hour of initial consulting for free. Business owners who were served by the center in 1997 will need to renew their contract to continue receiving assistance. UPSTATE Bank branches sold BELTON The Bank of Belton, Clemson Bank Trust and Carolina First announced Thursday that The Bank of Belton will acquire two Carolina First branch offices in Belton and Honea Path and Clemson Bank Trust will acquire a Carolina First Bank branch office located in Calhoun Falls. The three branch offices have total deposits of about $45 million. The transaction is expected to be completed during the second quarter of 1998, pending regulatory approval and certain other conditions of closing.

The terms of the sale were not disclosed. THE LOWCOUNTRY Margarine ingredient plant SUMMERVILLE A Finnish company that makes a cholesterol-cutting margarine says it will build a plant here that will employ 25 people to make the key ingredient. The Raisio Group said Wednesday the $22 million plant will make stanol ester, proven to reduce cholesterol. Stanol ester is found in pine wood fiber. The Raisio Group uses stanol ester in its Benecol margarine.

Raisio has agreed to give exclusive United States marketing rights to McNeil Consumer Products, a Johnson Johnson unit. THE BOTTOM LINE Bank profits drop WINNSBORO South Carolina Community Bancshares has reported a 48 percent decrease in profits for its second quarter, ended Dec. 31, due to higher costs of offering rates on deposits vs. loans. The bank, which owns Community Federal Savings Bank, posted profits of $70,000 for the quarter, down from $134,000 a year ago.

Deposits rose 3.6 percent to $35.2 million. Loans were flat at about $36 million. Total assets declined $1.5 million to $45.1 million, mainly due to a $2.7 million purchase of stock. DATEBOOK Software group to meet The Software Developers Association of the Midlands will meet Monday from noon to 2 p.m. at the Embassy Suites on Greystone Boulevard.

For more information call Dan Beatty at 939-7705. Gannett buying WLTX TV Changing hands By JIM DAVENPORT the past three months. During November Staff Writer sweeps, WLTX narrowly edged out longtime Columbia's WLTX TV-19 is being prime-time ratings winner WIS TV-10, the sold to Gannett Co. Here's a look at Columbia's oldest television station is being NBC affiliate, according to Nielsen Media the players. sold to the nation's largest newspaper chain, Research.

WIS had dominated the rankings Gannett Co. Inc. for 40 years in the 10-county market. WLTX WLTX The sale of WLTX TV-19, Columbia's CBS had tied WIS in a February 1993 sweeps. Columbia's oldest continually operating affiliate, will come with one major personnel When the numbers came out in December, television station.

change. General Manager Dick Laughridge, a Lewis Broadcasting was already looking for a First station to broadcast a church ser- 45-year veteran of the station, said his last day new owner for the station as the Lewis family vice live. as the station's leader would be the same day began working on an estate-planning strategy. First to broadcast a Columbia Reds base- the deal closes. Neither WLTX nor Gannett would say how ball game.

Laughridge has been the station's general much is being paid for the station. Those Station provides local news through Time manager for 20 years. He also is a vice presi- ures should become available in the next few Warner for CNN Headline News channel. dent of Lewis Broadcasting, the Savannah- weeks as the Federal Communications Coma General Manager Dick Laughridge retires based company that now owns WLTX and two mission scrutinizes the deal. FCC approval is when deal is approved.

other stations. required for sales of radio and television Owned by Lewis Broadcasting of Savan- WLTX signed on Sept. 1, 1953, as WNOK- broadcasting stations. nah. TV, Channel 67.

Laughridge joined the station Viewers should not be surprised to see a month later. changes in WLTX if the deal is approved. Gannett Co. Arlington, Gannett owns 87 daily WLTX news programming is one area that Owns 20 television stations. newspapers, including The Greenville News, might get attention.

The November ratings largest NBC and CBS affiliate and 20 television stations. showed news to be one of the major weakowner in the nation. Gannett had revenue of $4.7 billion in 1997. nesses at WLTX. The WLTX 6 p.m.

newscast Publishes 87 daily newspapers. Apart from his departure, no other person- garnered only half as many viewers as WIS. Best known as publisher of USA Today nel changes have been announced. "It's a Erik Collins, a University of South Carolina in 1995, bought Multimedia Inc. in great day for this station," Laughridge said.

journalism professor, said such deals have Greenville, publisher of The Greenville News. The station has been enjoying good days in advantages and disadvantages for news con- Banking on success Wayne Lovelace will be the president of FirstBank of the Midlands. The bank, which opens this summer, plans to raise $5.5 million, partly through a public stock offering. It's the first new bank to form in the Columbia area since 1995 and will be located at the former from as office at Assembly and Richland streets. 'We are not in the center of the city, but we feel for the level of business we're focusing on, the location is Lovelace said.

ERIC STATE FirstBank to open in Columbia New community bank to be on Assembly Street By SHERYL JEAN Staff Writer FirstBank of the Midlands, a new community bank planned for Columbia, has decided to locate in a vacant building at Assembly and Richland streets. Bank officials on Wednesday signed a lease for a two-story building at 1900 Assembly St. The first new bank formed in the Columbia area since 1995 is scheduled to open this summer with about 10 employees. Bank officials already are looking forward. "We would like to open another Midlands bank office at the end of the second year and a third at the end of the third year," said James "Alex" Shuford III, chief executive officer of FirstBancorporation Inc.

of Beaufort. FirstBancorporation is the $91.5 million holding company of FirstBank of Beaufort and of the proposed FirstBank of the Midlands. "We don't just want to have one branch" in the Midlands community, said Wayne Lovelace, who will be president of FirstBank of the Midlands. Beginning in April, the company will invest about $200,000 to renovate the square-foot building on Assembly Street, Shuford said. The former First Palmetto Bank building has been vacant for almost two years.

Two other banks have occupied the building, too. The building is off the beaten path of consumers who would walk into the bank to make deposits, but it has other features that attracted bank officials. "We are not in the center of the city, but we feel for the level of business we're focusing on, the location is fine," Lovelace said. FirstBank of the Midlands will target professional clients, he said. The building is near several government and court offices.

It has high visibility and many features needed for a bank, such as parking and a drive-up window, Lovelace said. "I think there's room in the market for another good community bank," said Michael Kapp, president of Bank of Columbia, a community bank located on Main Street. In April, FirstBancorporation plans to sell $3.5 million in stock to the public and borrow $2 million to capitalize FirstBank of the Midlands, Shuford said. A prospectus about the stock sale is not available yet. Sheryl Jean can be reached at 771-8463.

Turkey processor's flight leaves farmers hanging ROCK HILL A major turkey processor's decision to leave the South Carolina market within a year has sent more than a dozen turkey farmers reeling, many with heavily mortgaged operations and no source of birds. Rocco Inc. of Harrisburg, broke the sumers. News operations owned by larger enterprises are generally able to spend more on people, equipment and even news resources. "It brings a broader view into the area.

It broadens what is reported and makes them competitive." On the down side, Collins said, multiple stations owned by large corporations can risk losing some local perspective and begin to look like one another. WLTX's news operation had been improving during recent years, Collins said. "They have been coming out, which probably made them attractive to Gannett," he said. Gannett's television stations are in some of the nation's most competitive broadcast markets, including Atlanta and Washington, D.C. After the acquisition, the company's Gannett Broadcasting unit will reach 16.6 percent of the U.S.

television market. "They are a fine broadcast organization," WIS TV-10 news director Randy Covington said. "We look forward to the opportunity to compete with them. This is going to be a very different television Jim Davenport can be reached at 771-8570. Group buys Bloomington Broadcasting Company owns three Columbia radio stations By YON LAMBERT Staff Writer Bloomington Broadcasting Corp.

an Illinois-based group that owns 17 radio stations in five markets, including three stations in Columbia got new owners this week. A group of six investors, five of whom manage stations in Bloomington's local markets, bought the company. Bloomington, a private company, did not disclose terms of the deal. However, Bill McElveen, general manager at Bloomington's local stations WTCB, WOMG and WISW-AM said the company did not plan to change its name or the formats at any of its stations. McElveen, who is also the president of Radio South Carolina is among Bloomington's new owners.

"Probably the only thing this means is that there will be some local ownership in Columbia again," he said. The Bloomington-based company is one of three broadcasting groups that own 13 of Columbia's top 15 commercial radio stations. McElveen said he planned to ensure that Bloomington remains "cognizant of the needs of this community." Bloomington also owns stations i in Grand Rapids, Bloomington, Chattanooga, and the Tri-Cities market on the border of Tennessee and Virginia. McElveen said Bloomington expected the Federal Communications Commission to approve and close the deal by June 30. Safety-Kleen postpones merger vote By JOHN WELBES Staff Writer The next showdown between SafetyKleen two suitors will be March 9, when both Laidlaw Environmental Services and a group led by Philip Services Corp.

will again ask SafetyKleen's shareholders to support their plan. In the meantime, Columbia-based Laidlaw will make another trip to federal court in Chicago to remove obstacles to its plan to acquire Safety-Kleen. "Based on the voting at Wednesday's meeting, the Safety-Kleen shareholders do not support the Philip Group merger proposal," said Ken Winger, Laidlaw Environmental's chief executive officer. "It's time for us to return to court and demand that the S-K board be compelled in good faith to recognize the will of their shareholders," Winger said. Wednesday was the deadline for Safety-Kleen shareholders to vote in The Associated Press news this week to farmers in York and Chester counties.

No other poultry processor has expressed an interest in filling the void. Rocco officials said there i is a glut in the turkey market. Seventeen growers are affected 15 in York County, one in Chester County and one in North Carolina. "They felt like the rug had been pulled" out from under them," said Rusty Thomp- son, a Clemson Extension Service agent. It can cost more than $100,000 to build a chicken or turkey house, so farmers need a constant flow of birds to pay for the buildings.

"Some of the growers have had some expensive (poultry) houses built, and they PLEASE SEE FARMERS PAGE F2 PLEASE SEE LAIDLAW PAGE F2 8.