Abilene Reporter-News from Abilene, Texas • 35

THE ABILENE REPORTER-NEWS AbUeneTexuSun MornSepi 231979 7-B Laws Slow New TV Station i I I 'Federal i I By CHRIS WIENANDT Entertainment Editor Everyone has his dream Bill Terry's was to have his own television station And when KTAB-TV Channel 32 aigns on the air late this month or early in October it will be the culmination of that dream It'a been a long road for Terry president and general manager of Big Country TV Co and not an easy one Two of the infamous Murphy's laws proved applicable in the course of building the station Terry said: If anything can go wrong it will and Everything takes longer than you think it wilL Terry had wanted a television station for a long time television guy I would like to have his own station" he uld and he felt last year that the time was right The Abilene market was growing he 1 said and affiliation with CBS was available (KTXS Channel 12 had primary affiliation with ABC and a secondary affiliation with CBS but was showing relatively little CBS programming he said) So Terry and a group of other Investors got together and formed Big Country TV Co and on March 20 1971 Big Country applied for a license with the Federal Communications Commission Big Country's other owners are Abe Allen Bob Beckham Dr Jose Guerra Bob Moford Morey Millerman Syd Nlblo Dr Zane Travis Dr Bob Trotter and BUI Wright all of Abilene Tew other stations are locally owned as KTAB Is Terry said he cited sta-! tlons in Waco and Amarillo as other ex-i amples It took a year and a day from the time the company's application to the FCC was submitted before approval was granted it usually takes three to four months Terry said The delay he said was caused by a crush of applications for UHF television stations On the other hand most stations take 12 to 14 months to build he said will have done it in six Getting the FCC application in shape to turn in was the first of several mam-moth tasks Terry and hla crew had to take on The application aa submitted was an inch thick It included: -I an application for call letters a statement showing financial secu-I rity sufficient for a year's operation i a description of the Abilene area an aeronautical study of the area hadn't realized how many things were involved in putting together a station Things have to be arranged far in ad- vance Timing is very Important" Among timing problems was that the entire transmitting tower could not be finished all at once so Terry asked the company to send the bottom first They sent the middle instead 1 But things eventually worked out even a the problem of how to get the heavy transmitting equipment up the hill 15 miles southeast of the city where the tower would be in this business seems to weigh a Terry said Installing the transmitter Itself the heaviest piece of which weighed 7400 1 lb proved to be a study in strategy The van which hauled it into town couldn't i make it up the hill and the pieces weighed too much to be unloaded by his workers Terry said so after much pondering and searching he located a forkl- -ift which could lift the weight With both the equipment and the fork UR at the bottom of the hill Terry had to come up with something to transport them up die hill That turned out to he an oil rig trailer and winch So with all the necessaries gathered 1 together work began with winch and fork lift being shuttled up and down hill The work took a total of several houra Terry said Gathering people was easier than cor- rating the right equipment at the right time Terry said that as soon as the sta- tion's construction permit was granted people started calling about Jobs Hiring though began about two months ago for technical personnel and a month ago for "key people" Terry said Having the right people in the right po- sitions is "really the key" he said Just delighted with the staff we have" KTAB's on-air staff includes Larry Fitzgerald and Bob Bartlett co-anchormen Bill Chaney weather Bill Bour-land sports and Fran King who will co-host the noontime show with Bartlett The station is in the process of doing a "transmitter proof" checking that the transmitter is operating properly A Form 302 must be filed with the FCC documenting the test results and if all goes well Terry said program test authority will be given to KTAB At that point the station can go on the air he said Until then the staff la undergoing dry runs to make sure that things Jibe when the station aigns on Terry said "It's been hectic" Terry sighed Wishful thinking him The station should be on the air by early October he said (Staff Photo by Don Blakley) Bill Terry president and general manager of Big Country TV Co looks skyward earlier this month imagining new tower to be in place instead of in pieces around (the station had to get Federal Aviation Administration approval to erect lta tower) a survey of citizens to determine what the Interests" are in Abilene a proposal to address those problems financial data on the station assurances of the high moral character of the station's owners and of the pieces to the station had to be coordinated since some items had to be in place before others could be Installed Terry said "The tricky thing is that everybody wants to negotiate" he said and negotiating the delivery dates turned out to be a delicate matter Although he has been in the television business much of his life he said CBS affiliation Including Dallas Cowboys games and the Super Bowl "then we could move" Terry said The greatest part of the work was still ahead Arranging for equipment was a headache Terry said Most of the equipment for the new station had to be specially ordered and hand-made to the station's specifications Each manufacturer of course had different production schedules but delivery an engineering application After a construction permit was it sued Terry said he could begin to negotiate with the network He flew to New York to convince CBS' vice president for affiliate relations and some of the network's attorneys to take KTAB into their system It took a week for the decision to come down but after KTAB was assured of At 75 Dali Still Looking to Future Chris Wienandt mi What Price Enthusiasm? The new Socialist mayor of nearby Flgueras where the Dali museum was inaugurated five years ago figured past associations required changing the name pf Salvador Dali Square The mayor uld the museum square should be given back the name it had before Franco won the Spanish civil war in 1939 "The people of Figueras decided against the Dali says "The matter is finished" As a sign of his gratitude he is dedicating a painting to the town A change in the name of the square would have been a heavy blow to Dali since he has strong feelings of pride and paternalism for the museum the second most popular in Spain after the Prado in Madrid In the center of the museum sits Dali's 1941 Cadillac convertible complete with white-wall tires Never modest Dali says he rates himself as the best of Spain's contemporary painters making no mention of Picasso but says he cannot compare with rid masters such as Valazquez One new project he announces to an audience of 3ve including his wife and secretary will be "a three-dimensional painting using special glasses of my invention" for the Paris exhibit "I have Just finished a tragedy completely classical erotic but not pornographic" he saya But there are small signs Dali is coming to recognize mortality He asks privately if his famous mustache is holding up sometimes puts the wrong year down when he autographs a photograph and notes nostalgically that he used to feel that his last work always was his best times it is not he says have many projects yet to do" he adds putting out of the question the possibility of slowing down with age have more ideas than ever before" At the age of 3 he recalls he wanted to be a king at 5 Napoleon and my ambition grew and grew and At 75 is it Dali? we don't know yet" "yes" They were first married in a civil wedding in Paris in 1935 then in a religious ceremony at the Spanish village of San Martin in 1959 Dali feu in love with her when she visited Port Lligat with her first husband Poet Paul Elouard Dali says that although he is not a faithful Catholic he still spends 15 minutes a week in the village church In the 1940s he went through a religious period and personally showed Pope Pius XII his painting "La Madonna of Port in 1950 In between his melting watches gold-colored Rolls Royces and hundreds of walking sticks one killed seven women pam pam pam and belonged to a French marquis" he has written more than 350 books He is now collaborating on a new one with a Spanish writer Jose Pla called Works" which will have a limited edition of 359 copies weighing nearly 100 pounds each The first 29 copies bearing a special Dali original medallion will sell for $75000 each The book will contain 29 original engravings by Dali and 90 color reproductions of his works displayed in museums around the world accounting for much of the book's heavy weight real enthusiasm is reserved for an exhibition he will have this fall of works the most important of my life" at the Pompidou Center in Paris The exhibit will be announced he says "with a big explosion of fireworks in Paris This kind of activity existed only in France in the time of Marie Antoinette It will be the most fantastic fireworks" Dali is less expansive however about his first brush two months ago with anti-Francoism in Spain During the dictator's rule Dali was never an activist like another Spanish artist Pablo Picasso but he had dose relations with the family of the late Generalissimo Francisco Franco including doing a controversial portrait of Franco's oldest granddaughter He describes himself today as apolitical but "tremendously monarchistlc" PORT LLIGAT Spain (AP) At 73 Salvador Dali is planning to shoot off fireworks spend New Year's Eve at Maxim's and marry his wife for the third time Despite what seem like increasing lapses toward normality the Spanish surrealistic painter sculptor playwright movie maker author exhibitionist and self described crazy" genius is wearing life well Perhaps he is not destined to be the immortal he already claims to be but he certainly is having a good try at it Seated on a pouf at his rambling cliffslde home on Spain's Costa Brava he is conventional Dali: a Chinese coolie hat tilted to show his famous eyebrows white shirt and pants visible through a blue harem smock and espardenyas the peasant sandals of his beloved Catalonia on his feet Mugging for the camera he seems totally unaware when a motorbike from aimrounding Port Lligat village overrides his husky voice love tourists because they are good for my country" he says acknowledging that the annual summer invasion has made it impossible for him to carry out an old idea of scattering 3000 elephant heads around the hills of the fishing village "You can see" he says pointing to the white-washed wall of one of the nearly one dozen fishing cottages he strung together to make his home "there are no tour-la ts is only you who disturbs he tells his interviewer don't worry ask questions because I never answer them anyway" Fingering the harem shirt he does however saying it was given to him "by one girl two days ago Girls give me things all the time" Ruasian-born wife Gala to whom Dali publicly declares he has never been unfaithful sits quietly in the twilight her chosen place in their life "Madame Dali is the architect of this house my inspiration Next year Dali will marry again The same lady Bravol The reason as Dali chooses not to explain la simply The interest sculptor Robert Berks showed in Abilene during his visit here last week is a positive sign for the city If Abilene not only the city itself but the spirit of its people can impress one who is so well-traveled as Berks we let our civic enthusiasm wane And the monument which has been proposed for the city on the occasion of its centennial is something to work toward As with everything else these days the big stumbling block will be money Although Berks could make no estimate of the cost of a project like the one he proposed Thursday we know the amount will not be paltry There's not only the artist's fee to worry about in a case such as this but construction costs as well We may think twice before deciding to go ahead with the project but I hope we be deterred altogether A work of art for Abilene by so prominent an artist as Berks would signal to the rest of Texas and the country that Abilene really is the artistic center of this part of the state and perhaps more hopeful that the pioneering spirit Berks said he perceived here will extend to the arts and to the financing of the arts It's an area where we can show what kind of people we really are Puzzle Answers CHYPTOGHJUII 1 BIG HOLIDAY DEATH TOLL ON HIGHWAYS INDICATES THAT CARS SHOULD PERHAPS BE REGISTERED AS DANGEROUS WEAPONS 2 BIG TIBET HAS GHEE AS BUT TER YET TEA IS BETTER BUY 3 LITTLE FISSION BOAT SANK IN LAKE OF BUREAUCRATIC CRISES 4 CARGO BOUND FOR FARGO GOT STUCK IN BIG DINOSAUR TRACK CRYPTOGRAM Pg 4B Gives Case for Euthanasia Answer: FRIGID BOUGH? MANAGE ASTHMA TRICKY JAGUAR Patrick might have been an interesting thriller for the late late show if the script hadn't been so bad Written by Everett De Roche some of the lines couldn't have stood up even at 3 am on television Psychoklnetic scaries have been numerous in the past few years Carrie and The Fury (or example and they have been done better Patrick evidently had a low budget since the sound could never be synched to the actors' lip movements giving it the effect of drive-in sound without the benefits of drive-in viewing The audience is never told any of the pertinent facts that could have made the film more interesting Why did Patrick kill his mother? Why did he subsequently fall into a coma? Since the action is centered around the awesome psychic power itself with nothing truly terrify ini happening the result is a boring film about a coir-atose spitter Jealous of his nurse's lovers Directed by Richard Franklin Patrick rated I is now showing at The Movies vealed that he has that dreaded power psychokinesis! To make the story even more ridiculous Patrick falls in love with the pretty nurse and arranges for eery accidents to befall her boyfriend and ex-husband The nurse learns the head doctor who knows about Patrick's psychic powers intends to kill him Unfortunately she discovers this about 30 minutes after two ten-year-olds in the front of the theatre announced the fact in a loud whisper From here on out it's strictly downhill The nurse has to stop the doctor from murdering Patrick and the film ends with a minor bit of eeriness but not enough to make the whole thing worth watching Robert Thompson plays Patrick and really has a cushy Job All he does is lie In bed staring bug-eyed and spitting Since he has enormous blue eyes and spits with distinction Thompson was wisely chosen for his role The young nurse is played by Susan Penhaligon who has li tie eyes and gives a little performance 1 i By PAT KILPATRICK Patrick billed a both a horror film and a science fiction thriller is neither Mostly it's just silly The film sctually deals with the mysterious pow- era of psychokinesis and stars a cast of unknowns who deserve to become knowna after having the misfortune to be cast in this dud Patrick la a young man who has been in a coma for three years following the death of his mother i which we are shown in the beginning he caused I Supposedly dead for all practical purposes Patrick 1 i continues to exist on life-support systems in a pri- vate hospital staffed by an odd assortment of pay- chotic nurses and owned by a mad scientist-type doctor i A pretty young nurse is hired as Patrick's day attendant and soon discovers her patient has retained at least his sense of touch and hearing when she 1 makes contact with him through a series of spit sig- nals Qassy Yes and Patrick also types his nurse notes on a typewriter sitting across the room when It is re- I What the mummy-lobe was A TINY TUT JUMBLE Pg 4B CROSSWORD Pg 4B 'f I.