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The talk of the television industry is the methodical belt-tightening, notch by uncomfortable notch, by Capital Cities Inc., new owner of the ABC television network and ABC-owned stations across the country. Even O. J. Simpson and Joe Namath on sacrosanct "Monday Night Football" fell to the budget-trimmers' blade.
But to hear cocksure piker Tim McDonald tell it, Cap Cities is a spendthrift compared to him. McDonald is president of TVX Broadcast Group Inc., the eight-station Virginia Beach, Va.-based company that just took over New Orleans' struggling second independent, WNOL-Channel 38. "I could probably cut expenses out of Cap Cities' operation," he boasts.
That tells you what kind of bread-and-water budget John G. Curren Jr., whom McDonald is bringing back to Curren's hometown to run Channel 38 from a sales manager's job in Spartanburg, S.C., will have to work with when he gets here this week.
He won't have the City Club at which to entertain clients as his predecessors, President and Managing General Partner Hal Protter and his wife, General Manager Gail Brekke, did. McDonald canceled the membership. Gone in a flash, are National Association of Broadcasters, Better Business Bureau and $10,000 or so in other memberships and subscriptions.
Don't Rain on My Ratings
Scratched is station executives' $90-a-month, indoor parking at the Fisk Federal Building at Canal Street and Claiborne Avenue. "It won't change the operation if the general manager gets wet," McDonald says. "Every time I spend a dollar, I want to see it on the set, in what comes over the air."
And gone are Protter and Brekke.
Wiped from the station's slate are $5 million in unpaid bills, the biggest chunk -- $3 million -- of which was owed film distributors. This was the only cash McDonald and friends -- legendary wizards at leveraging -- actually spent in the $13.5-million deal with Channel 38 Associates Inc.
TVX also arranged a loan to the original limited partners, by a Texas bank, of $7.5 million, with the station's lavish equipment as collateral. In turn TVX is leasing the equipment and has the option of buying it at fair-market value when the loan expires.
The station's original general partners -- Protter and the Siebert brothers -- Tom, a Washington FCC attorney, and Craig,...