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Off in one corner of Herman Ramsey's office on Briarcliff Road stands a baseball bat, the insignia of the Chicago Cubs imprinted prominently on the barrel. For Ramsey, the bat and its affiliation are more than a fan's reminder of a favorite team because the Cubs and the company he serves as general manager, WGNX Channel 46, are both owned by The Tribune Co. of Chicago.
The Tribune Co. is perhaps most readily identifiable to the general public as publisher of the Chicago Tribune and several other metropolitan daily newspapers. Its subsidiary, Tribune Broadcasting, purchased WGNX in February 1985 for a cool $32 million, and has sunk untold millions into programming purchases intended to make Channel 46 a competitive factor in the Atlanta broadcast marketplace.
Such is life for Atlanta's three-station independent television market, where the size of the budget can determine success.
When Channel 46 was bought, the station was an unknown commodity, with most programming either grainy old movies or paid religious fare. Revenue-producing advertising, what there was of it, was drawn heavily from bellowing conversion-van dealers, and vendors of get-rich-quick or get-popular-quick schemes.
What the Tribune Co. purchase of WGNX did, then, was do far more than provide Ramsey with a favorite baseball team. It was a major injection of credibility and competitive enzymes into locally centered independent television.
The same could be said about the January 1985 purchase of Atlanta's WATL Channel 36 by Providence, R.I.-based Outlet Communications, which paid $29 million to buy the low-profile station from New Jersey-based Sillerman-Morrow Broadcasting.
Some industry observers say the New Jersey-based concern lacked the commitment to make WATL competitive.
However, WATL General Manager John Serrao says the current parent company has been committed to making Channel 36 profitable since the takeover three years ago.
"It was understood at the outset that WATL would not be profitable until at least 1989," Serrao says, referring to a 10-year growth plan established to turn the station around under its new ownership.
Putting the station up for sale was a decision made when Outlet Communications went into partnership with Wesray, but the firm rejected the only offer made ($16.5 million from former Cox Enterprises President William Schwartz) because it was too low. Due to a recent...