Way Cleared for Hallmark to Buy TV Stations

Federal broadcasting rules have been waived to allow Hallmark Cards to proceed with its $301.5-million purchase of five Spanish-language TV stations, including KMEX Channel 34 in Los Angeles, the Federal Communications Commission announced Friday.

The sale, by Spanish International Communications Corp., must await an FCC ruling that Hallmark and its partner, First Chicago Venture Capital, are qualified to be licensees. The deal has been challenged in court by a group of Latino organizations.

In January, an administrative law judge ruled that the stations were illegally controlled by a non-American and he threatened to refuse to renew the licenses unless the ownership was restructured to give Americans greater control.

Usually, when a station’s authority to hold a license is challenged by the FCC, the station cannot be sold.

The board ruled that the public interest would be better served by allowing the sale and ending the dispute, rather than insisting on strict enforcement of policy.

The commission has been easing its policy on the sale of stations by strongly encouraging “settlements of unusual, complex, multiparty cases, even where basic licensee qualifications are unresolved,” said review board member Norman B. Blumenthal.

Hallmark has agreed to continue Spanish-language programming on the Spanish International stations.

Besides KMEX, the stations are:

- KWEX, Channel 41, San Antonio.

- WXTV, Channel 41, Paterson, N.J. (New York City area).

- WLTV, Channel 23, Miami.

- KFTV, Channel 21, Hanford-Fresno, Calif.

The waiver also affects KDTV, Channel 14, San Francisco, owned by Bahia de San Francisco Television Co., also for sale.