Independent TV Stations

Walt Disney’s plan to purchase KHJ Channel 9 from RKO General promises to make the competitive Los Angeles TV market even more so. Broadcasters say KHJ may move up sharply in the ratings with Disney’s strong library of movies, cartoons and other programs. Disney has recently purchased off-network rights to four programs, including “Alf” and “Perfect Strangers”; KHJ, meanwhile, has picked up four Disney syndicated shows.

A resurgent KHJ might challenge independents KCOP and KTTV, which stand just ahead of it in the ratings, some analysts say. While some local broadcasters say KHJ has recently been stagnant, “this could make them a major player, certainly in kids’ programming,” said Robert Morse, vice president and general manager of KTTV Channel 11.

Standing in the way of this scenario is Federal Communications Commission approval of the complicated three-way deal that would transfer the station license from RKO to Disney, while paying a second license applicant, Fidelity Television, $103 million. Some communications lawyers retained by the parties to the deal fear that the FCC might look askance at a deal that so richly rewards RKO and Fidelity, whose fitness to run the station has been questioned.

On the other hand, says Jeffrey Logsdon, analyst with the Crowell Weedon investment firm in Los Angeles, “if the FCC wants to give the license to anybody, you’d imagine it would be somebody like Disney.”

The novela, or television soap opera, is a staple of Spanish-language TV programming and thus a focus of the competitive battle between 25-year-old KMEX Channel 34 and 2-year-old competitor KVEA Channel 52 in Southern California. But there is curious disagreement at the moment over which nation is best at turning out these tempestuous tales of passion and despair.

KVEA officials are upbeat because they will soon be able to carry the novelas of Televisa, a big Mexican TV studio, instead of solely the Venezuelan and Argentine novelas they previously relied on. KMEX has had an exclusive right to the novelas in Los Angeles, but KVEA will now have an option to pick up novelas that KMEX has turned down. Televisa novelas “have the Mexican actors and actresses people here know,” said Henry Silverman, president of Telemundo, the network that owns KVEA.

Leo Ramos, assistant general manager at KMEX, scoffs at the idea that KVEA will gain share with the novelas they have rejected. Besides, he adds, “the Venezuelan novelas are the best, anyway.”

Some of the independent television stations that stumbled during the late 1986 industry turmoil are coming back on the market--and finding real interest among buyers. WTTV-TV is an Indianapolis “indie” that was purchased by several principals of Drexel Burnham Lambert and the investment company itself with help of Drexel’s celebrated high-yield “junk bonds.” When the burden of the debt became too much, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy court reorganization.

Recently the company has received two takeover bids--a $59-million offer from Emmis Broadcasting and a proposal from Capital Broadcasting. “Like a lot of these stations that went under, this one had good revenues and good ratings,” said one analyst. “It just couldn’t support all the debt.”

TOP 10 TV AD MARKETS

Millions of dollars spent on TV advertising in each market in 1986. Los Angeles . . . $893 New York . . . 875 Chicago . . . 485 Philadelphia . . . 351 San Francisco . . . 346 Boston . . . 346 Dallas . . . 325 Houston . . . 258 Washington . . . 248 Miami . . . 233

Source: National Assn. of Broadcasters

L.A. TV RATINGS

Ratings of Los Angeles network affiliates and top independents for February, 6 a.m. to midnight. Each rating points is equal to 46,527 viewers; share figures represent the percentage of households tuned in at a given moment.

Station Rating Share KABC Channel 7 9 22 KNBC Channel 4 7 17 KCBS Channel 2 5 14 KTLA Channel 5 4 10 KCOP Channel 13 4 10 KTTV Channel 11 4 10 KHJ Channel 9 2 6

Source: A. C. Nielsen Co.