MEDIA : Waiting for Smoke to Clear in Maneuvering for KJOY

KJQY-FM(103.7) is a pawn in a complicated corporate chess game that probably won’t be completed for several weeks.

Although the deal that would have made Westwood One the station’s new owner is off, New York financier Bob Sillerman’s Command Communications has until Feb. 15 to exercise its option to buy the station from Group W.

The original plan was for Sillerman to turn around and sell his rights to “KJOY,” a traditional ratings power with its elevator music format, to Westwood One for a total of $19 million, including $4 million in Westwood stock. In return, Command would buy Westwood One’s 50% stake in WNEW-AM in New York.

But Westwood One’s stock has been spiraling downward, and both Sillerman and Westwood now say they really aren’t that interested in making a deal.

Meanwhile KJOY general manager Bert Whalen has already made it clear that he would like to buy the station, and he’s putting together a team of investors. He tried to buy the station before the Westwood deal was announced but couldn’t swing it.

“There’s a possibility that I might work with Sillerman,” Whalen said. “But I’d much rather get together San Diego investors.”

One name that continually pops up is former Noble Broadcasting and Viacom executive Norman Feuer, an old friend of Whalen’s.

Feuer, who left Noble a few weeks ago to “rearrange his sock drawer,” said Thursday that “at this moment” he’s not interested in the station. Among other reasons, he said, the oft-quoted $19-million figure is too high.

The situation is “too complicated at this point,” Feuer said.

Whalen looks at the situation this way: “There are a lot bullets flying, and there is so much smoke that when it all clears the one person still standing will get the station.”

Although Jeff Prescott talks about the desire for change and a sense of timing, a two-year guaranteed contract for a reported annual salary of $160,000 each certainly had a lot to do with Prescott and partner Mike Berger’s recent “defection” from KGB-FM (101.5) to XTRA-FM (91X).

Their old station, KGB-FM (101.5), where Prescott worked for 14 years, doesn’t offer employees contracts.

KGB general manager Tom Baker was “disappointed” that Berger and Prescott didn’t give him an opportunity to make a counteroffer.

Last summer, when KSDO-FM (Classic 103) had tried to hire the team for its new classic rock format, KGB countered by giving each a raise.

“They asked what it would take to keep us,” Prescott said. “Mike and I blew it. We asked for too little.”

Earlier in the year, KGB had given each an unsolicited $10,000 bonus.

But KGB owner Brown Broadcasting has always been known for being tight with the purse strings.

“They throw nickels around like manhole covers,” said one industry source.

Baker counters that the station signed the other member of the Berger and Prescott team, Cookie “Chainsaw” Randolph, who was wooed by several stations, to a big new contract after Berger and Prescott left. Randolph may be the highest paid radio personality in the county, Baker said.

Prescott said they never took the 91X offer back to Baker because 91X had made it clear they didn’t want to get into a bidding war. Besides, they had already made up their minds to leave.

“We just liked the sound of it (switching stations),” Prescott said. “Maybe we were ready for a change.”

But he doesn’t deny that money was a factor.

“We just wanted to get our share,” Prescott said. “We make a lot of money for a radio station.”

An impressive number of movie buffs noticed a mistake in last week’s media column. Yes, indeed, it was Peter Finch, not Albert Finney, who starred in “Network.” “So much for your holier than thou attitude,” said one caller. And that came from a friend. . . .

KKYY (Y95) program director Pat Finn has resigned to pursue “personal goals.” . . .

KGTV (Channel 10) general manager Ed Quinn reportedly wrote a letter to Helen Copley apologizing for certain aspects of a recent Michael Tuck “Perspective” piece, which blasted the Union-Tribune publisher’s anti-union activities. “No comment,” Quinn said. . . .

KNSD-TV’s (Channel 39) “Images of the Eighties” special was well-produced, an excellent blend of music and video. However, it wallowed in self-promotion, coming across as a commercial for its on-air staff. The video segments were separated by “interviews” with the station’s news “personalities,” as if people were dying to find out what anchorwoman Denise Yamada was doing when Mt. St. Helens erupted. . . .

Former Channel 10 anchorman Paul Majors, who left to anchor the news for the NBC affiliate in Minneapolis, KARE-TV, is among those being mentioned as a possible anchor replacement for Channel 10’s Michael Tuck. . . .

A study by the accounting firm of Miller, Kaplan, Arase and Co. says San Diego radio revenue jumped 10% in 1989, up to about $90 million. The gain is respectable, but it indicates a change in the industry’s growth curve. A 20% increase was reported in 1988, a year that will be forever worshipped by local radio station owners. . . .

This is a big week for local fans of ABC News. Correspondent Morton Dean will be imparting wisdom at Point Loma College tonight. On Friday, ABC media analyst Jeff Greenfield will play UCSD’s Mandeville Auditorium. . . .

Beginning Friday at 5:30 a.m., KSON AM (1240) and FM (97.3) will dedicate 36 hours of its programming to “Kids Get Cancer 2,” a radiothon to benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.