Media Magnate Murdoch Returns to His Post : Press: Deal between former owner and the reviled Abe Hirschfeld hinges on FCC waiver.

Media magnate Rupert Murdoch has agreed to retake control of the embattled New York Post from controversial tycoon Abe Hirschfeld, Murdoch’s News Corp. Ltd. said Sunday, signaling what may be the end to one of the most bizarre takeovers in the nation’s newspaper history.

The agreement, signed by Hirschfeld and Murdoch, would transfer the tabloid Post from Hirschfeld to a News Corp. unit.

Murdoch and Hirschfeld will apply jointly to a New York bankruptcy court today to terminate Hirschfeld’s management agreement with the newspaper, the company said.

Australian-born Murdoch, now a U.S. citizen, owned the Post from 1977-88, when he turned it into one of the country’s brashest tabloids.

He sold the newspaper because of federal regulations that prohibit ownership of newspapers and television stations in the same market. Murdoch owns a TV station in New York.

Sunday’s agreement hinges on an expected waiver of regulations by the Federal Communications Commission.

The 192-year-old Post, once known as America’s oldest continuously publishing daily, has not fared well since Murdoch sold it. It is now in bankruptcy and has been shaken in recent weeks by changes in management and editors.

Real estate developer Peter Kalikow, who must give up ownership of the Post as part of his own bankruptcy proceedings, currently has an agreement to sell the tabloid to Hirschfeld.

Hirschfeld, a New York real estate financier, has met unrelenting opposition from the Post staff in his bid to take over the paper.

After entering into a sales agreement with Kalikow, Hirschfeld immediately threw the Post into chaos by firing about 70 employees, including editor in chief Pete Hamill.

With Kalikow’s approval, he also placed the paper under bankruptcy protection.

The notion of Hirschfeld becoming the owner of the newspaper caused a near-mutiny of Post staffers, who rebelled by publishing a paper devoted almost entirely to vilifying Hirschfeld as a “nut” and “slime,” with a portrait of Post founder Alexander Hamilton on the front page with a tear running down his cheek.

Hamill, who was banned from the newsroom, squabbled publicly with Hirschfeld, but made up with his publisher in a news conference last week when Hirschfeld kissed him and reinstated him as editor.

Under Sunday’s agreement, a News Corp. unit would run the paper for the next 60 days, pending a permanent FCC waiver of the so-called cross-ownership rules. The deal also depends on the outcome of negotiations with creditors and unions representing the newspaper’s employees.

According to the News Corp. statement, the deal was struck with the help of New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, who said he wanted to save the newspaper, which has often attacked him on its pages.