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Increasing costs of programming and a hefty expense for debt service have forced the owners of WTTV Channel 4 to seek shelter -- and clout -- under the wing of a big media company, it was learned last week.
Tel-Am Corp., an investor group that purchased Channel 4 in November 1983 in a $73 million leveraged buyout, has agreed to sell the station to Lorimar-Telepictures Corp., the producer of the blockbuster TV show "Dallas."
Lorimar-Telepictures, which now owns 13 television stations, said it will assume roughly $85 million in debt at the Indianapolis station and pay "substantially" less than $1 million in other considerations to take over the operation.
The fast-growing Culver City, Calif.-based company, which has become the nation's largest non-network producer of TV programming, also includes among its production credits the hit television shows "Knot's Landing" and "Falcon Crest" and the "Jane Fonda Workout" home video series.
Its programming muscle, which spawns games shows like "The All New Let's Make a Deal" and children's shows like the animated "Thundercats," as well as prime-time shows, is just what the doctor ordered for WTTV.
Local TV industry sources say that Channel 4 has shown a distinct lack of new shows over the last few years; they also suggest that WXIN Channel 59, the city's other...