Multicasting the future upstart Sinclair Broadcasting bases continued success on digital split

BALTIMORE - Strange as it may seem, KSMO, Channel 62 - once the runt of the local TV litter - may be riding the crest of radical change in the way we watch television. Ask an executive at a major TV network what the new era of digital television will look like and you're likely to hear about pretty pictures. Digital TV promises to offer viewers stunning clarity through a technology called HDTV - the HD is for high-definition. Hollywood movies will look better than they do in the multiplex. Football will be all too lifelike. You'll even get to see "Meet the Press" and Jay Leno more clearly, whether you want to or not. That's one view of the future. Here's another: Channel surfing one night on your new digital set, you come upon a kids' show on Channel 47 - actually, it's Channel 47A. And 47A shows nothing but kids' programs 24 hours a day. Next is Channel 47B, a locally produced music station. You recognize the voices of the on-air personalities from one of the local radio stations. On Channel 47C is CNNfn, a business-news spinoff of CNN. But you don't have cable. You're getting it because there's no room on your local cable system for CNNfn. Finally Channel 47D looks like a conventional TV station showing repeat episodes of "ER" and "Dawson's Creek." Now here's the kicker: These four programs are all being beamed by one local TV station. Its call letters are KSMO. These examples are purely speculative. But the vision behind it - a single station offering multiple viewing choices - is real. And it belongs to a group of broadcast renegades operating out of the back of a nondescript, three-story office building in west Baltimore. In the last three years Sinclair Broadcast Group has come out of nowhere to become the nation's seventh-largest TV group and a force to be reckoned with, from Baltimore to Kansas City. It has been acquiring TV stations almost nonstop, in mid-sized markets like Charleston, S.C., and San Antonio. Today Sinclair owns, operates or is acquiring 64 TV stations, including Channel 62 (which will do digital broadcasts on Channel 47). That's more stations than the Fox, ABC, NBC and CBS networks combined. As those big networks prepare to introduce viewers in the nation's largest cities to HDTV, Sinclair is crafting its own plan that would boldly flout it. Sinclair would turn broadcasters like KSMO into multicasters, using digital technology to squeeze several channels into the space currently needed for one. The pictures won't be as brilliant as those on stations airing in HDTV. But it would multiply viewers' choices dramatically - and, Sinclair executives believe, multiply their revenues as well. 'Never been built before' Barry Baker, the company's chronically hoarse CEO-designate, likes to joke about people coming to Sinclair's unpretentious headquarters to "meet the godfather. " At his desk, Baker monitors his e-mail constantly, glancing over occasionally to check the TV on the wall that's tuned to CNBC. He is a deal maker, and at Sinclair there are always deals to be done. In a barely audible whisper - his voice recently required surgery after years of overwork - Baker tells an interviewer, "We're building a system that has never been built before." Sinclair embodies the split personality of the current economic bull market: equal parts performance, opportunism and chutzpah. Most of its stations are affiliated with the Fox and WB networks, which are popular with young adults and, therefore, with key advertisers. But Sinclair's rapid growth is mortgaged on a bet that not only the ratings but also the economy will remain strong. If there is a sudden downturn, the company could find itself buried in debt and the dream will be lost. Besides the 64 TV stations, Sinclair owns 52 radio stations, including four FMs in Kansas City - KCFX, KQRC, KCIY and KXTR. "The theory is that lifestyle radio stations can work together with the television programs," Baker says. Sinclair's enormous size gives its stations bargaining power when competing for hot syndicated shows, like repeats of "ER" or talk shows like "Roseanne. " And Sinclair also has started news operations at a third of its stations, giving them a community presence that can't be gained from reruns and late-night movies. At a party for Channel 62 staff and advertisers this fall, Baker hinted strongly that Sinclair was fishing for a second TV station in Kansas City. Companies can't own two TV stations in one market, but they can operate a second station through a special agreement. If Kansas City were to become a two-TV market for Sinclair, Baker said he'd like to do news here as well, since two stations can split the cost of one newsroom. Tune in to tomorrow In contrast to Baker, Sinclair's chief technical officer Nat Ostroff affects a laid-back manner. He is thought to have one of the brightest minds about the new technology and he thinks the big broadcasters' strategy of a single signal would be a money-losing waste of time for smaller market stations. Ostroff's plan would cost Sinclair stations some picture quality - the four-way split would leave each with a look comparable to what satellite services can offer now - but no one else is thought to be as far along in developing an alternative to HDTV. Sinclair would get its programming from existing sources, meaning that four channels wouldn't cost anywhere near four times as much to produce, while KSMO would have four times the opportunities to sell advertising and promote its channels. Sinclair stations would always have the option of switching to HDTV for blockbuster movies and sports, and then return to separate channels. "It's like going from being a bakery to being a supermarket," Ostroff says