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                                Before the
                     Federal Communications Commission
                          Washington, D.C. 20554

In re Applications of                )
                                     )
STOCKHOLDERS OF RENAISSANCE          )
COMMUNICATIONS CORPORATION           )
(Transferor)                         )
                                     )
TRIBUNE COMPANY                      )
(Transferee)                         )
                                     )
For Transfer of Control of Renaissance)             File No. BTCCT-960801LJ
Communications Corporation, Parent of:)
                                     )
Channel 39 Licensee, Inc.            )
Licensee of WDZL(TV), Miami, FL      )


                                  ORDER


   Adopted:  March 5, 1998                                       Released:  March 6, 1998

By the Chief, Mass Media Bureau:

     1.  Tribune Company, which publishes a newspaper in Fort Lauderdale, agreed to merge
with Renaissance Communications Corporation, which owned six television stations, including
WDZL(TV), Miami, Florida.  Ownership of a newspaper in Fort Lauderdale and a television
station in Miami, both of which are in the South Florida market, would violate our longstanding
daily newspaper/television cross-ownership rule, which was upheld by the Supreme Court in
FCC v. National Citizens Committee for Broadcasting, 436 U.S. 775 (1978).  Knight-Ridder,
Inc., which owns a newspaper in Miami, opposed the transfer to Tribune of WDZL(TV) insofar
as Tribune sought a permanent or open-ended waiver of the cross-ownership rule.  The
Commission approved the license transfers subject to the condition that Tribune divest either the
Fort Lauderdale newspaper or WDZL(TV) within one year, which expires on March 22, 1998.

     2.  Tribune raised a number of challenges to the cross-ownership rule and to the
Commission's refusal to grant it a longer waiver.  The D.C. Circuit recently rejected those
challenges.  Tribune Co. v. FCC, No. 97-1228 (D.C. Cir. Jan. 16, 1998).  With respect to one
of those challenges, however, the Commission's position was apparently not clear.  Letter from
Christopher J. Wright to United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (Re:
Tribune Co. v. FCC, No. 97-1228), January 23, 1998.  More specifically, Tribune argued that
it was entitled to an additional waiver period under our decision in Letter to Joel Rosenbloom
from Chief, Mass Media Bureau (October 24, 1996)("Capital Cities Letter"), because the daily
newspaper/television cross-ownership rule would be reexamined in our upcoming biennial review
proceeding.  See Telecommunications Act of 1996, Pub. L. No. 104-104,  202(h), 110 Stat.
111-112 ("The Commission shall review . . . all of its ownership rules biennially" and "repeal
or modify any regulation it determines to be no longer in the public interest.")  The Court was
"not unsympathetic to Tribune's position" (slip op. 14) -- indeed, it said that "[i]t seems a shame
for Tribune not to be given the same relief as Disney in Capital Cities" (id. at 15) -- but
concluded that Tribune was procedurally barred from raising that argument.  The court also
appeared to think that the Capital Cities Letter rule would not actually apply because the biennial
review would not "begin until the summer or fall of 1998," that is, after the March 22, 1998,
divestiture date had passed.  Id.  The court's decision remains open to reconsideration.

     3.  The biennial review proceeding has not actually begun, and may or may not begin
before March 22, but in our view that should not be controlling.  Rather, for purposes of
determining whether an interim waiver should be granted in a particular case, what is important
is whether the public interest would be served by a grant of the waiver.  Whether the
Commission specifically contemplates changing a rule in a manner that would provide relief to
the party seeking the waiver is only one factor in the public interest calculus.  Even if the
biennial ownership review proceeding had already begun, that fact would not necessarily warrant
an interim waiver.  If the mere initiation of a proceeding called for an interim waiver of our
broadcast cross-ownership rules, the granting of waivers would be the rule rather than the
exception even though it was far from clear that a change in the rule was contemplated.  In our
view, the Commission decided not to grant a further temporary waiver to Tribune in this case
because it concluded that a further waiver was not warranted merely because a reexamination
of the cross-ownership rule was on the horizon.
  
     4.  The Commission's position with respect to interim waivers pending rulemaking has
apparently not been clearly articulated, as evidenced by the court's opinion.  In light of this
confusion, we believe it would be unduly harsh for Tribune not to receive some further interim
relief.  Moreover, Knight-Ridder and Tribune have reached an agreement pursuant to which
Knight-Ridder has stated that it is not opposed to a further waiver as long as Tribune continues
to operate the newspaper and the television station separately, and Tribune has agreed to do so. 
Relying on Tribune's representation, we conclude that continued common ownership by Tribune
of the Sun-Sentinel and WDZL(TV), as conditioned herein, will not so compromise our diversity
and competition interests as to outweigh the substantial equitable considerations favoring grant
of Tribune's request.  In these highly unusual circumstances, we think it fair to grant Tribune
the interim waiver that it and the court thought warranted under Capital Cities Letter. We will,
therefore, grant Tribune a temporary waiver until six months after the conclusion of our
reexamination of the daily newspaper/television cross-ownership rule.  However, we think it
should now be clear that the mere initiation of a proceeding stating that the rule would be
examined, or merely the fact that such a proceeding was on the horizon, would not be sufficient
to warrant an interim waiver.

     5.  Accordingly, IT IS ORDERED, That Tribune Company's request for an extension
of its existing temporary waiver of Section 73.3555(d) of the Commission's Rules to permit the
continued common ownership of the Fort Lauderdale, Florida Sun-Sentinel newspaper and
WDZL(TV) IS GRANTED subject to the outcome of the Commission's review of the
newspaper/television broadcast ownership rule in its 1998 biennial review of its ownership rules,
and  PROVIDED, That during this further period of common ownership, Tribune Company will
operate the Sun-Sentinel and WDZL(TV) separately, as represented in its Letter of February 11,
1998 (n.1, supra), and PROVIDED FURTHER, That within six months of completion of the
Commission's review of the newspaper/television broadcast ownership rule, Tribune Company
will, if necessary, come into compliance with the applicable rule by divesting its interests in the
Sun-Sentinel or by filing an application to divest WDZL(TV).


                                          FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION



                                          Roy J. Stewart
                                          Chief, Mass Media Bureau