Frazer, Pa. -- Harron Communications Corp.'s
purchase of Community TV Corp. in Laconia, N.H., will also satisfy the desires of two
Harron senior officers to be cable owners.
Harron plans to split the Community systems, with the
southern New Hampshire properties coming under Harron. The other systems, representing
about one-half of the 57,000 subscribers, will come under a new company partly owned and
operated by Harron chief financial officer Jack Quigley and senior vice president Greg
Raymond.
A key reason for structuring the deal that way is because
the northern New Hampshire systems fall within the Grade B contours of Harron-owned
WMTW-TV in Portland, Maine, Raymond said. Although Harron will be a "significant
investor" in the new company, to be called MetroCast Cablevision, the deal will be
set up to pass muster under cable-broadcast cross-ownership rules, Raymond said.
Raymond also said, though, that he and Quigley "have
kind of wanted to go out and start something up," so the deal came at an opportune
time. He said MetroCast will be looking to expand beyond the 30,000 subscribers that it
will pick up in this deal, either in New Hampshire or elsewhere.
For the time being, the Harron executives are occupied with
closing the Community TV deal and an agreement to buy Auburn Cablevision Inc.'s
14,200-subscriber system in Auburn, N.Y. Raymond said the new company will be based
alongside Harron in Frazer, Pa., but he and Quigley will be "deleting some full-time
duties" there.
The Community deal also signals a new willingness by Harron
to expand a cable business that it considered selling a few years ago.
