According to Maximo Manuel Perez of the Listin Diario, President Balaguer has authorized the National Attorney General to use force, if necessary, to obtain the compliance of the two television stations who have, to date, refused to unify their frequencies on one channel, as ordered by the Department of Telecommunications. Since the measure to unify frequencies was announced, both ColorVision (channel 9 in Santo Domingo, channel 2 in the Cibao), and Rahintel (channel 7 in the capital, channel 11 in the interior) have stated their intention to defy the order.
Meanwhile, ColorVision has filed a law suit against TeleAntillas, which intends to broadcast on channel 2 throughout the country, as ordered by Telecommunications. ColorVision claims to still possess the right to use channel 2 in the Cibao, and it is interference on that channel that has caused the dispute. A decision on the case will be given on 19 March in the Quinta Camara Civil y Comercial of the National District. The frequency unification order has been a source of conflict between the government and the two stations which have been refusing to comply since last December, and the report that the President has authorized Telecommunications to enforce it, has all the prospects of a dramatic final showdown between the two parties.
Will San Francisco de Macoris have a baseball team?
The group of investors seeking to establish a sixth baseball team in the Dominican Winter League have until 15 March to comply with the requirements stipulated by league executives. If they do not do so, according to league officials, the opening for a new team could be given to investors in Puerto Plata.
According to the sports editor of the Listin Diario, Hugo Lopez Morrobel, the group in San Francisco de Macoris is trying to convince the league that it should soften its demand for a deposit of US$200,000 plus RD$1,000,000. The investors, led by San Francisco native and former U.S. Major League star Julian Javier, have said that they are willing to meet all the requirements except the US$200,000, which they would like lowered to US$120,000. When asked about the sums of money that the league is demanding, the owner of the Leones del Escogido, Daniel Aquino, told Mr. Lopez Morrobel that “one doesn’t go into professional baseball (as an owner) to make money, as in this country it is a business that doesn’t produce great profits. The sole compensation received by the team owners is personal satisfaction.”
Since 25 May, when the league awarded the town of San Francisco de Macoris the new team after a feasibility study, most observers had assumed that it would have a baseball team for the beginning of the 1996-97 season. With the investors’ apparent difficulty in meeting the league demands, and the cessation of the remodeling work to the Estadio Julian Javier, the potential home field of the new team, the “Gigantes del Nordeste”, as it was to be named, is now only a possibility.
If San Francisco is not awarded the new team, investors from Puerto Plata, who were vying with those from San Francisco for the right to enter the league, could receive another opportunity, although it will not be in 1996.
15-21 March 1996