Word: wichitas
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There are still a few sunny pockets of prosperity to be found in the U.S. despite the deepening shadow of recession afflicting most of the nation. One of these is Wichita, Kans. (pop. 262,000). Here the news remains almost too good to be true: in October unemployment dropped from 3.2% to an even 3%, less than half the national average. The board of education recently approved a $30 million school-building program, and a $14 million city hall is under construction. Along Topeka Street east of the Little Arkansas River nearly every one of the turn-of-the-century...
...weekly attempting to compensate with depth and flair for what it lacks in immediacy. Second, it is and will continue to be distributed free, an arrangement that normally signals bottom-of-the-barrel journalism. Most curious of all, the Sun was launched last month by KAKE-TV & Radio, Inc., Wichita's prosperous ABC affiliate. That was a reversal of tradition; in the past, newspapers have organized or acquired broadcast properties...
...first rose in the fertile imagination of Martin Umansky, 58, KAKE's president and general manager. A New Yorker who has been a fixture in Wichita since he became a radio newsman there 34 years ago, Umansky has propelled KAKE to top ratings among Wichita's TV stations. He enjoys exposes (unhygienic restaurants and price fixing by pharmacies have been among KAKE's targets) and has long believed that Wichita's papers lack zeal...
Maverick Streak. Despite Umansky's muckraking instincts, the new venture is hardly antiEstablishment. An enrolled Republican, Umansky was Wichita's Advertising Man of the Year in 1967 and professes "twinges of conservatism." His solid reputation as an executive enabled him to land a $276,000 grubstake from KAKE'S board of directors, which represents some of Wichita's first families. The Sun's advertisers include many mainstays of the business community, who agree that the Eagle and Beacon have grown flabby...
...publisher's sober side appealed to Wichita's pillars, it was his maverick streak that helped attract a young and capable staff to the Sun. Editorial Consultant Richard Crocker, 36, who oversees a stable of seven reporters, is on leave from his editing job at the Washington Post. Investigative Reporter Randy Brown, 34, contributed to the Omaha Sun's Pulitzer-prizewinning exposé of Boys' Town. Former Beacon Copy Chief Les Anderson, 25, was lured away from the Ridder operation along with other talented but disgruntled writers. "I was turning into a vegetable," he says. "There...