Up from Poverty

Even by Text, standards, Lyndon and Lady Bird have long been considered wealthy. Last week the Washington Evening Star made a detailed attempt at estimating the Johnson family's financial worth, arrived at a tidy figure of more than $9,000,000.

Listed were the following assets in Texas, most of them held by the Texas Broadcasting Corp.,*in which Lady Bird, Luci Baines and Lynda Bird hold 84% of the stock:

>Austin radio station KTBC and tele vision station KTBC-TV, which holds an area monopoly in one of the nation's largest cities with only one television station. Estimated value of the Johnson interest: $5,000,000. A 29% share of Waco's KWTX and KWTX-TV, operating in another lucralive market, plus KWTX's sizable holding in a radio station in Victoria and television stations in Bryan and Sherman: $870,000.

> Proceeds from the 1961 sales of sta tions KRGV and KRGV-TV in the Rio Grande Valley city of Weslaco: $1,400,000.

> The 400-acre L.B.J. Ranch near Johnson City: $150,000. A 6,300-ft. landing strip, capable of handling commercial aircraft: $100,000.

>Other ranchlands in central Texas, including the 1,800-acre Granite Knob Ranch, the nearby 800-acre Lewis Ranch, half of the 4,500-acre Haywood Ranch near Llano, and 1,700 acres along the Pedernales River near the

home ranch: $600,000.

>Some 25 acres of choice residential land in an Austin suburb, originally

held in Lyndon's name, later shifted to

the company: $600,000.

> A twin-engined Beechcraft family

airplane: $200,000.

In addition, the Star cites unestimated holdings in cattle and corporate stocks. It reports the "widespread impression in Austin" that the family controls the Brazos-Tenth Street Corp., which owns some $300,000 worth of stock in four Austin banks. The John son City Foundation, which has been recognized as a charitable institution for tax purposes by the Internal Revenue Service, holds another $137,000 worth of stock in four Austin banks.

The Johnsons turned over administration of their financial interests to two trustees when Lyndon became President, can resume control when they leave the White House. Their prospects are bright. Texas Broadcasting holds an option to buy, for less than $1,000,000, a 50% interest in Capital Cable Co., a community-antenna television system that brings programs from San Antonio stations to Austin, carries them into homes by wire. Capital Cable is faced with competition from TV Cable Co., which does the same thing, but more cheaply, by using microwaves to relay the signals from San Antonio.

The microwave technique, however, puts TV Cable under the jurisdiction of the Federal Communications Commission--and the FCC recently ruled that TV Cable must delay any network program for up to 15 days whenever requested to do so by the Johnsons KTBC-TV. The FCC has a general rule providing such protection for local stations against competition from microwave importation of outside programs. In this case it rejected the argument that KTBC-TV did not need such protection because it already monopolized all three networks and has a financial interest in Capital Cable.

Under the FCC decision, TV Cable will be hard put to compete, and the

Johnson TV monopoly in Austin will be maintained. What is more, Capital Cable, under these conditions, will likely be worth $5 million to $10 million within a few years.

*Before Johnson became President, it was the L.B.J.

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