Business Notes

TAKEOVERS CBS to Turner: You're Out

The summer has not been kind to Ted Turner. His Atlanta Braves are buried in fifth place in the National League West, and now the cable-TV king's chances of gaining control of CBS appear to be as slim as his World Series hopes. Last week CBS succeeded in buying back 21% of its own stock for about $1 billion in a deal that will make it virtually impossible for Turner's takeover effort to succeed. Both the Federal Communications Commission and a U.S. district court in Atlanta blocked Turner's last-minute legal challenges to the network's move.

Investors have balked at Turner's bid for CBS, which he valued at $175 per share, because he put no cash on the table. Instead, he offered a combination of securities in his broadcasting company and other IOUs of uncertain value.

Despite last week's severe setback, Turner seemed determined not to give up. He talked of raising enough financing to make a cash bid for CBS or perhaps staging a proxy fight for control of the network at its annual meeting next spring. Meanwhile, reports at week's end suggested that the broadcast maverick may already have his eyes on another takeover target: entertainment giant MGM-UA. ENTERTAINMENT Ratin' Rock 'n' Roll

On Dick Clark's American Bandstand, rating a record always means deciding if it has a good beat and is easy to dance to, and then assigning it a number between 35 and 98. But now a group of prominent Washington women, including Tipper Gore, wife of Tennessee Senator Albert Gore, is pushing the record industry to adopt a new rating system for rock songs with lewd lyrics. Their designations: X for sexually explicit, profane, or violent; O for occult; D/ A for drug-or alcohol-related.

Executives have taken notice. During July, Stanley Gortikov, president of the Recording Industry Association of America, shuttled between the East and West coasts for confidential talks with industry leaders on how to appease critics.

Some officials agree that records should be labeled to warn parents if a song is blatantly offensive, as many are these days. On the flip side, others complain that rating systems are too subjective. Warner Bros.' Bob Merlis says Elvis Presley could have been stamped with an X for promoting bondage and sadism in (Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear. In that 1957 classic, the King cooed, "Put a chain around my neck and lead me anywhere." LABOR RELATIONS Of Pride and Protectionism

Howard Fields, 56, had no intention of changing his ways just because of an unfair regulation. After all, the autoworker had parked in the front lot of Ford's Lima, Ohio, engine plant for 28 years. So when United Auto Workers Local 1219 and Ford last year signed an agreement requiring employees with foreign cars to park in a back lot more than half a mile away from the factory, the old-timer ignored the new rule and continued to leave his 1981 Nissan in the front lot.

At first, Fields' car was merely plastered with plastic warning stickers and towed twice. Then things got rough. Over a three-month period, he was suspended by Ford seven times, culminating in a 30-day stretch off the job. Each time he filed a grievance, but his union failed to back him. Finally, last week Fields was fired. The company told him he could return with full seniority and pension rights, but only if he parked in the back lot or bought a domestic car within 60 days.

Fields, who is divorced and whose children are grown, plans to live on his savings and refuses to go back on the company's terms. Says he: "Maybe I'm wrong, and I've got a lot to lose, but I still have my pride. I can look in the mirror and say I did what I thought was right." MERCHANDISING Goodbye, Great Wish Book

The advertising pamphlets first published by Aaron Montgomery Ward in 1872 created a revolution in marketing: the mail-order catalog. Known as the great wish book, Ward's catalog provided the mostly rural U.S. population with everything a family needed, from swaddling clothes and calico to barbed wire and tombstones. Over the years, the catalog grew thicker and slicker. Among the fashion models who graced its pages were Lauren Bacall, Susan Hayward and Suzy Parker. But competition from more specialized retailers gradually eroded the selling power of the book. Last week Montgomery Ward President Bernard Brennan announced that the last catalog will be mailed to its 5 million recipients in December. Said he: "It has a great history, but times have changed." Now Sears, Ward's rival since 1894, will have the oldest general merchandise catalog.

Ward is dropping its catalog because the book has lost an average of $50 million a year since 1980. By stopping publication and closing 1,270 catalog sales agencies, Brennan said, the company will be able to reduce its staff of 78,000 by 6% and concentrate its financial resources on a major revamping of its stores. FOOD A $2 Tummy Tempter

It was in the early 1950s that Leo Stefanos, a Greek immigrant who owned a corner candy store in Chicago, produced the first DoveBar, a huge stick of top-quality ice cream dipped in premium chocolate. He had no grand plans for the new treat. Recalls Leo's son Michael: "My father invented it to keep me and my brother from running after ice-cream trucks every time we heard them ring their bells." But in 1984, seven years after Leo's death, Michael and a group of partners decided to take the DoveBar nationwide. The result may put the Stefanos name in the ice-cream hall of fame alongside Baskin, Robbins and Howard Johnson.

In the past year, production of DoveBars, which now come in vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, coffee and coconut flavors, has surged from 1,500 to 45,000 a day, and they are tickling taste buds in 18 states, from California to Massachusetts. That popularity has come despite a price as rich as the taste: from $1.45 at a supermarket to $2 at a New York City peddler's cart for a single bar. Says Caryn Salzman, a Chicago secretary: "They're expensive, but they're worth it. They're heavenly."