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Most people don't know why the large letters "DW" appear atop the 16-story Centurion Tower building in West Palm Beach.
But from the 12th floor of that building, reclusive entrepreneur Guenter Marksteiner says he can forge alliances to make South Florida a national hub for emerging high-definition television [HDTV] production.
Jan. 1, 2000 -- when the FCC will permit the launch of HDTV operations -will be a timely test of whether Marksteiner's vision will sink or swim.
Quietly, he has used capital from family-held Marksteiner AGs Swiss operations to buy five HDTV stations in Florida. Included in his 2-year-old MIG Group Communications are stations in West Palm Beach, Miami/Fort Lauderdale, Stuart and Naples, all with headquarters in the Palm Beaches.
At Marksteiner's opulent Forum Place base of operations, the visitor's first sight off the elevator is a well-oiled grand piano. Next come well-lit studios for origination of news and talk shows. Hovering over them Eke cranes are state-of-the-art HDTV cameras that, says Marksteiner, sell for $630,000 to $790,000 each.
Yet he admits that hardly anybody owns a big-screen, Surround Sound, HDTV -although the emerging technology does offer crystal-clear reception and excellent sound reproduction.
Even after HDTV programming begins in earnest after Jan. 1, very few households are predicted...