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ALOHA FLIES HIGH

COURTESY ALOHA AIRLINES The hot-air balloon sponsored by Aloha Airlines won first place in the Community Launch competition in the 22nd annual Great Reno Balloon Race that concluded Sunday. Aloha's balloon, the Wishing Star, is a 90,000 cubic-feet hot-air balloon owned and flown by veteran balloon pilot Capt. David Lynch of Temecula, Calif. The 80-foot high balloon was outfitted with a 15-foot high banner sporting Aloha's mango-colored logo. Aloha undertook the sponsorship in support of its marketing effort in Reno to draw more visitors to Hawaii. The Great Reno Balloon Race is one of the biggest balloon events of the West Coast and this year attracted 145,000 spectators. Aloha's balloon scored the highest number of points in the Community Launch, a fly-in task event that challenges balloon pilots to launch from within a radius of one to two miles and skillfully maneuver their way to an X target within the park boundaries. The shortest accumulated distance over the days of the competition wins.

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TourTalk-Oahu takes trophy

The self-guided, recorded driving tour guide "TourTalk-Oahu" has won a silver Axiem Award as a finalist in an international electronic media competition.

Of more than 1,200 entries, 35 percent emerged from the competition as winners or finalists in categories ranging from television and radio to the World Wide Web and interactive media.

TourTalk-Hawaii Nei LLC owner Denise Moreland received the award in the competition's audio category. "It is just a great honor be acknowledged by our industry peers," she said in a statement. "Our product was just launched in January of this year, so we're especially excited by this recognition."

The tour, narrated by entertainer Joe Recca and radio personality "Sistah Sherry" Clifton, provides an historical perspective of sites for visitors driving themselves around the island. The 1795 battle of the Nuuanu Pali and the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor are two examples. The audio guide is accompanied by a 72-page booklet with site information, photos and maps.

The South Dakota-based organizers of the Axiem Award established them in 1998 to recognize the top producers of electronic media. Entries are judged on innovation, creativity, technical merit and overall quality, using a point system. Judges are professionals in each realm of electronic media, according to the Web site at www.axiemawards.com.

FCC to OK Hispanic media merger

WASHINGTON >> The government will allow Univision Communications Inc., the nation's largest Spanish-language media conglomerate, to expand its reach in the growing Hispanic community by purchasing Hispanic Broadcasting Corp. for $3.5 billion, Federal Communications Commission officials said yesterday.

The FCC's three Republican commissioners support the merger, while the two Democrats oppose it, said two agency officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity. An official announcement of the FCC vote had been expected late yesterday but was delayed for unknown reasons.

Under the plan, Los Angeles-based Univision would acquire HBC's 63 radio stations. The company then would have to sell two radio stations as a condition of the FCC's approval, one of the officials said.

Univision already owns the Univision and TeleFutura TV networks, the Galavision cable network and 50 television stations nationwide. With the merger, Univision would have the top Spanish-language broadcast TV network, cable channel, record label, Internet site and radio network, as well as the largest group of television and radio stations.

Dell, HP to enter flat-TV market

Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co. are preparing to sell flat-panel televisions, in a move that will intensify price competition for Sharp Corp., Samsung Electronics Co. and other Asian makers, suppliers and analysts said.

Taiwan flat-screen TV suppliers including Lite-On Technology Corp. and Amtran Technology Co. said they have provided price quotations to Dell and Hewlett-Packard, the world's two biggest personal-computer vendors. Gateway Inc. is already selling flat TVs with screens measuring as much as 50 inches diagonally.

The U.S. PC makers are targeting a display market that's forecast to grow 19 percent annually for the next four years as falling prices encourage consumers to switch from bulky glass tube- based TVs. Japanese and South Korean companies including Sharp, Samsung and Sony Corp. dominate the market for flat-screen TVs, which typically cost five times as much as conventional sets.

WorldCom judge stops hearing, sets deadline

NEW YORK >> The federal judge overseeing WorldCom Inc.'s record bankruptcy set a midnight deadline last night for the company and dissident creditors to reach a settlement.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Arthur Gonzalez in Manhattan halted a hearing that started yesterday on the company's recovery plan, to give the sides time to resolve their differences.

Holders of about $750 million in preferred securities known as "Quips" issued by WorldCom's MCI unit are among two creditor groups fighting the plan. WorldCom is proposing to use assets of MCI, the most profitable WorldCom unit, to pay debt owed by other divisions by combining the parent and its 222 other bankrupt units.

At issue "is whether MCI is a solvent corporation," Daniel Webb, lawyer for the Quips, said in a statement filed with the court. WorldCom's "plan of reorganization cannot be confirmed if MCI is shown to be a solvent corporation because if it is so, the dissenting MCI bondholders are legally entitled to be paid in full."

The Quips, short for cumulative quarterly income preferred securities and issued prior to WorldCom's 1998 buy of MCI for $47 billion, have nearly tripled in value since late May.

In other news ...

>> FRIDLEY, Minn. >> The Justice Department is investigating whether the spinal products subsidiary of Medtronic Inc. made illegal kickbacks to doctors, the company said.

>> NEWARK, N.J. >> Brian P. Delaney, a former trader with Knight Trading Group Inc., a top market maker in Nasdaq stocks, admitted yesterday he cheated the company of $1.4 million in a scheme that locked in profits for him and his co-conspirators at Knight's expense.