it as a compliment whenever people likened him to Pete Franklin, Howard Stern and Gary Dee, all three he held in high regard. Reclaiming the Indians Secret divested their entire nine-station group to SFX Broadcasting on October 8, 1996, in a $300 million deal. Conventional wisdom had SFX promptly reselling WTAM and WLTF to a third party, given their track record of buying and selling stations quickly. Secret withdrew the Cleveland stations—valued at $45 million—from the deal in mid-January 1997; executive Frank Wood stated the company never wanted to sell them and considered purchasing additional stations in the market. However, Jacor bought WTAM and WLTF on April 25, 1997, for $23.9 million in cash and $21 million in company stock, ten years after having called off their prior purchase of WWWE. General manager Dennis Best said after the deal was struck, "short of Secret keeping us, Jacor buying us is the best thing that could have happened." Jacor's purchase occurred six weeks after Secret was rumored to purchase WKNR, which was running an annual deficit of $1 million due to their recently renewed Indians contract being a loss leader. Talks soon began between Jacor and WKNR owner Cablevision, which sold that station for $8.7 million on August 19, 1997. Speculation soon centered on Jacor programming WTAM far more aggressively to attract additional male listeners, and that WTAM's prior moves gave them a head start. Rich Michaels was fired on June 16, 1997, with Dr. Laura taking his late-morning spot on the lineup under the belief her program would draw higher ratings. One month later, WTAM recruited Morton Downey Jr. to host a local evening show, but Downey abruptly resigned after six weeks. Former WERE host Rick Gilmour took his place, but was not named a permanent host as Jacor disclosed plans to move the Indians rights to WTAM once their purchase of WKNR was complete. Kinzbach and Ferenc were dismissed on October 5, 1997, with an all-news block taking their place in mornings. When Jacor assumed operations of WKNR on January 4, 1998, Trivisonno hosted a day-long marathon on that station, the last four hours simulcast on WTAM. The Indians flagship formally was transferred to WTAM with the 1998 home opener on April 10, 1998. Pete Franklin also returned to host Sportsline once a week via a home studio at his San Diego residence, but quit several weeks later in