TV Station Reflects Brothers’ Philosophy Editorial Excerpts “If there was a need for the transit system, people would ride the buses. Let the Buena Vis ta people find another way to bring their maids to work. The city should buy a lot of bicycles arid mopeds for a million and a half dollars.” — John Simms on the city transit system ; “The Council on the Status of Women re ceives $25,000 despite the Citizens Advisory Council’s recommendation that the city’s por tion be discontinued. This group makes ERA • literature available and at times abortion re ferrals. “If the city or county has enough money to give away to outside groups ... maybe they should reduce our taxes and let us as individuals decide if we want to support these private groups. Think about it ...” — Dudley Siriims on city finances “... the flotation: Cubans are not legal refu gees but they are using this as a disguise to get around our immigration laws and secondly, they are taking.jobs from law-abiding Americans. And thirdbjfcCarter is setting a precedent for an onslaught ; of people from.other countries who want to enter this country for no more reason than the U.S. is a better way of life than what they are experiencing ... And fourthly, they will live at our expense on welfare. And last, a good number of the flotation Cubans are homo sexuals or criminals.’’ ' .i — John Simms on Cuban refugees “The dreaded ERA is hack again. By all that is right, the ERA should be dead and bur ied. But,' due to double dealing arid-lawful, but unethical, rule changes; concerning ERA, states are allowed to change their vote .. . “Doesn’t this smell of political double talk? “Also, Carter changed the rules in the middle of the game by giving states addition al time to change their vote from opposing 'ERA to supporting it, but not the other way around. “Some more of Carter’s double talk.” —John Simms on the ERA BY JIM JENKINS Dally News Staff Wrltar WINSTON-SALEM — The “Twin City” is never silent. Its residents and proud-as-punch city officials al ways are talking about their arts, their streets, their transit system, their university, their mills and, to be sure, their tobacco company. Now they’re talking about the Simms brothers. John and Dudley Simms (both middle names are Lee, after Gen. Robert E.) have been a matter for discus sion before, embroiled in lawsuits with some of the stock holders of their Piece Goods Shops, prohibited in court for passing out religious tracts resembling Master Charge cards, donating hundreds of thousands of their plentiful dollars for one cause or another. But most of that came before they bought WGNN, Channel 45, an independent television station, 10 months ago. In August, the FCC approved sale of the station by the Simms brothers to Television Corp. of North Caroli na. But in the months of ownership, the previously silent brothers appeared on their station in brief but hard-hit ting editorial spots. Very conservative editorial spots. The editorials were a curiosity to some cable TV sub scribers who would see a fellow named John Simms on one spot and Dudley Simms on another. Though they dress differently and John parts his hair on the left (Dud ley on the right), they are otherwise identical twins. John is chief executive officer of Piece Goods and Dudley is president. But their philosophy matches as closely as their tall, slender frames, their eyes or their light brown hair or their ages (43). Both are ardent Christians. And both see devils in liberalism. Here is an excerpt from Dudley Simms’ televised ed itorial on the White House Conference on Families: “The so-called White House Conference on Families’ stacked with Rosalynn Carter's ultra-liberal cronies and supported by her flip-flop husband advocates: “—ERA, that would be a detriment to every Ameri can woman. “—Encouraging government intervention into our families. “—Rilling unborn babies by abortion. “—Not clearly defining the traditional family as we know it. “These are not ways to preserve the family, but to destroy it. Even Unde Sam makes married working cou ples pay more tax than the unmarried couples. Some hap pily married couples must consider divorce bacause they cannot afford the federal tax on wedlock . . . We urge an end to the inequities of the welfare program and the fed eral tax on marriage and also an end to the rigged White House Conference on Families.” And here is John Simms’ stand against Winston-Sa lem’s Planned Parenthood organization: “The organization of Planned Parenthood supplies unmarried females and adolescent girls of any age with contraceptives merely for the asking without parental consent. “I happen to believe what the Bible says about sex Twins Dudley, Left, And John Simms Stall Pinto By Jotm Paso outside of marriage, that is, it is immoral. “So when you give young unmarried girls contracep tives, it is like giving a child a gun and telling him not to use it, but cany it. “The Charlotte chapter of Planned Parenthood that the local chapter patterns itself (after), performs abor tions, which I assume is the ambition of the W'inston- Salem chapter. “The organization of Planned Parenthood only exists because of financial support from local foundations and local banks among other businesses. “Doesn’t it amaze you what liberals do and get by with?” The distress of Winston-Salem’s civic leaders to the contrary, the Simms say the response to their editorials has been positive. “We were amazed at the emotion the editorials created,” Dudley Simms said, as he and his brother sat in his plush office. “A lot of it has been favor able, and a lot of times it has been negative. We’ve had businesses threaten to stop advertising because of the editorials but we felt if we succumbed to the pressure we’d be succumbing to blackmail, and we weren’t about to sell our integrity for a commerical.” “People have said we’ve rushed in where angels fear to tread,” John Simms said. The brothers have not feared advertisers for another reason: their fabric shops do an estimated $30 million a year in business, and both brothers are millionaires. “This has been just a sort of sideline for us,” Dudley said. “It’s sort of a . . . sort of a hobby.” But the fun in the hobby has worn a little thin, they say, so they decided to sell. The brothers will retain stock in the station, but will relinquish control of the programmming and administra tion of WGNN. Will the new owners continue the religious broad casting and permit the Simms to editorialize? “They indicate that they’ll try to honor our purpose," Dudley said, “but probably the (religious programming) will not be done to the extent it has been. And the edito rial is something that’s still to be decided.” On Wednesday, the new owners said they would not continue the editorials. Their original purpose in taking over the station, the brothers said, was to offer more religious broadcasting and bring on the old shows (“Honeymooners,” “Bonanza”) they liked. They bought WGNN from the Good News Foundation, a Simms-supported religious organization. “After several years of running short of cash,” Dud ley Simms said, “the foundation decided it did not want the station anymore. Since we were close to the founda tion, we made an offer of several hundred thousand dol lars more than the appraised value. We decided to make it a commercial station, and we started in the latter part of September with four hours of broadcasting and built it up to 20 hours. It’s the only station I know of that went on the air with two employees.” (See Brothers: Page F-5; Col. 1)