John Panagos, Newspaper And TV Executive, 82

[DGH]

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John Panagos, a communications executive who had been the editor and
publisher of the Gaithersburg [Maryland] Gazette and president and
owner of a Gaithersburg cable television system, died of leukemia Jan.
30 at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, at the age of 82.

Mr. Panagos, who lived in Potomac, Maryland, also was a former
president of the Advertising Club of Metropolitan Washington DC.

In the late 1950s, Mr. Panagos was a vice president of United
Broadcasting Co., a network of seven radio stations and three
television stations in Washington DC. He launched the area's first
commercial UHF television operation, Channel 14, and he started the
area's first Latino radio station, WFAN-FM.

The son of Greek immigrants, Mr. Panagos was born in Washington DC. He
graduated from Central High School and attended the University of
Maryland and the University of Georgia.

He was a naval aviator during World War II. After the war, he joined
the Washington Daily News as a classified advertising salesman. He
later became retail advertising manager.

From 1957 to the early 1960s, Mr. Panagos worked for United
Broadcasting. In the 1960s, he also was an advertising sales
consultant to WDCA-TV, Peoples Drug Stores and other businesses.

In 1966, he bought the Gaithersburg Gazette, a semimonthly tabloid,
banking on his belief that the Gaithersburg area and upper Montgomery
County [Maryland] were about to experience a significant period of
growth, which they did.

The next year, Mr. Panagos changed the Gazette to a weekly publication
and paid special attention to building its classified advertisements.
By 1978, Mr. Panagos had increased the circulation of the Gazette from
9,000 to 35,000 and doubled the paper's size to an average of 48
pages. He sold the Gazette in 1979.

Mr. Panagos applied for a cable television franchise and license in
1966 and received them three years later after hearings before the
Gaithersburg City Council and the Federal Communications Commission.

Mr. Panagos's Gaithersburg cable TV station went on the air in 1970;
its primary attractions were first-run movies and Gaithersburg news.
The station also provided clear reception of the major television
networks. To accomplish that, the station had installed 90 miles of
cable -- 50 of it underground and 40 overhead. The cable system was
serving about 1,200 residents when Mr. Panagos sold it in 1978. He
told the Montgomery Business Record that his cable operation began
turning a profit after its fourth year.

For 22 years, Mr. Panagos served on the Board of Trustees of the
Bullis School in Potomac. He served on the executive committee of the
Montgomery County chapter of the American Red Cross and he helped
organize the Gaithersburg Chamber of Commerce. He was a member of the
Washington Board of Trade.

A son, Bruce Panagos, died last year.