KCRA-TV Becomes Sacramento's First Digital Television Station and Hearst-Argyle Television's Fifth.

NEW YORK/SACRAMENTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 20, 1999--

KCRA-DT Channel 35, the first digital television station serving California's capital region, and among the first in northern California, is now on the air and capable of broadcasting digital high definition television (HDTV). KCRA-DT is the digital counterpart to Hearst-Argyle Television's (NYSE:HTV) analog station, KCRA-TV, Channel 3, the Sacramento-Stockton-Modesto NBC affiliate and the market's leading television station.

KCRA-DT is presently transmitting, under temporary authority from the Federal Communications Commission, from an antenna installed on KCRA-TV's 500-foot broadcast tower. It marks Hearst-Argyle's fifth all-digital, or "DTV," television station, positioning the Company among a handful of television groups that have several DTV stations on-air.

"DTV, and its advanced format HDTV -- which offers breathtakingly sharp sound and picture quality -- are today's equivalent of the advent of color to television in the '50s," said David J. Barrett, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Hearst-Argyle Television. "And, with the launch of KCRA-DT, we now have DTV stations reaching nearly 6% of U.S. TV households as well as a series of `firsts' with this new technology:

-- Our KITV-DT, Channel 40, Honolulu, an ABC affiliate, was America's

first commercially licensed DTV station, in fall 1997;

-- Our WCVB-DT, Channel 20, an ABC affiliate, in fall 1998 was the

first DTV station in Boston -- America's sixth largest TV market -

and was home to Boston's first locally produced DTV program, a

special installment of WCVB's public affairs show Chronicle in

March 1999;

-- Our WLWT-DT, Channel 35, an NBC affiliate, was the first DTV

station in Cincinnati, also last year; and, more recently,

-- Our WTAE-DT, Channel 51, an ABC affiliate, was the first DTV

station in Pittsburgh, in February 1999.

"Being at the front of the curve in DTV," Barrett continued, "should help us in learning and evaluating the opportunities of enhancing our relationship with viewers and advertisers and of realizing additional revenue streams."

KCRA-DT aired its first HDTV telecast, of the Tonight show with Jay Leno, on May 17. KCRA plans to further introduce HDTV to Sacramento viewers on Sunday, May 23, at the city's Pacific Rim Street Festival, where it will display HDTV video of the Tonight show as well as locally produced HDTV footage to some 30,000 festival-goers. KCRA also plans to transmit HDTV programming for use by area consumer electronics retailers, on their HDTV displays.

Hearst-Argyle Television, Inc. owns and/or manages 26 network-affiliated television stations, and owns and/or manages seven radio stations, in geographically diverse U.S. markets. The Company's television stations reach about 17.5% of U.S. TV households, making it one of the two largest non-network owned television station groups in the United States as well as one of the seven largest television groups overall as measured by audience delivered. Hearst-Argyle trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "HTV."