The empire strikes back.

In 1995, the Australian newspaper The Mercury ran a headline in big letters: "The Man With The Magic Touch." The article below noted that "Former schoolboy magician Bruce Gordon, shareholder of a $400 million [U.S. $290 million] television empire, has a much higher profile overseas than he does in Wollongong."

The Mercury article went on to chronicle the Gordon family's investments in Australian broadcasting, production and miscellaneous other ventures (all of which are managed by Gordon's brother-in-law John Rushton from Wollongong). The family's TV investments are grouped,under the WIN logo and, together with the production house Crawfords and radio station i98 FM, under the corporate umbrella of the company TWT Holdings. The recent acquisition of Tasmanian broadcaster ENT added a printing house, a manufacturer of steel security doors and a real estate and property development company to the TWT Holdings fold. The group employed 800 people and generated a turnover of U.S. $145 million in 1996.

The Mercury article noted that this empire is controlled from WIN's Wollongong studios, affectionately known as "the tin shed" because they began in an old army' hut. When Gordon is in town, he shares the office of Managing Director John Rushton. Construction to extend the tin shed is on the way.

"Wollongong is about as good as it gets," Gordon is quoted as saying. He particularly loves the fact that he can walk down to the beach from his apartment. "This is my home when I'm in Australia," he said When there, he commutes south by car to the Paramount office in nearby Sydney.

Despite the growth of his family holdings in Australia, Gordon emphasizes that he prefers the excitement of the international marketplace and has continued to work with Paramount over the last 30 years, leaving the local management of the family's ventures to his son Andrew and to Rushton.

A Nine Network Australia report boast of WIN's acquisition of "Australia's largest Nine Network regional affiliate, which broadcasts into southern NSW, the Australian Capital Territory, Tasmania, Regional Queensland and Victoria." The area covered by WIN's 18-station group is larger than the whole of Europe.

The Nine Network report also mentions the Gordon family's acquisition of "Australia's oldest and most established television production company, Crawfords Productions in Melbourne" from its founder, the since deceased Hector Crawford. Crawfords, one of Australia's major studios, sits on eight acres and boasts state-of-the-art sound stages with production and post-production facilities.

Over the years, Crawfords has produced many drama series, including the successful Division Four in the 1960s, The Sullivans in the '70s, The Flying Doctors in the '80s and, more recently, the police drama Feds, the made-for-TV movie The Last of the Ryans and the quiz show Cluedo.

In 1990, an editorial in the Australia newspaper The Sun Herald noted that WIN's unsuccessful bid for Australia's Seven Network came "as a major disappointment to many within the Australian television industry who see Bruce Gordon as something of a white knight with the flair and the ability to help save our commercial television industry."