The thrill of winning.

Over the past 33 years, Dorothy E. Brunson, president and CEO of Brunson Communications, has built up impressive credentials in the radio industry. As a senior executive at Inner City Broadcasting from 1973 to 1979, she ran five radio stations and helped boost the company's sales from $189,000 to $22 million. In 1979, she struck out on her own. becoming the first black woman in the country to own a radio station,

Like most entrepreneurs, Brunson, 56, is always looking for a new challenge. In 1990, she sold her three radio stations and set out to master the television industry. Her Baltimore-based company acquired WGTV Channel 48, an independent station in Philadelphia in 1989 and began operations there in August of 1992. Even as she works to turn around the small, last-rated station, Brunson already is looking for additional properties to acquire. By the year 2000, she hopes to own 15 television stations, the legal limit currently allowed by the Federal Communications Commission.

For Brunson, being an entrepreneur is as exciting - and challenging - as being a great dancer or top-rated football running back. I love the felling of winning," she says. "For me, it's a thrill to be able to decipher an industry and make a profit. The Black community would be healthier if successful business people were treated like heroes and made into role models."

Over the next decade, industry experts expect technology to bring major changes to the television industry. innovations such as high-definition television, video-on-demand and a gradual convergence of television, computers and telephones will provide consumers with new programming options. But Brunson is not daunted by the prospect of more competition. As technologies proliferate, "local stations provide the comfort factor," she says. "Whether information comes through the phone line, or the computer or some other box, people are going to look for those familiar local stations."

As she contemplates the future of communications, Brunson never overlooks the importance of a top-notch communications system inside her business. "It's a fact," she says "that 90 percent of television revenue is generated by telephone. When you're selling air time, all the leg work is done by telephone and fax. Without those two things I wouldn't have a TV station.