Hodes

You've poured a lot of mental sweat into choosing your Big Game lottery number: a combination of your dog's birthday, the address of your childhood home and your real age and not the one you tell others. That's the easy part. If you win, you're in for a whole new numbers game. How do you handle $325 million? And it may be more. Ticket sales continue until 15 minutes before tonight's 11 p.m. drawing . So, let's say, you won. Now what? No matter whether you chose cash or annual payments over 26 years, you've won enough that you need expert help.

The owners of WLG Legends Radio said yesterday that they will sell the company's stations, WWLG 1360 AM and WASA 1330 AM, to Mangione Enterprises, pending FCC approval.The stations' primary owner, Michael C. Hodes of Hodes, Ulman, Pessin & Katz, P.A., said he purchased WWLG in 1993 and WASA in 1996 as advertising vehicles because the firm focused on elder and estate law. The firm has since expanded its practices, and Hodes said it doesn't make sense to focus on one advertising outlet.The stations broadcast pop standards during the day and sports in the late afternoon.

Attorneys at Smith, Somerville & Case LLC have begun a mass exodus amid strong speculation that one of Baltimore's largest and oldest law firms will close its doors after Dec. 31. Local attorneys said the firm has failed to find a market niche.The most recent defection includes three partners and an associate who are leaving to join Hodes, Ulman, Pessin and Katz on Jan. 2, bringing that firm's total number of attorneys to 25, making it the largest in Baltimore County.In addition to those four, another group from 70-year-old Smith, Somerville is setting up its own boutique firm on Jan. 2.Michael J. Baxter, a partner at Smith, Somerville, announced he will create Baxter, Baker, Sidle & Conn along with eight other Smith, Somerville attorneys.

The owners of Mid-Atlantic Country magazine and Maryland Magazine said yesterday that they have lined up a prospective buyer in a deal that will leave the ownership in deep debt and many creditors unpaid.Michael C. Hodes, a Towson attorney, bought the two magazines with a partner, Charles J. Nabit, in 1995.Hodes said yesterday that the pair paid about $900,000 for Mid-Atlantic Country and between $250,000 and $300,000 for Maryland Magazine.Hodes declined to identify the buyer, but said the selling price of the magazines will be less than $500,000 and that the deal is expected to close late next month or in early October.

Mid-Atlantic Country magazine will publish its last issue in September unless a buyer can be found for the financially troubled publication, the magazine's publishers said yesterday.The Baltimore-based magazine was founded 18 years ago and publishes articles about travel and lifestyle from North Carolina to New York.Despite pumping $1 million into the magazine since they bought it in 1995, the publishers -- Michael C. Hodes and Charles J. Nabit -- said they have been unable to make it financially viable.

IT DIDN'T TAKE A ROCKET scientist to put together a five-city North American tour entitled, "A Grand Design: The Art of Victoria and Albert Museum," but it did take one to help launch it. The tour was the brainchild of folks like the Baltimore Museum of Art's director Arnold Lehman, who has worked for 10 years with his deputy director of art, Brenda Richardson, and the V&A's deputy head of research, Malcolm Baker, to make adream come true. On Oct. 12, 1997, Baltimore will be the first stop for an exhibition of 255 works from the V&A's vast collection, which spans 2,000 years of artistic achievement.

Maryland Public Television members just got their last free issue of Maryland Magazine.After issuing four editions as a monthly, Maryland Magazine will revert to publishing every other month and will no longer include MPT's viewer guide, officials said yesterday, noting there will be no layoffs.At least for a while, MPT members again will get monthly schedules mailed directly, starting with the May issue; and will stop receiving the magazine as a bonus for membership.Maryland Magazine wasn't attracting enough revenue to support itself as a monthly, especially after paper prices rose last year, said owner Michael C. Hodes.

The new publishers of Maryland Magazine yesterday announced that they bought Mid-Atlantic Country magazine, marking the end of Susan Souders Obrecht's media reign and the beginning of another for a Towson attorney and entrepreneur.Michael C. Hodes and Charles J. Nabit, who purchased Maryland Magazine in June, said that on Wednesday they had closed the deal to acquire Mid-Atlantic, a 120,000-circulation monthly publication, from Ms. Souders Obrecht's ESS Ventures Inc. for an undisclosed sum.The award-winning regional magazine was put up for sale after a year and half of financial difficulties brought on by the rising cost of paper, increased competition and shrinking advertising revenues, said Mid-Atlantic Editor Tim Sayles, who is to remain in that post.

Nighttime talk show host Stan "The Fan" Charles will be leaving WWLG (1360 AM) after Friday night's show, but the nature of his departure is up in the air.Although Charles has said he was "moving on to explore some other possibilities in the media," WWLG management contends that the precise terms of his leaving have not been finalized.Michael Hodes, WWLG's principal owner, said that there's "no acrimony" between his station and Charles, but that final language to let Charles out of his contract has not been agreed upon.

It's been along hot summer for the Advertising & Professional Club of Baltimore members who served on the nominating committee. Here's the scoop as told to me.Several years ago, longtime Ad Club member Clarisse Mechanic invited Towson attorney/entrepreneur Michael Hodes and his wife, Lois, to become members. A short time later, the Hodeses agreed to become the club's first husband-wife president and vice president, and in that capacity, they feel they helped breathe new life into an old club.