I think I'm almost there. I've told functions.php that I want a third widget area. I want to place the code for it in the logo area, where at the moment I have a cgi script running. The area in red is what I want to change, to the new widget spot, where I intend to use another instance of Sponsors Slideshow widget in bfa_header_config.php:

	// END of title/description
$logo_area .='
    <td height=125 colspan="2" rowspan="2" valign="middle" class="header-banner">
        <a href="http://www.larchmontgazette.com"><img src="http://www.larchmontgazette.com/wp27/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/bluegazebo500x120.jpg" width=500 height=120 align=left border=0></a>
    </td>
    <td rowspan="2" align="right" class="header-banner">';

if ( is_category('Obituaries') OR ( is_single() AND in_category('Obituaries') ) ) { 

// Code for category Obituaries
$logo_area .='<script language=javascript src="http://www.larchmontgazette.com/cgi-bin/csBanner2/csBanner.cgi?g=2&js=Y"></script>
</script>';

} elseif ( is_category('Garden Guide') OR ( is_single() AND in_category('Garden Guide') ) ) { 

// Code for category Garden Guide
$logo_area .='<script language=javascript src="http://www.larchmontgazette.com/cgi-bin/csBanner2/csBanner.cgi?g=4&js=Y"></script>
';

} else {

// Code for all other pages
$logo_area .='<script language=javascript src="http://www.larchmontgazette.com/cgi-bin/csBanner2/csBanner.cgi?g=240&js=Y&ss=Y"></script>';

}

$logo_area .='</td>
';

When I placed

$logo_area .=<?php if ( !function_exists('dynamic_sidebar') || !dynamic_sidebar(3) ) : ?>
<?php endif; ?>;

there, I got a totally blank page. I must have somehow broken all the code on the page. I quickly put back the saved version of the file, and things are back to normal, but I really need to do this soon. I know Flynn is close to releasing a version of the theme that will have more widget areas, but I think the cgi script is really slowing down my site. http://www.larchmontgazette.com

Paulae,
you have 2 </script>'s at the end of the // Code for category Obituaries code

Hmmm. Funnily enough, it wasn't causing any problems before, and I swear I didn't touch that part this time.

Otherwise, do you think the php code about the widget should have worked?

The code you are adding is messing up. You are already in php so you are setting $logo_area to a value, but in this code

PHP Code:

$logo_area .=<?php if ( !function_exists('dynamic_sidebar') || !dynamic_sidebar(3) ) : ?>
<?php endif; ?>;

you are going back into PHP again. This causes the rest of the code in the program to get out of wack. I think you want to add quotes around the statement like this

PHP Code:

$logo_area .='<?php if ( !function_exists('dynamic_sidebar') || !dynamic_sidebar(3) ) : ?>'
endif;

of course I'm not sure what you are trying to do. This will just set the $logo_area to the string '<?php...' but I think you just want this to be another else if and then set $logo_area to what you want there.

I am trying to use that spot as a widget area, in which I'll place an instance of Sponsors Slideshow widget, which provides a very nice fade effect between ads, and I think it will be less of a load-hog than the cgi Perl script running the 3 banners now.

I'm going to try it again with the code just as you show it.

UPDATE: Nope, that produced a totally blank page too. Thanks for your efforts; maybe I should just wait until the theme is ready for the widgets up there, and I can also upgrade the theme to whatever is current.

Paulae,

I think you want to do something like this

if ( function_exists('dynamic_sidebar') && dynamic_sidebar(3) ) {
$logo_area .= '<what ever the html you want to use goes here>';
}

so if the dynamic_Sidebar function exists and there is a dynamic_sidebar (3) add this some code to the logo area.