NEW TV STATION ON AIR FRIDAY

St. Louis Cardinals baseball fans listen up: You may be able to catch a Redbirds game this weekend without leaving the comfort of your own home.

St. Louis Cardinals games will be aired on WDKA-TV, channel 49, which is scheduled to begin broadcasting Friday evening. The first game is scheduled for 9 p.m. Friday against the San Francisco Giants.

If all goes according to plan, WDKA-TV, channel 49, will go on the air at 6 p.m. Friday, said Joe Mazza, vice president of Max Media Properties and general manager of KBSI.

Max Media, based in Virginia Beach, Va., owns seven radio stations and six television stations, including KBSI, channel 23, in Cape Girardeau. Max Media will operate the new TV station under an agreement with WDKA owner Paul Lucci of Norfolk, Va.

Federal Communications Commission regulations bar a company from owning two TV stations in the same market. But a company can operate a second station for another owner, Mazza said.

The station, an affiliate of United Paramount Network, will carry both UPN and local programming, including over 25 Cardinals games this year.

However, Mazza said it is possible the station will not be ready to begin broadcasting by Friday. It could be as late as Monday before the station hits the airwaves if construction of a tower and transmitter in Vienna, Ill., is not completed on schedule, he said.

"But we really hope to get on the air by Friday," Mazza said.

The station was originally scheduled to begin programming in March but bad weather slowed construction of the tower and transmitter, Mazza said.

WDKA will not be available via cable until about June 1, said Roger Harms, general manager of TCI in Cape Girardeau.

He said the best location for a tower that must be installed won't be known until after the station starts broadcasting. That location probably will not be determined until early next month.

On or about June 1, WDKA will be seen on cable channel 20, which is currently occupied by C-Span. C-Span will be moved to channel 95 for cable-ready televisions and to channel 65 for those that require a box convertor.

Initially, UPN will offer three nights of prime-time programming, some children's programming and a weekend afternoon movie. WDKA's local programming will include movies, syndicated shows and sports.

"We're extremely excited about bringing Cardinal games back to the area," Mazza said.

Sports will be a big programming item for the new station. Over the next several years, Mazza said, he hopes to begin broadcasting some college football and basketball games.

As a must-carry station, WDKA will be on all cable systems in the Cape Girardeau, Paducah, Ky., and Harrisburg, Ill., areas. The region includes nearly 200,000 cable subscribers.

As a broadcast station, WDKA also can be received on UHF channel 49. Its market area will cover some 400,000 television households.

Mazza said there has been a large amount of public interest in the new channel.

"We've been getting a lot of phone calls since we started to promote the station," he said.

Many calls have been inquiring about programming, he said. The questions asked most often are about "Star Trek: Voyager," Mazza said. He said that successful UPN show will air Wednesdays at 8 p.m.

But the station will offer a variety of programming. The UPN theme is "The Best of Television, Yesterday and Today."

In addition to first-run programming, such TV classics as "The Andy Griffith Show," "Cheers," "The Rockford Files," and "Matlock" will be run. Feature films like "Pretty Woman," "Arachnophobia" and "Lost in America" also will be broadcast.

WDKA is sharing facilities with Cape Girardeau television station KBSI. The station's programming and much of its studio production work will be handled at KBSI. The facility at 806 Enterprise is being expanded to accommodate the second station, Mazza said.

The UPN network was started in January 1995 by a group of investors that includes Paramount Studio. KBSI is a Fox network affiliate. UPN is beginning with limited programming much as the Fox network did a few years ago.

"Everybody on our staff has been working extremely long hours and operating with a very high stress factor," Mazza said. "When they see that on the air and know it's a product of their hard work, I think everyone is going to be tremendously excited and very relieved."

TCI CHANNEL GUIDE

CAPE GIRARDEAU/JACKSON

CHANNEL No. CHANNEL NAME

2 HBO Pay

3 WSIL Basic

4 PREVUE GUIDE Basic

5 LOCAL ACCESS Basic

6 WPSD Basic

7 KFVS Basic

8 WSIU Basic

9 KBSI Basic

10 WTBS Basic

11 DISCOVERY Basic

12 BET Basic

13 FAMILY Basic

14 ENCORE Pay

15 WEATHER CHANNEL Basic

16 CINEMAX Pay

17 LIFETIME Basic

18 QVC Basic

19 WTCT Basic

20 WDAK-49 Basic

21 Headline News Expanded Basic

22 STARZ Pay

23 CARTOON NETWORK Expanded Basic

24 NICKELODEON Expanded Basic

25 CNN Expanded Basic

26 F/X Expanded Basic

27 TNN Expanded Basic

28 A&E Expanded Basic

29 MTV Expanded Basic

30 VH-1 Expanded Basic

31 ESPN Expanded Basic

32 AMC Expanded Basic

33 FOX SPORTS Expanded Basic

34 DISNEY Expanded Basic

35 USA NETWORK Expanded Basic

36 TNT Expanded Basic

37 FOX NEWS Expanded Basic

38 CNBC Expanded Basic

39 PPV Pay Per View

40 SHOWTIME Pay

64 C-SPAN w/converter Basic

95 C-SPAN w/ cable ready TV Basic