CABLE, BROADCASTERS REMAIN AT ODDS

Thousands of cable subscribers in Southeast Missouri may see the plug pulled Oct. 6 on the local CBS and NBC affiliate stations, the result of a continuing dispute between certain broadcasters and cable operators.

If no agreement over retransmission is reached by then, WPSD-Channel 6, the NBC affiliate in Paducah, Ky., will be taken off the TCI Cablevision system serving 13,000 subscribers in Cape Girardeau and Jackson, cable and broadcast officials say.

The situation is even worse for cable viewers served by the Falcon and Falcon-Enstar system, which operates cable systems throughout Southeast Missouri, from Ste. Genevieve to Poplar Bluff, and Sikeston to Scott City.

Both KFVS-Channel 12, the CBS affiliate in Cape Girardeau, and WPSD will be pulled from the Falcon cable systems if no agreements are reached by the October deadline. Falcon and Falcon-Enstar serve about 50,000 subscribers throughout Southeast Missouri.

The looming deadline has prompted concern from citizens and city officials across the region. Some subscribers have threatened to cancel their cable service if the network stations are removed.

Scott City officials are looking at severing the franchise agreement with Falcon if the company doesn't retain the two network stations.

There is also concern in Chaffee, another city served by Falcon. "It's a shame the consumer is going to get the short end of the stick on this thing," said City Councilman Jerry Wolsey.

"If in fact the plug is pulled on us, there probably are going to be some cable subscribers who discontinue their cable TV," he said.

At issue is whether the cable operators will compensate broadcast stations for retransmitting their signals. Under the 1992 federal cable act, cable operators are required to obtain permission from broadcast stations to carry their signals.

Broadcasters can request compensation and if no agreement is reached, the cable operators must cease carrying such stations on their cable systems as of Oct. 6.

Roger Harms, manager of the TCI cable system serving Cape Girardeau and Jackson, said an agreement has been reached with KBSI-Channel 23 as a result of a national arrangement with the Fox network. Tentative agreements have been worked out with KFVS and WSIL.

The tentative agreements were worked out as a package deal involving both the local TCI Cablevision and the TCI operation serving Southern Illinois, Harms said.

The region's TCI cable systems are owned by Denver-based Tele-Communications Inc., a powerhouse in the cable industry.

Both locally and nationally, TCI has refused to pay cash for carrying the broadcast stations.

Harms declined to discuss the agreements in any detail, but he said they do not involve direct payments.

Howard Meagle, vice president and general manager of KFVS, said Monday that the arrangement basically involves a commitment from TCI to advertise on the CBS station.

But no such agreement has been worked out with WPSD.

"TCI has made some offers that were agreeable to us, but they backed off those offers so now we are back to square one," said Richard Paxton, WPSD station manager.

"It's a very frustrating way to negotiate," he said Monday.

"It is in the same realm as all of the other cable deals that are being made in this television market," added Paxton. "We are not asking for anything unreasonable."

But he said, "TCI told me that they had already made deals with everybody else and they don't have anything left."

Harms has suggested extending the deadline until January, a suggestion that WPSD has rejected so far.

He said it's a case of "the early bird gets the worm and the one that waits doesn't."

Said Harms, "The people who held out to the last minute, they didn't get part of the worm."

In addition, Harms maintained that WPSD is of far less value to Southeast Missouri viewers than KFVS.

"They (Channel 6) are not serving the Missouri (market) whatsoever, as far as newswise and sportswise. It's just the NBC station."

Still, Harms said, there's time to negotiate an agreement. "We are looking at ways to settle this."