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November 6, 2009

Forum: Fair treatment for community TV

By JOE VANDERMEULEN

In a recent Forum article, a representative of Charter Communications, Inc. explained to readers there would be changes in the cable television channel lineup. These changes will allow Charter to provide more high definition channels for digital television subscribers.

Subscribers who can only pay for basic or extended basic television will find their channels changed as well. Charter's representative says, "We will be rearranging our lineups to free up the needed space."

Of course, just moving things around doesn't create more space. To make room for new high definition movie and shopping channels, Charter will push our community's TV channels off their current locations and onto unused transmission bandwidth that is shared with FM radio signals.

In other words, Charter will take the clean, high-value bandwidth occupied by our region's only Public Access Television station (Up North 2) and Northwestern Michigan College's Educational Access station (Channel 13) and exchange it for unused, interference-plagued bandwidth at channels 96 and 97.

According to Dave Poinsett, research and development manager at R.M. Young Company of Traverse City, the use of television bandwidth at channels 96 and 97 presents a real concern for both neighborhoods and individual subscribers. Signal leakage from commercial FM radio to cable television can be unpredictable and may vary from house to house.

To find out how this works, we contacted Public, Educational and Governmental television operators in Wisconsin. Charter Communications, Inc. made similar channel changes there about a year ago. According to John Foust, president of the WAPC, a 60-member association of community television stations in Wisconsin, the move of their community television channels to 96 and 97 was rocky. FM radio signals caused audio problems and herringbone patterns of interference on the TV screens in some places and not others, in an unpredictable pattern across neighborhoods.

Foust told us that in some locations it was particularly bad. "There's a reason Charter has avoided those channel slots in the past. The station in Deerfield, Wis., was unwatchable for a year because they were moved to a channel with heavy FM interference."

The other part of Charter's channel change plan involves setting up new channels for digital TV viewers. Charter will put all of our public (Up North 2), educational (13 & 98) and governmental (99) stations in a group at the farthest edge of the digital lineup, in the 990s. By lumping all our community's television stations in the 990s, Charter will place them where casual viewers and channels surfers won't find them, effectively cutting our viewership.

The people of this community have allowed Charter to use publicly owned lands to string their cable. Charter enjoys a cable monopoly in our area. Surely, Charter owes this community something better than what we're now getting.

Rather than dictate a plan to the community, Charter should talk things over with the Public, Educational and Governmental television station operators and local governments that make community television possible. Let's work together to find a fair and equitable solution.

About the Author: Dr. Joe VanderMeulen is executive director of the Land Information Access Association and the Northwest Michigan Community Media Center, which operates both Up North 2, the public access television station, and Government 99, the government public access station. These television stations serve all of northwest Lower Michigan.

About the forum: The forum is a periodic column of opinion written by Record-Eagle readers in their areas of interest or expertise. Submissions of 500 words or less may be made by e-mailing letters@record-eagle.com. Please include biographical information and a photo.

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