Reported by Deborah Richardson, Gary Meyer and Patric Hedlund
Those who wish to simply cuddle up to enjoy Monday Night Football, 60 Minutes, and other favorite programs in front of the family telly have had little help from their program providers in this new year.
Whether the cause is cable TV technotroubles, broadcast TV digital conversion or satellite contract spats between corporate CEOs, nearly all modes of programming content delivery on the mountain—short of YouTube— are going through ‘adjustments’ this month—and consumers are left with inconvenience and often expense.
Cable Television Follies
In some cases, such as the changeling Rapid Cable—now transforming to CalNeva Broadband but still providing cable television, local origination and internet service to Mountain Community residents—consumers report being billed for programming that is frequently interrupted and internet service that is slower than advertised, according to customers who say they have been loyal to the former Mountain Cablevision for ten years.
Last month there was a small and quickly extinguished electrical fire in the head-end equipment room that caused disturbance in programming. Prior months have seen interruptions because of on-ground cables being cut and/or distribution amplifiers taken from outdoor equipment housings. Reports have been filed with the Kern County Sheriffs office, but no arrests or apprehensions have been made.
Overall, the system has suffered since poles shared with telephone company lines running across U.S. Forest Service lands between Cuddy Valley and Pine Mountain were abandoned by the telco in January 2005 following a major snowstorm. This left the cable company without an independent easement, according to interviews with past employees. Additionally the system in some areas has blended coaxial (analog) and fiber-optic (digital) runs in the main distribution trunk. This introduces signal attenuation and “tuning” challenges, making it difficult to keep the system consistently up to optimal specifications.
These problems have been intermittently tackled over the past four years. The Mountain Enterprise shares an office building with the cable system and has observed the ebb and flow of capital investment and expertise deployed by several managers during that time.
The most consistent presence over those years has been two local programmers, Don Eubank (The Saturday Morning Yard Sale Show with local information and humor) and Simba Wiley Roberts (who offers a radio talk show over the system, often including news and interviews on current events with caller input).
“I see this as a civil defense issue, connecting Lebec to Pine Mountain in case of emergency,” Roberts said of his desire to see the cable television service here become stabilized. The cable system is the only local television source which makes local program drop-ins possible.
Tom Gelardi, who has been a Rapid Cable employee, has recently visited the Mountain Communities to say he is in the process of purchasing the system in the name of CalNeva Broadband LLC. Kern County’s cable television administrator confirms he has received Federal Communications Commission (FCC) filings indicating there is an ownership transfer taking place.
Jessica Leitschuck in the Frazier Park office explained how CalNeva handles adjustments for service failures:
“We haven’t gotten the new call center established yet, so you would call the Frazier Park office (245-4530). I think the new call center will open at the end of January, when the Utah office will no longer be affiliated. We will send out mailers with bills to tell customers the new phone number.
“Our billing system is automated so we are not able to do mass credits; someone has to manually enter credits on a weekly basis, and we do,” Leitschuck explained.
Until California Assembly Bill 2987 (AB 2987) became law in January of 2007, the licensing authority for cable systems within Kern County had been the county’s General Services Department.
With the enactment of AB 2987, also known as the Digital Infrastructure and Video Competition Act of 2006, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) took over as licensing authority for cable systems in the state.
According to Kern County Cable Television Administrator David Brust, “Complaints about cable service in the county can still be given to me and I will mediate between a subscriber and the cable system operator, but I cannot shut down a cable system—that is done between the cable company and the CPUC.
“The purpose of AB 2987 was to allow competition in the cable television market by increasing the availability of broadband internet services in rural and lower economic urban areas [which were] being underserved,” Brust said.
“We have received one complaint about Rapid Cable in Frazier Park, which was on October 21, 2008 [from Lake of the Woods], regarding low speeds with internet connectivity,” Brust said.
“Cable companies in Kern County still pay the county about 5% of their gross revenue for use of the right of way,” he said.
Those who wish to contact the Cable Television Administrator can reach David Brust at (661) 868-3000 or at brustd@co.kern.ca.us.
Broadcast TV D-Day
There are not many in the Mountain Communities who can receive over-theair broadcast programming, but those who do could be in for an abrupt loss of service scheduled for February 17, 2009. That is the Digital Television Transition “DDay” mandated by the U.S. Congress when all broadcast signals will be converted to digital, for more efficient use of the public airwaves.
A converter box will be necessary if you continue to use an analog television set.
Coupons were to be available from the federal government to assist in the expense, but recent word is that the coupon budget has been spent and there are still about seven million (yes, 7,000,000) people who will find themselves suddenly transported back into the 1930s—before the days of television—when the “D-Day” switch is flipped. They will be unable to receive a signal.
With the coupon, the cost of the converter box will be about $40. Call the Coupon Program toll-free 24-hour automated system 1-888-DTV-2009 (1-888-388-2009), or go to www.dtv2009.gov to be eligible for a coupon.
Last week, the co-chair for the Obama transition team, John Podesta, wrote key members of the U.S. Congress asking them to pass a bill to postpone the transition until the shortfall in coupons and assistance to vulnerable people, such as the elderly, has been addressed.
Satellite TV Woes
Deborah Richardson’s report on Dish Network Satellite Problems
Dish Network and Fisher Communications are squabbling over the fee increases that Fisher wants before signals from its TV stations can be carried by the satellite company. Fisher owns stations around the country. Their only California station is in Bakersfield. That means that we suddenly lost CBS and Fox when the two couldn’t come together to sign a new contract.
My guy Frank works with Ray Huning (technology coordinator for El Tejon Unified School District) who found Dish customers can go to channel 240 for information about getting NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox from San Francisco and Atlanta for $12.99 a month through the Dish system. I signed up at the www.mydistantnetworks.com site and 30 minutes after I signed up, CBS was back.
It is not Dish, but a company that will broadcast through our Dish service. It is a separate bill from the Dish bill, but it is one way to get CBS and Fox back. You can do a monthly bank account debit or pay for six months of service.
Ray signed up, we signed and so did Daisy Cuddy. I don’t like paying an extra $13 a month but we lost CBS and Fox and there went the soap operas and football games. It is another expense…but what are you going to do?
Some of us are so mad at them that even if they settle their differences we won’t watch the Bakersfield Fisher channel again. I’m enjoying San Francisco news and like that the Atlanta programs come on three hours early.
This is part of the January 16, 2009 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.
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