Post by dkennedy on Jan 25, 2006 5:53:26 GMT -5
FCC rules responsible for Time Warner's PBS switch of Dropping WMHT for WNET
January 25, 2006
By Jonathan Ment, Daily Freeman Newspaper
Time Warner Cable's switch of the public broadcasting station it carries locally from WMHT to WNET came as a surprise to the stations themselves.
"Our first information on this came with the Freeman's phone call," said Carmen DiRienzo, vice president and managing director of corporate affairs at WNET, which is based in New York City. "We have no knowledge and no control over it."
Federal Communications Commission spokeswoman Rebecca Fisher said the change may have been required under Section 76.55 (b1) of the FCC's "must carry" rules. Those rules require cable providers to carry non-commercial "educational" stations whose city of license is within 50 miles of central receiving points, called head-ends, or essentially where the signal would be well received over air.
That is the explanation offered by the cable company.
Time Warner spokeswoman Brenda Parks said the switch, affecting subscribers in the Kingston and Rhinebeck areas, took effect Jan. 1. The changeover occurred earlier in Poughkeepsie, she said.
"In 2003, we started to consolidate our multiple head-ends, receive sites, where we receive our signal, to a primary location in Wurstboro," said Parks. "That location falls under ... New York City. We must carry all of New York City's over-air signals. Unfortunately, WMHT is not broadcasting over air."
Troy-based WMHT does broadcast over the air from Dutchess County Community College, but the site is not relevant to Time Warner's obligations relative to its central receiving site in Orange County.
Some of these areas carried WNET in the late summer or early fall when WMHT went dark locally due to tower maintenance.
"Knowing that we were going to have this consolidation, WMHT should not have put have put back on," said Parks. "Something happened at our receive site and it was switched back."
Parks could not with any certainty define the area in which the change occurred, nor provide statistics as to the number of households or potential viewers affected.
WMHT vice president and assistant general manger Scott Sauer said previously the station believed Time Warner customers as far north as Greene County lost WMHT.
On Tuesday, he said the bulk of phone calls from viewers questioning the change originated in Kingston, Saugerties, Rhinebeck and Red Hook.
"Inside Albany," and "New York Week in Review," two local affairs programs produced by WMHT, are regularly carried on WNET. The New York City station produces much of the PBS programming seen nationwide.
"We are strong, strong believer in the importance of local public television," said DiRienzo on Monday.
She said WNET would not have sought to replace WMHT in Time Warner's channel lineup.
"With digital compression, and the growing number of channels available, the cable companies are evaluating the number of stations they carry, and I cannot imagine the basis for this decision was anything other than technical efficiencies," DiRienzo said.
January 25, 2006
By Jonathan Ment, Daily Freeman Newspaper
Time Warner Cable's switch of the public broadcasting station it carries locally from WMHT to WNET came as a surprise to the stations themselves.
"Our first information on this came with the Freeman's phone call," said Carmen DiRienzo, vice president and managing director of corporate affairs at WNET, which is based in New York City. "We have no knowledge and no control over it."
Federal Communications Commission spokeswoman Rebecca Fisher said the change may have been required under Section 76.55 (b1) of the FCC's "must carry" rules. Those rules require cable providers to carry non-commercial "educational" stations whose city of license is within 50 miles of central receiving points, called head-ends, or essentially where the signal would be well received over air.
That is the explanation offered by the cable company.
Time Warner spokeswoman Brenda Parks said the switch, affecting subscribers in the Kingston and Rhinebeck areas, took effect Jan. 1. The changeover occurred earlier in Poughkeepsie, she said.
"In 2003, we started to consolidate our multiple head-ends, receive sites, where we receive our signal, to a primary location in Wurstboro," said Parks. "That location falls under ... New York City. We must carry all of New York City's over-air signals. Unfortunately, WMHT is not broadcasting over air."
Troy-based WMHT does broadcast over the air from Dutchess County Community College, but the site is not relevant to Time Warner's obligations relative to its central receiving site in Orange County.
Some of these areas carried WNET in the late summer or early fall when WMHT went dark locally due to tower maintenance.
"Knowing that we were going to have this consolidation, WMHT should not have put have put back on," said Parks. "Something happened at our receive site and it was switched back."
Parks could not with any certainty define the area in which the change occurred, nor provide statistics as to the number of households or potential viewers affected.
WMHT vice president and assistant general manger Scott Sauer said previously the station believed Time Warner customers as far north as Greene County lost WMHT.
On Tuesday, he said the bulk of phone calls from viewers questioning the change originated in Kingston, Saugerties, Rhinebeck and Red Hook.
"Inside Albany," and "New York Week in Review," two local affairs programs produced by WMHT, are regularly carried on WNET. The New York City station produces much of the PBS programming seen nationwide.
"We are strong, strong believer in the importance of local public television," said DiRienzo on Monday.
She said WNET would not have sought to replace WMHT in Time Warner's channel lineup.
"With digital compression, and the growing number of channels available, the cable companies are evaluating the number of stations they carry, and I cannot imagine the basis for this decision was anything other than technical efficiencies," DiRienzo said.