Dish TV viewers losing Denver signals

Dish TV viewers losing Denver signals

Sept. 18, 1999

By David Grant Long

Montezuma County residents who depend on satellite dishes for TV reception have been notified that transmissions from at least one Denver network affiliate -- Fox -- will end soon, and others may also be discontinued in the near future.

Because of a Florida court decision earlier this year, Netlink Satellite explained to its local customers, the company may no longer be able to carry the only stations that provide in-depth coverage of Colorado news, politics and sports.

"Due to the legal restriction imposed by the judge, you will be affected by this turnoff no matter who provides your C-Band or DBS satellite programming," Netlink's notice said, because "a computer model specified by the earlier Florida ruling predicts you should be able to receive an off-air signal of the required strength from one or more ABC, CBS, NBC and/or Fox local stations."

But the prospect of becoming even more isolated from the rest of Colorado has left some residents expressing dismay and disappointment. Because southwestern Colorado is designated as part of Albuquerque's marketing area by the Federal Communications Commission, those affiliates are guaranteed exclusive rights to broadcast their programming by the networks unless waivers are granted.

"It kind of makes it hard when you don't know what's going on in your own state, especially with the elections coming up," said rural resident Marian Rodd, "because all you're going to hear on the Albuquerque stations is about (New Mexico) people who are running for office.

"And as we know, not all the politicians come to Cortez," Rodd added. "They make it to Durango, but I don't know why they can't come down here."

Jimmy Rodd, Marian's husband, said their only alternative, receiving signals through a rooftop antenna, was impractical because of the danger of lightning strikes at their hilltop residence.

"I've had problems with lightning hitting my outside antenna," he said. "In fact, it's happened since we lived there four times and it destroys the antenna, whereas the satellite dish is down at the bottom, and it's only been hit one time, and wasn't really hurt."

Beyond that, said Rodd, after spending considerable time researching the issue, he's concluded this prohibition is probably going to extend to other means of receiving the Denver stations soon.

"Maybe today you're talking about (only) the satellite signals," he said, "but once they do that, they also have the power -- and it has been threatened -- to kill cable TV's ability to re-broadcast the Denver signals."

The Satellite Home Viewer Act permits carriers to provide a network's signal by satellite only if a household is "unserved" by a local affiliate of that network, Netlink explained. That means the household cannot get a high-quality over-the-air signal from a rooftop antenna, it added, but this is not the case in much of Montezuma County.

The Southwest Colorado Television Translator Association, a taxpayer-supported special district, rebroadcasts 21 TV channels, including the ABC, NBC and Fox affiliates in Albuquerque -- as well as the ABC affiliate in Grand Junction and the NBC affiliate in Denver -- through translators located near Mancos.

And that service will not be affected, according to Wayne Johnson, manager of the SCTTA.

"Right now, I haven't heard any word about losing KUSA (NBC in Denver)," Johnson said yesterday, explaining that the district has permission from the New Mexico NBC and ABC affiliates that permits it to re-broadcast signals from the Colorado stations as well.

"But I know people (satellite customers) are getting shut off all around the county," he added.

Nor will the decision affect customers of CableVision, the Cortez cable system that serves close to 2,000 homes, according to a spokesman in Bedford, Texas, because it has agreements that allow both Denver and Albuquerque network signals to be carried.

"We have to get the permission of the broadcast stations if there's a competing station in the market," spokesman Rich Readicker explained Tuesday, "and everything that we carry has been authorized by the appropriate affiliated stations.

"It's up to the individual station to grant any waivers or permission," he added. "A station can work out any arrangements for a competing station to be carried in that market, but they are the only ones that can grant that."

And neither KASA, the Albuquerque Fox affiliate, nor KOAT, the ABC station there, is willing to give that permission.

"By the rules we own the rights to ABC in your area and we will not give them to Denver," Fred Bragg, chief engineer at KOAT, said Wednesday, explaining that the right of the local cable company to carry the competing signals had probably been "grandfathered in" when regulations were written in the early '80s defining market areas.

"If (satellite customers) can get us off the air, I will not grant a waiver," Bragg added.

Erick Steffen, general manager of KASA, said in order to maintain a consistent policy, he would not grant any waivers unless the viewer's over-the-air signal was too poor to satisfy the SHVA specifications.

"We have hundreds, thousands, of requests for waivers," he said. "If the home does not receive an acceptable Grade B signal under the rules of the act, then they're granted a waiver.

"But if, for whatever reason, they just don't want to get it off the air and would rather watch it off the satellite, we do not grant one.

"We're sympathetic -- we understand that this is a difficult issue for the folks in some areas of southern Colorado," Steffen added, "but we have chosen to try to comply with the letter of the (SHVA) act and make a literal interpretation, because that's the only way we can stay out of trouble in our whole entire market area.

"It's not that we're trying to be discriminatory to people in Montezuma County, but we have to be consistent in our application of what qualifies for a waiver."

Currently there is legislation before Congress that would allow satellite companies to rebroadcast "local-to local" signals, which is now prohibited, but nothing that would apply to this particular situation, according to a spokesperson for the subcommittee that handled the bill.

KREZ-TV ends local news shows

Just as some Montezuma County residents were being informed their TV sources of Colorado news and sports were being cut off, things got a little worse for all viewers interested in local affairs.

Four Corners residents who tune in to KREZ-TV, the CBS affiliate in Albuquerque, to see the 10-minute local-news broadcasts at 5:30 and 10 p.m. on weekdays will have to do without their dose of televised information about the local area.

KRQE-TV in Albuquerque has decided to end the broadcasts for economic reasons, the Durango Herald reported Friday.

News Director Kristie Blevins and reporter Sean Bolen both lost their jobs in the shuffle, but night anchor Jenni Monet has accepted a reporting position with KRZE-TV in Albuquerque.

KRQE-TV officials had promised that they would cover the Four Corners area in their news broadcasts to make up for the fact that area viewers are forced to watch the Albuquerque-based CBS affiliate instead of a CBS station out of Denver because KRQE has exclusive rights to this territory.