Michael Diamond's Post Crescent Column

Willscary

New London

Yesterday Eau Claire and LaCrosse Fox affiliates finally began broadcasting in HD. Locals there are jumping for joy. The roumor is that the cable stations will be carrying the signals bbefore Super Bowl Sunday.

WFXS out of Wittenburg is the Wausau Fox affiliate. They do not have the ability to broadcast OTA yet. However, they do have the HD equipment. They have run a fiberoptic cable from their office in Wausau to Charter Cable's Wausau office. Wausau and Stevens Point Charter branches now carry Fox in HD.

I believe that Lin Broadcasting has the right to charge the cable companies a small fee for their signal. I also believe that the other locasl have that same right. The federal government protected the locals from being destroyed when they forced cable companies to carry locals.

Let the cable companies pay a SMALL fee to each of the locals. They do for all of their other programming.

Force cable and sattelite companies to offer "a-la-carte" programming where we pick and choose the channels we want at a fair price.

I am perfectly happy with OTA. I was a cable subscriber for 22 years untill they raised my rates last spring by 45%!

Cable and sattelite companies are just as greedy as Lin Broadcasting. Yet, all I hear about is Lin's greediness. My area has Charter Cable. Every year rates go up. Every year outages get more common. Every day customer service gets worse.

Sattelite would be outstanding IF I didn't have to take 100 really unwanted channels to get the 30 that I do want. I continually shop the Sats, but unless I buy their biggest package, I am always missing one or two of the channels we want.

A-la-carte. It's the only way that the providers can please everyone. It is possible. However, the GREEDY PROVIDERS are not willing to provide this service because it will upset their lucrative deals with the big programming providers such as Disney.

Greed is not just a word associated with Lin Broadcasting.

Bill