Dateline: April 4, 2002

Cable system takes over local channels 

By Roger Estlack & Carrie Helms, Clarendon Enterprise

Cable television subscribers in Clarendon were surprised last week to find two local channels no longer under local control, but the cable company says it will provide a new channel for the community.

Channel 11, operated by local radio station KEFH-FM, and Channel 8, operated by the First Baptist Church, were unexpectedly taken over by Classic Cable. Representatives of the radio station and the church were both upset by the move.

“They [Classic Cable] told us they wanted to take over Channel 11 about a month ago,” said KEFH general manager Ken Meinhart. “Then they just cut us off last Thursday.”

KEFH owner Patrick Robertson said his station had operated Channel 11 for six years without being charged and now Classic wants them to pay $200 a month for use of the channel.

“It’s just a break even deal as it is,” Robertson said.

First Baptist Church pastor Truman Ledbetter did not know how long his church had been broadcasting services and Christian programming over Channel 8 but said it was for at least 10 years. The church also aired services for the Calvary Baptist Church and First United Methodist Church for an annual fee.

Like the radio station, the church had free use of Channel 8, but Classic last week asked them to pay $25 per hour. Both the church and the radio station maintained their own equipment and fed their signals to the cable company.

Barry Harbison, a representative with Cable Network Advertisers – a division of Classic Cable, said the company is looking at all of its local lineups after coming through a Chapter 11 bankruptcy. He said he was in charge of looking at the local channels.

“The radio station [KEFH] was broadcasting its signal and selling advertising, and they weren’t paying anything for that,” Harbison said. “And the church had no agreement to broadcast.”

Harbison said Classic usually charges $50 an hour for local airtime but that the company had agreed to set a special rate of $25 per hour for churches.

“We do this in several cities, and it works well,” he said. “We have to charge something except for community service things.”

Classic intends to create one channel – probably Channel 8 – for use as a community channel where local people could advertise and local churches can air their services for a fee, he said.

“We’re not trying to get any churches off the air,” Harbison said. “We’re trying to accommodate the community.”

The topic of Classic Cable is reportedly being put on the city aldermen’s agenda for their next meeting on April 9. The company’s franchise agreement expired February 7, 2002, city officials said.

Mayor Tex Selvidge said he thought it would be a bad thing for the churches to be taken completely off the air for the community’s shut-ins and elderly people. But he did not think charging $25 for an hour of airtime was out of line on Classic’s part.