GILROY
– Charter Communications is planning to press ahead and replace
two Monterey County-based stations in its local basic channel
lineup, although city officials have asked the company to refrain
from doing so.
GILROY – Charter Communications is planning to press ahead and replace two Monterey County-based stations in its local basic channel lineup, although city officials have asked the company to refrain from doing so.
“We’re going to move forward with our decision to add additional Spanish-language programming,” said Heinz Ludke, the company’s Gilroy marketing manager on Tuesday. “We think our current lineup underserves the Spanish-speaking customers we do have, and we think (the change) will help us add new customers.”
Charter has announced plans to pull KION-46 – cable channel 5 – and KCBA-35 – cable channel 8 – from its local basic channel lineup in Gilroy, Morgan Hill and San Martin effective April 1.
The two stations will be replaced by two Spanish-language channels. Azteca America’s KTNC-42 will now occupy cable channel 8, and Telefutura KFSF-66 will be added to cable channel 10. KPIX-4 will also move from cable channel 10 to cable channel 5.
Company officials said the switch is an effort to reduce duplicate network programming of local CBS and FOX broadcasting affiliates and also meet customer demands.
Along with PBS and NBC, CBS and FOX were among four networks duplicated in the company’s limited basic service, Ludke said – and up to 67 percent of programming on the duplicated networks was the same on each channel.
“What we decided was, is that a good use of our channel space?” he asked.
The company has also received specific requests from customers for the two new Spanish-language channels, he said, and felt it was losing customers because it didn’t have the programming to compete with “robust” Spanish offerings on the Dish Network.
Ludke said the cable service will still retain KSBW-8 in its South County lineup, which provides news coverage of the Monterey Bay area.
But in a March 20 letter to Charter, Gilroy Mayor Tom Springer said the City Council unanimously opposes dropping KCBA and KION.
Those stations are closer geographically than their equivalents in the San Francisco Bay Area, Springer said, and tend to cover local weather and traffic conditions better than their northern counterparts. Many Gilroy residents commute to Salinas or the Monterey area every day, he noted.
Meanwhile, multiple local sources of information are also important to security and awareness in the post-9-11 world, he wrote.
“We commend Charter for adding the additional Spanish-language stations to your cable system lineup to serve an important segment of our market,” Springer wrote. “In doing so, we believe (the new Spanish-language) stations can easily coexist with the continued carrying of KCBA and KION …
“KCBA and KION provide more value to the citizens and Charter subscribers than do some of the alternatives carried on your basic and extended basic channel lineup … ”
Springer has also said he’s also heard from San Francisco 49ers football fans concerned that the new channel plan could hamper their ability to watch the team and Gilroy-raised quarterback Jeff Garcia. The two Monterey/Salinas channels are apparently backup avenues to watch the team’s games if they’re blacked out on North Bay channels.
Ludke said he can’t recall many times the 49ers haven’t sold out in the past few seasons.
