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Sitka Cable TV Looks for Ideas From ResidentsBy SUSAN FROETSCHEL Sentinel Staff WriterMcCaw Cable Communications Co., which operates the cable television service in Sitka, wants comments and recommendations from viewers, two company officials told the Sitka Chamber of Commerce Wednesday.McCaw Sitka System Manager Don Harrison and Regional Vice President Douglas Beach presented the program for the chamber’s regular luncheon meeting.“We do not want to be the father governing your programming... we want to be a tool... for the benefit of the community,” Harrison said.Harrison said residents’ ideas on programming are welcome, and also any interested persons are invited to learn how to use the studio equipment at McCaw’s headquarters, 206 Lake St. He said the company would like to see more televised town meetings, such as the candidate forum held before the October election. Facilities and time are made available without charge for such programming.Beach said the company was founded in 1980 and in the past year moved from 47th place to 26th place in the ranking of U.S. cable firms with the most subscribers. Though the growth was rapid, it is under control, Beach said. McCaw acquired the cable system of KSA-TV in Sitka in 1980.Beach described McCaw as a multifaceted communications company with 85 percent of its business in cabletelevision.It is the largest cable company inAlaska, and also operates systems in Washington and Oregon. It has 53 franchises in the Northwestern states, Beach said, and it also has systems in Texas, Mississippi and Montana.The cable industry’s chief competition, Beach said, is the unregulated growth of home satellite dishes through which viewers bypass the commercial distribution system. Payments on a backyard dish aren’t much more than subscribing to the cable service, and as prices continue to come down there ismore encouragement for such unauthorized reception, Harrison said.As a defense, satellite signals for the three channels for which subscribers pay extra — Home Box Office, Cinemax and Disney — will soon be scrambled to prevent unauthorized access, he said.The McCaw officials said they hope to keep their company competitive by offering more and better services. The company has just spent $1.2 million upgrading its Alaska systems, Beach said.The SIMULSAT dish installed in Sitka this summer is an example of the improvements.The earth station makes Sitka’s system technically superior to any others in Alaska, Harrison said, explaining that it can receive signals from 19 different satellites. Currently only three of the 19 transmission channels are being used, but the dish will allow future expansion.It was ideal for Sitka because of the lack of room for the several receiving dishes that otherwise would be required. Installation gave Sitka viewers the choice of 20 rather than 12 channels.Both Harrison and Beach said the company must work more to let its subscribers know what is available and when. Harrison said he is working on improving the television guide. Beach said the company would also be using more direct mail to inform subscribers of services.Harrison said an FM package, including rock, classical, country and jazz music, is included in the budget for the Sitka system next year. Keeping it will depend on the. .Continued to page 2
Newspaper Details
Daily Sitka Sentinel
Sitka, Alaska, US
Thu, Nov 17, 1983
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NA 26 Nov 2020
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