M*A*S*H's DAN TAYLOR "M*A*S*H" fans, wearing Army fatigues and operating masks, crowded around the bar's big TV screen. A few batted an inflated surgical glove about like a beach ball. Then, at 8:30 p.m. Monday, everyone settled down to watch the last show. And "M*A*S*H"* didn't come on. Stormy weather had knocked out reception. Across the United States, an estimated 110 million viewers tuned in to last new episode of "M*A*S*H." But in Santa Rosa, about 30,000 Total Television customers missed about the first 20 to 45 minutes of the show Monday, stormy finale ends peacefully Chief Technician Gary Peters said. Crews worked at the cable company's transmitter on Mount St. Herestore service for "M'A'S'H"' viewers. "'We put up a temporary antenna just for 'M*A*S°H," Peters said. "'We knew we were under t the gun," said Ken McAdams of Total Television. "'We know how important it is." And, he added, that his phones were "ringing off the hook." Some Redwood Empire viewers never did get to see Klinger get married, Hawkeye go crazy or Father Mulcahey lose his hearing after a mortar blast. In Petaluma, about 4,000 of Viacom's Cable Vision customers lost M*A*S*H a ratings smash Associated Press The final episode of "M*A*S*H" could well become the top-rated entertainment program ever after attracting higher ratings than the ballyhooed "Who Shot J.R.?" episode of "Dallas" in three big cities. More than half the television homes in New York, Los Angeles their TV picture at 4:05 p.m. By 6 p.m., 2,000 of them had service back and by 8:30 p.m, all but about 100 did, said Chief Technician Jim Re- and Chicago watched the 2½-hour finale, titled "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen," overnight figures from the A.C. Nielsen Co. showed today, In each instance, the audience for "M*A*S*H" Monday night exceeded the number of viewers who watched that November 1980 epi(See RATINGS, back page) gan. "We got many, many calls from "M*A*S*H" fans," he said. In Sonoma, the 5,400 Storer Cable TV customers had better luck. "We had no outages last night," said Chief Technician Gary Kelechava. "Sunday was our day for outages." On TV screens around Santa Rosa, the picture came and went. At the English Rose pub, where about 250 "M*A*S*H' fans gathered, the costumed crowd strained to make sense of scrambled, staticfilled images. Pub co-owner Terry Campbell, among the many angry "M*A*S*H" fans who called Total Television to complain, told the crowd, "It isn't the greatest picture in the world, but they tell me it's the best they can do." Then, right on cue, the screen hissed and went blank. The crowd howled in mock anguish. "'This is bad news," a woman in a nurse's uniform complained. "We'll have a riot," Bill Martin, Campbell's partner, joked. But the crowd was too busy partying to riot. Ron Graeme of Santa Rosa was the hit of the party. In honor of Cpl. Klinger, who tried for years to get kicked out of the army for wearing dresses, Graeme wore a low-cut gown, complete with petticoats, seamed stockings, a sequined stole, a necklace and earrings. He looked embarrassed. "I was talked into this," he said. But he cheered up at the end of the evening, when he won the Klinger (See FINALE, back page)
