Newsday (Suffolk Edition) from Melville, New York • 421

TV REPORT Disappearing Acts Cable systems no longer have to carry all local signals and stations like Chs 21 and 55 are being dropped BY BRUCE EDER main system which has 300000 subscribers because there enough channels to do so intend to add Ch 55 to our flagship system as soon as channel capacity said William Quinn Chauvin adds that Cablevision has assured him that when the company acquires systems that carry WLIG Ch 55 will be kept on Three surveys on the effect of deregulation by the FCC the National Association of Broadcasters and the National Association of Public Television Stations have been submitted in the past three months to Congress which is considering legislation restoring the must-carry rule The FCC survey contained figures submitted by cable operators and TV stations: Broadcasters claimed that 565 stations had been dropped while cable companies said 780 stations had been removed from their systems The public TV survey listed 72 instances in which public TV stations had been dropped And the NAB reported in the August that 53 of its member stations were not carried by at least one cable company in their service areas and another 47 had been dropped after the original court decision Being dropped from cable might not seem like the end of the world but for Ch 21 removal from TKR threatens to cost as many as 700 contributors from the areas the cable system serves WLIW BpokeBperson Carole Volkman put the total contributors at approximately 17000 The hope at WLIW is that those 700 New Jerseyans sent donations to the Long Island station this year and 300 former contributors will form a chorus of complaints to the cable operator Cable carriage is no less important to a commercial station says Chauvin a household goes onto cable they usually give up their antenna because a lot of people like to keep up an antenna once paying for cable So it can cut severely into our audience and ratings and it affects the health of the Congress is not expected to take action on must-carry this year According to an NAB representative who requested anonymity the organization is confident that new legislation will emerge in 1989 almost certain going to take up the issue next year There seems to be a growing sentiment in both houses that this is an increasingly urgent question of public policy and the public Xnyone watching WLIW 21 lately may have noticed a series of on-air appeals aimed at cable viewers in New Jersey The Garden City-baaed public TV station asking for donations urging viewers served by New TKK Cable to protest the decision to drop WLIW Ch 218 fight to stsy on TKR is only the latest in a series of battles arising from a 1985 federal appeals court decision striking down the Federal Communication so-called rule That regulation had required cable operators to carry any over-the-air signal originating within 35 miles of their service area The original court decision (written by Judge Robert Bork before his nomination to the Supreme Court) struck down the rule on Constitutional grounds removing the special status afforded broadcasters by the FCC and allowing cable systems to decide which channels they will carry The impact was almost immediately felt by smaller broadcasters particularly UHF and public television stations which suddenly had to compete with services like the Cable Value Network for cable channel assignments The home-marketing services proved especially effective at bumping stations off cable systems in the New York area these services generally allow cable operators a split in their revenues from cable subscribers In the spring of 1987 Paragon Cable replaced WLIW with the Cable Value Network only to restore the station several weeks later following a series of increasingly well-attended protests by customers WLIG 55 Long only commercially licensed TV Btation has never been on Long biggest cable system Cablevision in its three years on the air This is especially ironic Bays the Woodbury -based general manager Marvin Chauvin in view of the fact that the station is carried on Brooklyn-Queens Cable and American Cablevision of Queens people see our programing they respond very he said recently marketing director of American Cablevision where we only went on a week ago called me to tell me that their customers are telling him that very happy to get Cablevision also based in Woodbury says it has not put WLIG on its NEWS DAY 11 OCX 23 29 IMS.