The Roanoke Times from Roanoke, Virginia • 83

Roanoke Times World News Sunday July 27 1986 7 Channel 2 1 rom Page 5 Icet He had heard from business as sociates in Washington that the con struction permit for UH channel 21 was for sale After studying the mar ket the lorida partnership bought the permit from TV Development Corp a company based in Tennessee and Georgia for $350000 just decided it would be a good Carney said There were personal and busi ness reasons The senior Carney at tended Virginia Episcopal School in Once they're on all the necessary cable systems and advertising revenue begins to flow in Channel 2 1 officials say they'll expand Channel 2 1 's local programming They speak of public affairs shows local college and high school sports (perhaps with videotape shots by students at the schools) and news Lynchburg His partner Page is an alumnus of Virginia Military Insti tute They like the area and feel they know it Of equal importance was the op portunity to be the first independent station in the market That is regard ed as a critical competitive advan tage The CC has issued construction permits for two other independent stations in the market on UH channels 27 and 60 but neither is expected to go on the air before fall Carney said the partners favor independent stations because they have flexibility in pro than stations that must emphasize network fare can meet the needs of the communities on a more well rounded basis than an affiliate he said There are about 230 commer cial independents in the country Their number and the size of their audience has grown dramatically in the past 15 years Independent tele vision is a $25 billion business with about a fifth of total television view ership While its share of the audi ence has grown that of the tradition al networks has declined Advertisers have begun looking with more favor upon independents par ticularly when stations occasionally band together into ad hoc networks for selected programs or series There are problems Access to cable once automatic is no longer required by law Advertising reve nue growth has slowed Program costs are up indeed some blame the independents for pushing them up by increasing demand for the lim ited program supply inally independents (including WJPR) tend to be clustered on the UH band a little harder to receive than VH stations More than 30 years after the UH chan nels were allocated by the CC a Its general manager Kevin Grossman said Lynchburg Cablevi sion 'will begin making Channel 21 available to its subscribers on or about Aug 1 It will be part of a package of four new services Carney and the acting manager one time NBC producer Bob Garthwaite are polite in their remarks about Lynchburg Cablevi sion But they say been puz zled by its seeming slowness in mak ing their station available to local subscribers Grossman said there has been no unexpected delay He said the WJPR executives were told all along it would take time for the cable com pany to assess the new pro gramming and the quality of its sig nal to make the necessary financial and technical arrangements and to survey subscribers to see which ser vices could be deleted to make room for the new ones first allegiance is to our Grossman said wanted to make sure our decision was in the best interests of our cus Cox Cable Roanoke picked up WJPR in May and Salem Cable TV followed suit soon thereafter Bernie Langheim Cox manager in Roanoke said he is pleased with WJPR which was a service his subscribers had let him know they wanted Once on all the neces sary cable systems and advertising revenue begins to flow in Camey and Garthwaite say expand Channel local programming They speak of public affairs shows local college and high school sports (perhaps with videotape shots by stu dents at the schools) and news The latter likely will begin with local inserts into broadcasts by the Independent Network News ull staff newscasts are a future possibil ity but only after revenues and audi ences justify the expenditure Garthwaite said it probably would cost $250000 per year to mount a credible local newscast The basic program ming strategy is to acquire all the top shows and schedule them in a way that gives the viewer an alter native or example Channel 21 uses shows Sunday morn ings and weekday afternoons when other stations in the market are pro gramming for adult viewers Its late evening news runs at 10 pm whereas other stations in the market carry news at 11 really are making a con certed effort to tailor our program ming to this Carney said trying to do is find ex actly where we can fit in and then The time it takes an indepen dent television station to start mak ing money differs according to mar ket conditions quality of management and other variables Three years frequently is mentioned Channel 21 has 19 full time em ployees including those in its Roanoke sales office The station is promoting itself on radio billboards and bus placards in both Roanoke and Lynchburg and Carney said paying off he said know being will be the theme of an upcoming promotional campaign Garthwaite said the idea is for the station to stress its pride in being a part of the Roanoke Lynchburg mar ket Garthwaite is vice president for programming and production at the Pensacola station He ar rived at WJPR on July 1 to sup rvise programming and production while Lon Morolli formerly the acting surprising number of viewers still do not know how to tune them in One reason it is so important to be car ried on cable is that it eliminates the UH problem Nearly half the homes with tele visions in the Roanoke Lynchburg market are on cable according to figures from the AC Nielsen Co Cable is the obvious pipeline to both viewers and advertisers National advertisers particularly are reluc tant to buy commercials time until a station can prove it is reaching the viewers More than six months after go ing on the air Channel 21 is being carried by nine cable systems from Appomattox to Covington They in clude Cox Cable Roanoke and Salem Cable TV both of which added the station in the spring but they do not include Lynchburg Cablevision drink? 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