CABLE EARNS GOOD OVERALL MARKS IN SURVEY

Cape Girardeau's cable company garnered good marks for overall quality in a recent telephone survey, but one of every two respondents complained about the service's price.

A member of the city's Cable Television Citizens Committee, Jim Dufek, released the survey after announcing the results at the committee's Thursday evening meeting. The one-day survey was conducted in late April by the Mass Communications Department at Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau. Dufek is the department's video coordinator.

A total of 404 people whose telephone numbers were dialed at random by computer responded to the survey, which measured consumer satisfaction of TCI Cablevision of Missouri Inc.

Sixty-two percent of those who responded to the survey are female. Respondents were asked about 30 questions.

TCI's 15-year franchise with the city expires on Dec. 7, 1992. Cable committee Chairman Michael Maguire said the committee is getting ready to negotiate the renewal of the franchise with TCI.

The committee exists only as a recommendation committee for the Cape Girardeau City Council. Dufek said he believes the committee will take into consideration the survey results in regards to re-negotiating the franchise.

Dufek said survey participants responded positively towards the company's service and signal.

Of TCI's overall showing on the survey, he said: "I wouldn't say they did excellent, but I would say they got good ratings in some areas and good ratings in other areas."

Forty-four percent of the respondents ranked TCI's overall quality as very good or good. Thirty-eight percent said the quality was fair, while 16.6 percent gave it a poor to very-poor rating.

The reception quality of TCI's basic service was ranked as fair to very good by 90 percent of the respondents, with 10 percent classifying it as poor to very poor. The majority of the respondents didn't subscribe to premium cable channels, but 23 percent of those who did found the quality of the channels to be good to very good.

A total of 9.4 percent of respondents found the channels' quality to be fair. Only 4 percent deemed the channels' quality as poor.

Near the end of the survey, the respondents were asked two open-ended questions, Dufek said. The questions asked what the respondents thought overall about the franchise, and what they thought should be addressed in future negotiations with TCI.

"One out of every two people complained about the price, which this committee has nothing to do with," Dufek said. "We can't regulate the price. But it shows a strong sentiment about cost, and people are more or less fed up about the high prices."

On the second question, the majority of respondents, 105 or 25.9 percent, said they wanted TCI to include KPLR-TV of St. Louis in its cable package.

Dufek said those two responses to the open-ended questions are important because those carrying out the survey did not solicit them.

In addition to other answers, 11 people responding to the second open-ended question said the company should inform customers about price increases beforehand. Five respondents said they wanted more religious programming; 11 people said they wanted more children's programming; 25 respondents said they wanted a better selection of channels; and two called for more pornography.

The survey also found that 63.2 percent of the respondents rated the company's access channel as extremely important to somewhat important. The other respondents did not deem the channel as important or did not care about the channel, the survey overview said.

Meetings of the Cape Girardeau City Council and the Cape Girardeau Board of Education are broadcast on the channel.

Dufek said a few respondents indicated they would like to see the meetings of some city committees broadcast on the channel.

"There was interest," he said, "but when we asked specifically, reviews were mixed as to what meetings should be televised." Respondents did show interest in the idea of broadcasting meetings of the Planning and Zoning Commission, Parks and Recreation Advisory Board, and the cable committee.

TCI's local manager, Roger Harms, could not be reached for comment Saturday about the survey results. The survey results possess a "confidence level" of 95 percent, which means that if it were repeated 100 times, 95 times a similar result would be repeated within a few points either way.