CABLE: TOWN MEETING WILL FOCUS ON LOCAL SERVICE

Cape Girardeau residents will have an opportunity Monday to voice questions, concerns and compliments concerning local cable television service.

The Cape Girardeau Cable TV Citizens Committee will hold a "town meeting" at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall, 401 Independence.

Members of the committee have urged cable TV subscribers and other interested citizens to attend the meeting and express their views regarding billing, connection and repair service; signal reception and quality; and the city's cable access channel and facilities.

Committee member Jim Dufek said he hopes the meeting draws a large, vocal audience.

"The whole intention of the meeting is to inform people that the committee is trying to take as much input from the community as they can," Dufek said. "We want to know if they have any concerns or complaints."

He said the meeting will give residents the opportunity to relate problems they might have had with TCI-Cablevision of Missouri the local cable TV company including problems with billing, service and community access TV.

Dufek said the committee hopes the information from the town meeting will complement a report drafted last year from the results of community surveys conducted by the committee. He said he also hopes that, like the surveys, the town meeting will prompt TCI to deal with common problems expressed by the community.

"The survey work we did earlier indicated what people feel about certain aspects of cable, primarily the billing problems they've had," Dufek said.

"Through visiting TCI's facilities, the committee has learned that they've added personnel and changed some of their billing procedures to take care of some of those problems."

Dufek said City Attorney Warren Wells has sent letters to various civic and other community groups inviting them to the meeting. He said he expects some "special interest" groups, such as those interested in expanded religious programming, to attend the meeting.

"I think in that respect the committee can serve as a sounding board for civic and other groups to let TCI know what they want," he said. "If we as a community and as an advisory board can listen to concerns of what people want and don't want, then we can echo those to TCI.

"I think any good business wants to know what their customers want. If TCI will listen to that and take a greater interest as to what the community wants, that's really kind of what we're hoping to get."

Dufek said the committee plans to cover a variety of cable TV issues at the meeting, including the need to continually research new cable technology.

"We don't want to get in a situation where we're behind in terms of technology in cable," he said. "We want the best in cable technology as well as programming."

Dufek also said the issue of cable TV competition likely will be discussed. He said a new company called Rural Vision is advertising that it soon will offer wireless cable TV to a prospective 30,000 homes in Southeast Missouri.

"In the past, wireless cable only involved a few channels, but now this company apparently intends to provide service comparable to Falcon Cable TV in Sikeston," Dufek said.

"If that works well in small areas, they might be willing to provide some competition to the cable systems in towns around the area."

Dufek said he thinks greater competition not added regulation will most effectively improve cable TV service and cost.

Michael Maguire, chairman of the committee, said those people wanting to testify at Monday's meeting should contact the committee via the city attorney's office. He said the committee will be better able to plan the meeting's agenda if it has an indication of how many people will speak.

Dufek said that Tom Schulte of the congressional office of Sens. John Danforth and Christopher "Kit" Bond has been invited to attend the meeting to discuss a federal bill that would impose greater regulations on the cable TV industry. Various television stations also have been invited to attend the meeting.

"I hope that all the work we're doing doesn't come to a screeching halt and no one shows up at the meeting," Dufek said.