CHAFFEE: CITY LOOKS AT TAKING OVER CABLE

CHAFFEE -- The city of Chaffee wants to find out if it can operate its own cable television system when the city's current franchise with Falcon Cable TV Co. of Sikeston expires next March.

Falcon wants a 15-year, renewable franchise, along with an option to renew for another 10 years.

But when the company announced last month that it plans to raise basic monthly cable rates by more than $2 in January, Chaffee Mayor Ron Moyers decided it was time for action.

Cable subscribers also will be required to pay more each month for extra cable outlets in their homes. There currently are 822 subscribers in Chaffee.

Moyers appointed a seven-member cable TV committee comprised of himself, two city aldermen, and two citizens. The committee's mission is to explore various options for operation of the cable TV franchise.

Options include a city-operated system, renewal of Falcon's franchise with certain changes, and consideration of what other cities with Falcon franchises are doing.

Three members of the committee will go to Paragould, Ark. later this month to meet with city officials there to learn more about its municipally-operated cable TV service. The city-operated cable system competes with a privately owned cable TV firm.

Alderman Jerry Woolsey, a member of the committee, is upset because the rate increase came a short time after Congress overrode a presidential veto of the cable TV re-regulation bill.

"We're also unhappy with the quality of the service on some of the channels and poor reception on the cable," Woolsey said. "Sometimes it takes over 48 hours to get a technician in Chaffee to answer a complaint and trouble calls."

Woolsey said that after Falcon's manager, Larry Spangler, met with the board of aldermen and a group of concerned citizens in August to hear complaints about the quality of cable service, the situation improved.

The alderman said Spangler explained that one of the problems was that the telephone number to report trouble or service complaints was listed incorrectly in the city's directory.

Spangler also said Falcon isn't the only cable company that will increase rates next month. TCI Cablevision, which serves Cape Girardeau, will raise its rates in March, and Comcast, Time-Warner and the majority of other major cable systems also are planning rate increases early next year.

Alderman Bill Cannon, who will accompany the group to Paragould, said customers wouldn't mind paying higher rates if Falcon was willing to reinvest the money they make in Chaffee to install newer, state-of-the-art equipment that would improve cable service.

"The manager told me during the August meeting that the microwave relay equipment to pick up the distant signals was 15 years old," Cannon said. "I'm sure that better equipment has been developed since then.

"I feel the local franchise should sustain itself. If we pay higher rates we should see improvements in service."

Cannon said that after some improvement following the August meeting, service has again started to deteriorate.

"Even with the renewal agreements coming up, they still haven't been able to maintain good service on a sustained basis," he complained. "It seems like they're trying to operate with equipment that cannot provide the proper quality and service that we'd like to have."

Spangler admitted there were problems in the cable system last summer. "But I can guarantee that the problems at the head end have been corrected and that we do have state-of-the-art equipment in the Chaffee system," he said.

Spangler said there are other reception problems that sometimes occur on the system over which he has no control.

"Around the World Series, someone shot out our cable. Before we could find the break and repair the cable, it rained, and water got into the cable. We had to replace 500-600 feet of new cable," he said.

Spangler said the most frequent problem that causes a disruption in service is power failure at the cable system's head-end and tower site, situated about five miles south of Chaffee.

"We're at the end of a (power line)," he said. "Of all of the 17 head-end sites we operate in this area, the Chaffee location has more power failures than any other."

Spangler said cable customers also can experience poor reception problems due to weather conditions that affect the company's micro-wave relay from Perryville to Chaffee. The microwave system relays the off-air signals from St. Louis television stations KPLR, Channel 11, and KETC, Channel 9. It also picks up WSIL, Channel 3, at Carterville, Ill.

He said rain, fog, lightning, even snow can affect the microwave relay. "I wish we had the same microwave relay system the telephone company uses," he said. "It operates at a different frequency that is not affected by weather conditions," Spangler said.

"But the FCC allows us to use one microwave frequency, and, unfortunately, it is affected at times by bad weather."

Spangler said for each TV channel on the Chaffee cable system, there are three separate pieces of electronic equipment at the head-end site. If any one of the three pieces of equipment fails, it knocks out that particular channel, and must be replaced at the head end, Spangler said.

"Keeping a cable system in operation is a major operation," said Spangler. "Sometimes we can correct the problem right away. But when the weather turns bad, or someone with a gun decides to take shots at our cable, there's not much we can do until it happens."

Woolsey said the current basic rate for cable TV service in Chaffee is now scheduled to increase after the first of the year from $20.50 to $22.73.

The new price includes the basic antenna service, $18.38; basic tier service, $4.35, (which Woolsey said most Chaffee customers have) and a monthly charge of $3.45 for each cable TV outlet in the home.

Woolsey said that he hopes to find out more about Paragould's cable TV service later this month.

"We are definitely interested in it," he said. "I know that other towns, Scott City and Oran, are having the same problems with their cable service as we are."

Woolsey said the sub-committee will make a full report to the cable TV committee and the board of aldermen early next year.