DESPITE MESSAGE, TCI WILL CONTINUE ST. LOUIS HOCKEY

Fox Sports Midwest canceled plans to blackout St. Louis Blues hockey games on the local cable television system after striking a deal with Tele-Communications Inc. Friday, a TCI official said.

Blues fans watching Thursday night's game against the San Jose Sharks were surprised to see a crawling message on the screen informing viewers that after Jan. 15, Blues games on Fox Sports Midwest would be blacked out on TCI cable systems.

Fox Sports Midwest, formerly Prime Sports Network, appears on Channel 33 locally and is the only area outlet for regular Blues television broadcasts.

Although the message was placed by the network, some local fans reacted negatively toward TCI, which in recent months has raised public ire by instituting unpopular programming changes.

"My dander was already up about TCI," said Blues fan Eric Oslund of Cape Girardeau. "When I saw the crawler, I really got upset.

"Following the Blues, for a lot of us, is just as important as following the Rams or Cardinals."

TCI officials were just as surprised and dismayed Friday before the situation was resolved.

"We are made out to be the bad guy when the bottom line is we are the good guy for trying to put on as many games as possible," said Tom Cantrell, district director of franchise and government affairs for TCI.

Cantrell admitted that the timing of the dispute, which came on the heels of an unpopular decision to drop Chicago superstation WGN, Comedy Central and VH-1 and ongoing wrangling with local CBS affiliate KFVS, did nothing to improve the company's image among its customers.

TCI operates the Cape Girardeau and Jackson cable system. The company also provides service to approximately 250,000 homes in the St. Louis area.

Cantrell said the original contract with Fox Sports Midwest called for the network to broadcast a certain amount of regular season games. Since the network has so far this year aired more games than originally planned for the entire season, Cantrell said Fox Sports wanted TCI and other cable providers to pay an additional fee.

"They tried to use the crawler to force us to buy more games when we can't charge customers more," Cantrell said.

The details of the deal keeping the Blues on TCI were not announced. Cantrell said he did not know if TCI agreed to pay an additional fee.

Had a deal not been reached, the network would have provided alternative programming to TCI households during Blues broadcasts. The next game on the network is tonight at 7:35 against the Los Angeles Kings.