FALCON, STATIONS STILL FAR APART

Two area television stations and the Falcon cable systems remain far apart in efforts to reach retransmission agreements that would keep the stations on cable TV throughout much of Southeast Missouri.

Officials at both KFVS-Channel 12 in Cape Girardeau and WPSD-Channel 6 in Paducah, Ky., say they have abandoned per-subscriber-fee proposals in favor of seeking promotional or advertising arrangements in return for allowing their stations to be aired on the Falcon and Falcon-Enstar cable systems.

The Falcon system, based in Sikeston, serves about 25,000 subscribers in the region, ranging as far north as Ste. Genevieve.

Falcon-Enstar, owned by the same company, serves another 25,000 subscribers in the Poplar Bluff area. Falcon, whose corporate headquarters are in Los Angeles, is the 12th largest cable operator in the nation.

Larry Spangler, general manager of Falcon Cable TV in Sikeston, said agreements have been reached with both KBSI-Channel 23, the Fox network affiliate in Cape Girardeau, and WSIL-Channel 3, the ABC affiliate in Harrisburg, Ill.

That's not the case with KFVS and WPSD. Spangler said the issue is one of fairness. Both KFVS and WPSD have agreed to allow some small cable systems to carry their signals at no cost.

"We think this is very unfair that some people are being asked to pay while others are getting the same thing free," he said in a recent letter to a Chaffee city councilman.

Both KFVS and WPSD officials said their stations have agreed to allow Falcon systems to carry their signals free of charge in areas outside of their television market, such as Perryville, which is considered part of the St. Louis market. As a result, St. Louis network stations are carried on the Perryville cable system.

Howard Meagle, vice president and general manager of KFVS, said the station has not requested compensation from the small cable operators, those generally under 1,000 subscribers.

Outside of Falcon, all of the large cable operators have agreed to provide compensation in one form or another, he said.

The CBS affiliate currently airs on 178 cable systems in a region encompassing parts of five states. He said the station has reached agreement in principle with all except the 25 to 30 Falcon systems.

"I want Falcon to do business with KFVS," he said.

Meagle said KFVS wants Falcon to agree to spend $1,500 a month or $18,000 a year advertising on Channel 12.

In addition, the station wants to put informational fliers in the cable bills four times a year, and include Channel 12 key chains and other promotional items in the cable company's new subscriber packets. Also, the station wants Falcon to give it one free promotional announcement a day on each of the channels on which the cable operator puts on commercials.

The proposal is "not materially different" from agreements KFVS has reached with other cable operators, Meagle said.

Meagle said Falcon Cable has a marketing budget of $7,800 in Scott City, which has 1,377 cable subscribers.

Based on that, Falcon systems in Southeast Missouri would have a combined marketing budget of $250,000 a year, calculated on 50,000 households, he said.

"That's $20,000 a month. I've asked for 7.5 percent of their advertising budget," said Meagle.

Richard Paxton, WPSD's station manager, said Falcon has rejected similar proposals from his NBC affiliate.

"We have tried every creative, cross-promotional marketing (plan) that we can come up with. They are being absolutely stubborn," said Paxton.

"The main issue is fairness," he said. "The cable companies are willing to make cash compensation to all the other major cable networks, and yet even this promotion consideration in the case of Falcon is not acceptable to them."

Paxton predicted there will be mass cancellations by cable subscribers if the two broadcast stations are taken off the Falcon systems.