TCI, KFVS DECLARE TRUCE

When area cable subscribers turn on their televisions Wednesday morning, KFVS will be there. It should remain on TCI cable television for at least the next two months.

Officials from the cable company said Monday that a 60-day extension on a contract with Cape Girardeau's CBS affiliate was approved verbally. The deadline to reach an agreement was to be midnight tonight.

Under the federal Cable Act of 1992, cable companies can't carry over-the-air stations without those stations' permission. The terms of a 1993 contract require TCI to advertise on KFVS in return for the ability to carry the station's signal.

Tom Cantrell, director of franchising for TCI, said his company wanted the new contract to drop that requirement. Otherwise, cable subscribers must absorb the cost.

"We want to give our customers what they want, but we don't feel they should have to pay more for it than people who don't have cable," Cantrell said.

Terms of the contract extension weren't available Monday.

The battle over whether cable companies should pay for over-the-air channels first was fought in 1993, when the new cable law first went into effect. Falcon Cable in Sikeston and TCI didn't want to pay for KFVS at that time, and cable subscribers became concerned that they would drop a CBS affiliate from the channel line-up.

They didn't. However, before the scare was over, TV antenna sales soared.

It's happening again.

"We've sold three today because of the TCI-KFVS issue," said Joshua Rhine, a Radio Shack sales associate. "A lot of people are coming in for RCA and Primestar satellite dishes. We're completely out of brochures about satellite service."

Terry Godwin, store manager at Wal-Mart, said the rise in antenna and satellite sales started about two weeks ago. A computer keeps track of inventory and ordering and sensed the increase, so the antenna supply at Wal-Mart is adequate.

TCI and KFVS officials agree that television watchers would be upset if KFVS were dropped from the cable system. Local TCI manager Roger Harms said the new cable law only complicates television viewing.

"This will come up every three years," he said. "All it does is make it rough on subscribers."