TCI SAYS IT ISN'T BLUFFING ABOUT DROPPING KFVS

TCI cable television officials insist they aren't bluffing: They will take KFVS-TV off their cable systems in Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois Jan. 1, rather than pay to carry the broadcast station.

That would leave some 45,000 TCI subscribers without a CBS station on their cable systems.

TCI officials point to what happened in Corpus Christi, Texas, three years ago as proof of their resolve.

Denver-based Tele-Communications Inc. removed three broadcast stations from its Corpus Christi cable system in October 1993. The stations remained off the cable system for more than a month.

The three network affiliates wanted TCI to pay them for the right to carry their signals on the cable system. The nation's largest cable company refused. The company, which has some 15 million subscribers nationally, said it shouldn't have to pay for over-the-air signals that viewers without cable get for free.

Under a 1992 federal law, cable companies can't carry over-the-air channels without permission of those stations. TCI officials said they had to drop the stations to comply with the law.

The law prompted a number of broadcasters across the nation in 1993 to ask for financial compensation in exchange for granting permission to cable firms to carry their signals.

The issue surfaced in the Cape Girardeau region in various negotiations that fall between broadcasters and the TCI and Falcon cable systems. But in the end the broadcast stations reached agreements with the cable operators that kept them on the cable lineups.

Falcon serves abut 65,000 subscribers in 90 communities in Missouri, Illinois, western Kentucky, western Tennessee and Arkansas.

TCI agreed three years ago to promote KFVS and advertise on the station. But TCI official Tom Cantrell of Bloomington, Ind., said this week that his cable company won't accept such a deal this time.

"If we want to buy advertising on a TV station then we are going to do it because it is a good business decision," he said. "It is not going to be tied to this."

Nationwide, the 1993 broadcast-cable agreements expire at the end of the year.

The dispute proved far worse three years ago in Corpus Christi, a city of some 280,000 people. The network stations remained off the TCI cable system from early October to mid-November.

Viewers resorted to antennas. Some residents subscribed to OmniVision, a wireless cable system that agreed to pay the broadcasters for their signals.

When TCI dropped the stations from its lineup, area residents flocked to Radio Shack and other stores to buy antennas.

Stores quickly sold out of the rabbit-ear antennas, said T. Frank Smith Jr., station manager of NBC affiliate KRIS.

The demand was so great people bought antennas right off a truck at a Wal-Mart store, Smith said.

"Antenna companies around the country shipped all their stuff in here," Smith said.

TCI distributed adapter kits to its subscribers so they could easily switch from cable reception to antenna.

"I think basically the public viewed the cable company as the bad guy," Smith said.

He said TV ratings showed that most area residents found ways to view the network stations.

In the end, the broadcast stations reached agreements with TCI that put them back on the cable lineup.

TCI agreed to give the stations a direct link to the cable company's fiber optic network.

There were other agreements too, Smith said.

He said he doesn't know what else TCI gave the CBS and ABC affiliate stations.

But TCI gave Smith's station $30,000 a year for three years to fund college scholarships.

The three broadcast stations presented a united front in dealing with TCI. The stations said they wouldn't go back on the cable system until TCI agreed to put all three back on. That led to an investigation by the U.S. Justice Department.

The three stations signed a decree in 1995. It stipulates that they won't collaborate with each other in any future negotiations, Smith said.

Negotiations are under way again between TCI and Smith's station.

Smith said TCI is heavy-handed wherever it operates.

"They are like the phone company used to be," Smith said. "They have a monopoly and they show it."