LETTERS: CONCERNS ABOUT CABLE TV

To the editor:

I would like to comment about the recent cable controversy here in our area. I feel like and have felt for a long time that we have been at the mercy of TCI Cable since the company arrived in our fair city. We have been subjected to gradual prices increases over the years and really have never had much to show for the extra money we are having to pay each month. TCI got a nice new building. We got the same old stations. St. Louis is our closest city with a good station, but that was taken away early on in the service. Now TCI wants to take away WGN, VH-1 and the Comedy Channel and give us what? Some animal channel and a cartoon channel. I think that deserves good money, don't you? What about the History Channel, the Learning Channel, the Sci-Fi Channel and numerous other quality channels?

When TCI has been repeatedly asked if we would ever be able to get any of the new channels (which are no longer new to many areas of the country), I was always given the same answer year after year. "We don't have the capacity to handle any more channels." So why are we paying so much for so little? I have visited many areas of the country, and never have I seen cable as poor as ours.

I do not understand why we have put up with this for so long. The satellite dishes are looking better and better every day.

SANDY CAMPBELL

Cape Girardeau