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July 1994

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Sender:
Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:
From:
Denise Bryson <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Wed, 20 Jul 1994 15:32:41 CDT
In-Reply-To:
In reply to your message of WED 20 JUL 1994 15:05:08 CDT
Reply-To:
Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
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>
>>>RE:  Comment to Denise about cable.  Don't you think the tone of
>>>your comment about taping films for her was just a little bit
>>>patronizing?  I would really not like to see another in a series
>>>of flamethrowing erupt here.
 
S'Okay, I didn't feel patronized.  Maybe I shoulda, but I didn't...
 
>>>FYI, Bravo is not available on many cable systems.  It's not very
>>>popular, and on systems with only 35-44 channels, often is left off in
>>>favor of shopping or PPV channels.  In terms of PBS, that also depends
>>>on where you are at.  WNET in NYC runs a lot of independent films, but
>>>the PBS affiliate in Hartford runs very few.
 
Here I must concur with you.  Kansas City PBS doesn't run much in the
way of films at all.  The ones it DOES run tend to be British and
very proper.
 
>The best way to change this is for you and your friends to write (not call)
>your local cable company and PBS station and tell them what you want to see.
>You'd be surprised how much impact a couple hundres letters will have.
>That's how I got the Cartoon Network.  I may oly get it half a day, but I was
>surprised to have gotten it at all. I'm working on the Sci-Fi Channel now.
 
Now, here, I have to throw in one last anecdote about the lousy cable
service in rural Adair county.  This community is largely a college
town, but the locals HATE the university and its students--lots of
hostility.  Anywho, when the new cable agreements began about a year
ago, the local station (the only one many people around here could
get, and certainly the only thing to run local weather within 200
miles) refused to be carried by the cable system unless they got paid
for their signal.  While they held out and pouted, the cable system
brought in Sci-Fi.  Needless to say, by the time the local channel
caved in 2 months later, most of the town's cable subscribers were
HOOKED on Sci-Fi.  Didn't matter--the cable company pulled it off
the system anyway.
 
We mounted phonecall campaigns, letter-writing campaigns, in-person
visits.  We flooded their switchboards.  Estimates run about 2,000 for
all these actions combined.
 
The cable company flatly refused to bring the channel back, saying they
had "no room" for another channel.
 
This is the system that has 3 shopping networks, 2 country music
stations, and two stations dedicated solely to Christ Our Lord (tm).
 
In a large city, it might work to complain and work and organize.  Out
here in the boondocks, they just stick a new piece of straw between
their teeth and smile atcha.
 
Whadda you do?
 
Sure, send tapes.  Anybody else out there stuck in a cultural black
hole?  Maybe Guy will send some your way, too--or we could send them
in an enormous chain-letter fashion|
 
 
Denise Bryson, Language and Literature
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=======================================================================
=      Lord, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot      =
=       change, the strength to change those things I can, and        =
=         the wisdom to hide the bodies of those I've killed          =
=          because they PISSED ME OFF|   - Anonymous -                =
=======================================================================

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