Ypsi cable drops PBS from lineup.

[Randy Crawford]

(Since there's no umich.general or mich.general, these newsgroups will have to do.)

August 10, 1999

Today Media One Cable of Ypsilanti Michigan implemented its new station offerings.
Notable among the channel shuffling and relatively few other changes is the loss of
two of the three PBS channels they had carried for years. Of the three, WTVS (56) of
Detroit, WGTE (30) of Toledo, and WFUM (28) of Flint, only WTVS remains.

This loss is made all the more bitter because Media One had promised that during the
reorganization, they vowed not to drop any PBS offerrings and would in fact add WKAR
of East Lansing. But their actions were no match for their words.

A personal note. I can't express the negative impression this has made on me as a
new resident to the area. It seems I've made a big mistake in moving to Ypsilanti.
Tomorrow my cable box goes back to Media One and I'll be looking for PBS alternatives
hereafter.

Needless to say, the house I will soon buy will NOT be located in Ypsilanti Michigan.

Has anybody had any luck in getting waiviers from local PBS stations so they can
receive national PBS broadcast from one of the satellite providers? Now with the
significant loss of PBS in Ypsilanti, it seems much more plausible.

Since Ypsi and Ann Arbor largely share their content, has the same thing happened
in Ann Arbor?

And, in the words of John Adams, does anybody care?

--
Randy Crawford

"In theory there's no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is."
-- Anon

[Tim Tyler]

I lived in Ypsi for numerous years.

I do not think that the cable-viewing demographics of Ypsilanti (or Ypsi Twp) would make
it viable for the cable company to provide more than one PBS channel on their system,
especially if the bandwidth (channel capacity) is still somewhat limited.

Randy Crawford wrote:

> (Since there's no umich.general or mich.general, these newsgroups will have to do.)
>
> August 10, 1999
>
> Today Media One Cable of Ypsilanti Michigan implemented its new station offerings.
> Notable among the channel shuffling and relatively few other changes is the loss of
> two of the three PBS channels they had carried for years. Of the three, WTVS (56) of
> Detroit, WGTE (30) of Toledo, and WFUM (28) of Flint, only WTVS remains.

(Remaining rant deleted)

> Randy Crawford

--
Tim Tyler
tty...@mich.com
http://www.mich.com/~ttyler/

[Jeff]

In article <37B0EFE0...@engin.umich.edu>
Randy Crawford <crw...@engin.umich.edu> wrote:

>
> Has anybody had any luck in getting waiviers from local PBS stations so they can
> receive national PBS broadcast from one of the satellite providers? Now with the
> significant loss of PBS in Ypsilanti, it seems much more plausible.
>

You have to be kidding me. You're peeved-off because your cable company
dumped the nearby PBS stations, but you want to take a PBS feed from
a distant city?

I think you'd be wasting your ink writing letters to get the waivers. You'd be
far better off to spend a few bucks and put up an outside antenna and get
the channels yourself. Besides, I think you'd be pleasantly surprised at the
over the air quality versus cable. The PBS stations in Detroit and Toledo only
broadcast with an erp measured in megawatts, you should be able to almost
pick them up with the foil wrapper from a piece of Juicy-Fruit.

[Paul Southworth]

In article <37B0EFE0...@engin.umich.edu>,

Randy Crawford <crw...@engin.umich.edu> wrote:
>(Since there's no umich.general or mich.general, these newsgroups will
>have to do.)

mi.misc is "mich.general". Please do not post "current events" to
mi.news - that's not what it's for.

>Today Media One Cable of Ypsilanti Michigan implemented its new station
>offerings.
>Notable among the channel shuffling and relatively few other changes is
>the loss of
>two of the three PBS channels they had carried for years. Of the three,
>WTVS (56) of
>Detroit, WGTE (30) of Toledo, and WFUM (28) of Flint, only WTVS remains.

You can pick up WGTE with an antenna about as long as your forearm.
With a roof-top antenna, you should receive it about as well as you
did via cable.

On the other hand, your best revenge is to not watch any TV at all.
I switched to novels in May and can't imagine wasting another minute of
my life in front of the evil crack-box.

--Paul

[John Stone]

Tim Tyler wrote:
>
> I lived in Ypsi for numerous years.
>
> I do not think that the cable-viewing demographics of Ypsilanti (or Ypsi Twp) would make
> it viable for the cable company to provide more than one PBS channel on their system,
> especially if the bandwidth (channel capacity) is still somewhat limited.
>

> Randy Crawford wrote:
>
> > (Since there's no umich.general or mich.general, these newsgroups will have to do.)
> >

> > August 10, 1999

> >
> > Today Media One Cable of Ypsilanti Michigan implemented its new station offerings.
> > Notable among the channel shuffling and relatively few other changes is the loss of
> > two of the three PBS channels they had carried for years. Of the three, WTVS (56) of
> > Detroit, WGTE (30) of Toledo, and WFUM (28) of Flint, only WTVS remains.
>

> (Remaining rant deleted)
>
> > Randy Crawford
>
> --
> Tim Tyler
> tty...@mich.com
> http://www.mich.com/~ttyler/

In Lansing MediaOne gives us the East Lansing and the Detroit PBS
stations. They seem to have essentially the same programming but at
different times. Only one PBS station is OK for me as I think
Animal Planet, Discovery channel and the History Channel do a good
job in covering many of the kinds of topics PBS does also.