WBKO in lineup

City government is somewhat upset with its television cable provider, Mediacom, following that company’s announcement late last month that it plans to remove not only a couple of popular–but also closest–TV channels from its line-up later this summer.

In a letter to Albany Mayor Nicky Smith, dated April 26, Lee Grassley, Senior Manager, Government Relations with Mediacom informed the mayor that “on or about June 11, 2012, Mediacom will no longer carry WBKO ABC 13 and WBKO Fox 15 (both in Bowling Green), as distant signals on our channel lineup in your community. You are in the Nashville designated market area. WKRN ABC 2 and WKRV Fox 17 (which will remain on the lineup) have the same network affiliations.”

Four days following the aforementioned notice, on April 30, Mayor Smith informed Grassley via e-mail, “I am writing to protest your company’s forthcoming action of removing WBKO channels from the Albany televised area. You may not realize the impact this action will have on your customers in this area. Your customers rely on WBKO for all local news, local sporting events and most important for local weather and for all severe weather conditions. Since most of WBKO weather travels in our direction, I strongly urge you not to proceed with this action. In addition, I feel that you will lose customers because of this,” the mayor noted. He concluded, “I will be advising our city council of your actions and urging all customers to protest this action and that they might need to look for other providers.”

In a follow-up e-mail from Grassley the same day, the Mediacom executive wrote, “The timetable for the WBKO change has been moved to July 26 in order to allow further consideration of this change. I will keep you informed on the process. I really appreciate your input.”

Mayor Smith did inform the council members of the proposed move to take WBKO off the air at that governing bodies regular meeting last Tuesday, May 1.

Like the mayor, council members present were upset with the proposed change, citing many of the same reasons the mayor had given in his correspondence to Mediacom. They also cited some other “problem” areas with the cable company’s service in general, including rates and also urged its customers to protest the planned decision to remove the Bowling Green channels.

Despite the Albany area having always been in the cable company’s “Nashville district” service area, so to has WBKO of Bowling Green for most of those years been a staple on the cable network’s lineup.

Some council members suggested attempting to advertise for another cable company, but the mayor said that basically no one else was interested and further admitted there was little a governing body could do in these situations, since the cable and telecommunications industries are deregulated, thus basically not falling under any government type controls.

The city, however, is doing what it can do at present, and that is “protest” the measure and try to put enough pressure on the company to change its mind.

A petition drive has also begun, asking for signatures of customers opposing the move to take off Channels 13 and 15, that will apparently be presented to Mediacom. That petition, which already had several signatures as of last Monday, can be signed at Albany City Hall during normal business hours and residents opposed to the change are also urged to call the cable company with your concerns.