Charter Communications is planning to press ahead and replace
two Monterey County-based stations in its local basic channel
lineup, although city and chamber officials have asked the company
to refrain from doing so.
Charter Communications is planning to press ahead and replace two Monterey County-based stations in its local basic channel lineup, although city and chamber officials have asked the company to refrain from doing so.
“We’re going to move forward with our decision to add additional Spanish-language programming,” said Heinz Ludke, the company’s Gilroy marketing manager on Tuesday. “We think our current lineup underserves the Spanish-speaking customers we do have, and we think (the change) will help us add new customers.”
Charter has announced plans to pull KION-46 – cable channel 5 – and KCBA-35 – cable channel 8 – from its local basic channel lineup in Morgan Hill, San Martin and Gilroy effective April 1.
The two stations will be replaced by two Spanish-language channels. Azteca America’s KTNC-42 will now occupy cable channel 8, and Telefutura KFSF-66 will be added to cable channel 10. KPIX-4 will also move from cable channel 10 to cable channel 5.
Company officials said the switch is an effort to reduce duplicate network programming of local CBS and FOX broadcasting affiliates and also meet customer demands.
Along with PBS and NBC, CBS and FOX were among four networks duplicated in the company’s limited basic service, Ludke said – and up to 67 percent of programming on the duplicated networks was the same on each channel.
The duplication is not the same for the PBS stations, KQED – 9 and KTEH – 54, cable 14.
“What we decided was, is that a good use of our channel space?” he asked.
The company has also received specific requests from customers for the two new Spanish-language channels, he said, and felt it was losing customers because it didn’t have the programming to compete with “robust” Spanish offerings on the Dish Network.
Ludke said the cable service will still retain KSBW-8 in its South County lineup, which provides news coverage of the Monterey Bay area.
The Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce and the Gilroy City Council have sent letters opposing the elimination of KCBA and KION and the Morgan Hill City Council unanimously approved sending such a letter Wednesday.
Mayor Dennis Kennedy said Wednesday that he saw no reason why Charter could not keep KION and KCBA while adding the extra stations.
