On Aug. 4, Time Warner Cable of Southwest Ohio announced it was dropping some PBS channels. For the subscribers in Champaign County, this means eliminating WOSU. According to the news report, the station is being dropped because it duplicates programming available on WPTD or WPTO .
I have mentioned this change to several people in the past week. None were aware of the change prior to my mentioning. Brittany thought I was joking. She didn’t realize that I can root for Wolverines and still say “OSU” without choking.
Joan’s response was a distressed, “That’s all I watch.”
When I told Betty, she bemoaned, “That’s what I’m watching right now — The Big Bands.”
I called Time-Warner Cable and was told it is a done deal. On Aug. 25, WOSU-PBS will stop being carried. I explained the only duplication occurs on Monday through Thursday evenings, but not always then. The night before WOSU carried “Live from Lincoln Center” but WPTD showed “Secrets of the Dead” and “Time Team America” during the same hours. WPTO never shows the same programming as the other two PBS stations.
According to Michelle, a supervisor I talked to, I could try to get enough people to complain to Time Warner. She didn’t have a specific number (e.g. 1,000 complaints), but contacting Time Warner (800-TW-CABLE or 800-892-2253 or www.timewarner cable.com) could make the company reconsider.
This year Time Warner standard customers have lost two stations – C-SPAN 2 and MoviePlex. Neither station has been replaced. They are blank reminders when one channel-surfs trying to find something to watch.
This is the cable version of purchasing the same sized package but actually getting less product.
As devoted as this county is to The Ohio State University, how can we let their station go without saying something about it?
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