Perhaps Nexstar Broadcasting has learned something from the unprofessional way it handled coverage of its dispute with Cable One in Joplin.
As regular readers of The Turner Report will recall, I ripped the company up and down for the way it sabotaged the hard-working people on the news teams of KSNF and KODE by forcing their reporters to become shills for the company. Reporters for the stations were forced to cover a protest against Cable One that was manufactured by Echostar. Plugs for Echostar's Dish Network were sprinkled liberally among the newscasts. The local stations' news director editorialized at the top of the broadcast (a time when any reasonable viewer would be expecting real news), railing about Cable One and Cox Communications.
I am not sure about KSNF since I was not watching the station that night, but I did hear KODE's Jimmy Siedlecki, during the newscast, promoting a 30-minute Nexstar infomercial which purported to tell the real history about cable and broadcast television, as told by Nexstar official Duane Lammers.
All of those items can be found, in far more detail, in earlier editions of The Turner Report.
I also mentioned that the selling of the news departments at KODE and KSNF also extended to their websites where the messages to the viewers about the battle over retransmission rights were carried as part of the websites' news areas.
That is not the way it is being handled at Nexstar's affiliate KAMR in Amarillo, Texas, which was removed from Cable One earlier this month.
"Message Regarding Carriage of KAMR NBC 4 By Cable One is featured in a ad-style block at the side of the station's home page. You have to click on the ad to get to a page which features the following message"
"As of April 1st, CableOne customers in Borger, Dumas and Pampa will lose access to KAMR NBC4. For the past two years and three months, CableOne carried our signal without our consent. We have been unable to come to terms with your cable company for the continued carriage of our station.
"We are asking CableOne to pay us 30 cents out of the extremely expensive cable bill that you pay every month.
"CableOne is owned by one of the most powerful media companies in the United States -- The Washington Post. Ironically, the Washington Post also owns television stations and their broadcast division shares our viewpoint about being compensated for carriage by cable companies.
"CableOne, like all cable and satellite companies, makes payments to the companies that own and operate programming networks. They pay the owners of the programming channels monthly fees, ranging as high as several dollars per month for the right to carry the programming.
"Satellite programming provider Dish Network pays KAMR NBC4 for carrying our signals on their programming packages. We encourage you to call the Dish Activation Hotline at 1-888-882-DISH (3474) or 1-877-434-7404 and take advantage of their terrific programming packages, including KAMR NBC4."
The truth behind those claims notwithstanding, this is the way to handle the situation, at least as far as the station website is concerned. I do not know how the station newscasts have dealt with the situation, or if they have dealt with it.
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Unless I overlooked an article, the Amarillo Globe-News has not really covered the situation, at least not nearly as thoroughly as Joplin's situation has been covered by The Joplin Globe and this blog.
In its April 2 edition, the newspaper said, "An unresolved business dispute between Nexstar Broadcasting and CableOne Communications resulted in a breach that leaves some Panhandle residents without cable access to NBC.
"NBC programs and local programming on KAMR went off CableOne's system at midnight Thursday. NBC and local programs on Channel 4 may be available to television viewers via antenna.
"The retransmission agreement between CableOne and Nexstar expired and the two companies were not able to agree on payment for access to NBC programs."
That article really doesn't tell the reader in Amarillo anything. It leaves that job up to two extremely biased sources...Nexstar Broadcasting and Cable One.
Someone needs to tell Amarillo readers about The Turner Report.
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Another Texas town is poised to join the list of those whose cable viewers will no longer receive a Nexstar station unless they have antennas. In the March 28 Wichita Falls Times Record, the paper's night city editor Lynn Walker addressed the possible removal of KFDX-TV, Fox 18, and the WB station from Cable One in that city at the end of 2005.
As he has promised earlier, Nexstar COO Duane Lammers told Walker the company will follow the same procedure at all of its stations. Walker described the battle between broadcast and cable quite vividly. "For years, broadcasters and cable operators grudgingly tolerated each other like two fat men seated together in coach class. Stations wanted their signals on cable and cable was glad to have them."
The column continued, "Nexstar's strategy seems to be to stir public outcry and force cable companies to cough up the cash. But the cable companies are standing their ground, concerned that if they give in to Nexstar, every TV station in the country will want a cut.
"Nexstar is asking for 30 cents per customer per month for each of its stations - not a huge sum. But cable operators say once they start paying, the stations will demand more at each contract renewal.
"The fight has gotten ugly in some towns, with both sides using ad campaigns to blame the other for the mischief. Viewers are probably cussing both sides as they try to wrap aluminum foil around makeshift antennas in order to see Law & Order."
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I am constantly amazed at how people find The Turner Report. It seems that so many subjects have been addressed here that this site turns up during many searches.
Since 11:45 p.m. yesterday, people have found the blog by looking for information on the following subjects:
-Tyleen Winterbower- Tyleen is a former social worker who at one time was a foster child who was removed from an abusive family. I have written about her both on this site and while I was at The Carthage Press.
-Enesco- This company has been featured during reports concerning Precious Moments in Carthage.
-Nexstar- Cable One- Do I really need to say anything?
-Sunbeam
-Diamond Wildcat Pride Band
-Neosho High School Speech and Debate Squad
-Registered Sex Offenders in Carl Junction- I have no idea how this one led to this site.
-KOAM
-Newell Rubbermaid
-Mo-Ark and EPA
-Cruzan- A considerable number of people have come to this site looking for information about Nancy Cruzan, no doubt in large part due to the recent controversy surrounding Terri Schaivo.
-Nicole Lehman- Nicole was a starter for the Southwest Missouri State University women's basketball team which recently won the Women's NIT.