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Law leaves TV user with no signal By CLEVE TWITCHELL Several hundred Rogue Valley television viewers are having to change the way in which they receive network programming. They formerly got ABC, CBS, NBC and/or Fox via satellite. Now, because of a federal law and subsequent federal court decision, many must arrange to receive the signal from the local network affiliate. That is, unless the station grants a waiver. At least one viewer says he isn't able to get CBS either way. F. Richard Smith, who lives in a rural area near Grants Pass, has written U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith and the Federal Communications Commission in protest. Smith, of 954 Jess Way, used to get CBS from DirecTV. But the satellite firm said it was forced to cut him off. Smith asked KTVL, the Medford CBS affiliate, for a waiver, but was denied on the grounds that the station management believed he could receive the station's signal via one of its 28 translators. Smith says he has not been able to get an adequate over-the-air picture, and there is no cable service in his area. Smith is one of about 1,200 viewers who have asked KTVL for waivers allowing them to continue watching CBS via satellite. About 60 percent of the waivers have been granted, says KTVL General Manager Kingsley Kelley. Smith's request was denied, Kelley says, because his address is within what's considered KTVL's coverage area. The law specifies a certain level of signal, and "we grant or don't grant waivers based on that," he explains. "We don't want to deprive anyone, but if we don't have viewers, we're out of business. "We have a contract with CBS that makes us the exclusive provider of CBS programming in this area." The current situation came about as a result of the fast growth of satellite systems in the United States. People in marginal reception areas began getting ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox on satellite channels that brought in stations from distant cities. The CBS station Smith received until recently is in Denver. The satellite companies, networks and stations all got together, Kelley says, and agreed on a plan that became the Satellite Home Viewers Act -- to decide who should and who should not get network programming from a nonlocal station. That is, everyone agreed except for PrimeTime 24, the parent company of DirecTV. The matter wound up in federal court, which eventually ruled that DirecTV could no longer provide network service unless the viewer got a waiver from the local station. Smith's reaction, as expressed in his letter to Sen. Gordon Smith, is, "I feel this whole thing is a dictatorial travesty. Can this so-called Act have been so deviously crafted that a citizen's only redress or appeal is to document the need for a waiver and simply be told by the local TV stations to `get lost, little boy?"' Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA