FCC granted 13 small cable operators 36-month waivers of Commissi...

FCC granted 13 small cable operators 36-month waivers of Commission’s rules on Emergency Alert Systems (EAS). Rules require cable systems serving fewer than 5,000 subscribers from headend to either provide national level EAS messages on all programmed channels or install EAS equipment and provide video interrupt and audio alert on all programmed channels and EAS audio and video messages on at least one programmed channel by Oct. 1, 2002. Commission has said it would grant waiver requests on case-by-case basis upon showing of financial hardship. It also noted it recently amended EAS rules to permit small cable systems to install FCC-certified decoder-only units, rather than both encoders and decoders, if such devices became available and that agency anticipated such systems would provide significant cost savings. Those granted waivers were: PEC Cable of Nichols, Ia., with 77 subscribers; Sherman Cablevision, Sherman Mills, Me., 175; Howard Cable Co., 2 systems in Wis. and one in Mich., 169- 403; S & K TV Systems Inc., with 7 systems in Wis., 72-430; HLM Cable Corp., with 5 systems in Wis., 68-320; HFU L.P., Cal., 225, and Nev. 472; Moosehead Enterprises Inc., 6 systems in Me., each with fewer than 750; Alpine Cable TV, 9 systems in Ia., with 723 total; Dodge County Cablevision, Wis., 336; Powhatan Point Cable Co., 2 systems in Ohio with 308 and 896 subscribers, respectively; TV Assn. of Republic, one system in Wash., 490; Farmers Co-Operative Telephone Co., Ia., 70; J. Feeney Assoc. Inc., doing business as Chain Lakes Cable, 6 systems in N.Y., one in Pa., and 3 Va., 36- 860. In another decision on EAS systems, FCC gave W.A.T.C.H. TV 30-day waiver to allow company to seek revision of Commission’s EAS rules with petition for rulemaking. W.A.T.C.H. operates 9 wireless cable TV systems in Ohio and believes it has alternative technology approach that will be less costly.