COMMENTARY
Pergament: Time Warner’s latest hike hurts every subscriber
This is what I’m thinking: • After further review, the rate increase that Time Warner is giving customers that just get the broadcast package of local stations looks like the most onerous percentage-wise. Those customers will be paying $10 on Feb. 1, instead of the current $9.
It made one wonder if the increase is to cover the additional money that Time Warner apparently has to pay the owners of Channel 4, Channel 23 and Channel 7 after retransmission deals recently were concluded.
“I don’t think there is a correlation,” said Time Warner spokesman Robin Wolfgang. “There has been an overall increase on all programming costs.”
However, the subscribers to the broadcast package don’t get the cable channels that have become more expensive to Time Warner.
Of course, Time Warner and all cable companies really are least concerned about losing subscribers who only get the broadcast package because they make more money on the other packages, as well as the Internet and digital phone service.
• The executive editor in charge of the new 24-hour Time Warner news channel here certainly has knowledge of Western New York. Time Warner announced Tuesday that Jim Aroune, a Western New York native and St. Bonaventure University graduate, has been named to the position. He has been the prime-time anchor, editorial supervisor and lead political reporter for a similar channel in Rochester, where he has worked since 1990. The news channel is expected to begin operating by the end of March.
• It was hardly surprising that Sharon Staebell, the former Spanish teacher and volleyball coach from Batavia, didn’t survive the second week of “The Bachelor” Monday night. She got the next to last rose from single father Jason Mesnick a week earlier and didn’t get much screen time Monday before she was one of two women eliminated Monday. “I quit my job, I left my family, I left my friends, I gave up a lot to be here,” lamented Staebell on the program after she was eliminated. “Love can be a very difficult thing. Obviously, he doesn’t see himself marrying me. So yeah, I’m disappointed.”
• If you missed it, Channel 2 said goodbye to meteorologist Chesley McNeil last Friday, making one wonder who will replace him on “Daybreak.” General Manager Jim Toellner said there is no timetable for naming a replacement for McNeil, who has taken a job in Atlanta. Andy Parker is filling in for now and Toellner said, “Andy certainly is a strong candidate to take over the slot.” He’d be my choice. He’s the most underrated weathercaster in town. If Parker gets the job, Channel 2 will have to search for someone to replace him on the other newscasts he works.
Toellner said the station won’t be hiring a full-time consumer reporter to replace Mike Igoe, who took a buyout. The general manager said consumer stories “will be done by the team” and not by someone whose exclusive job is consumer reporter.
During McNeil’s final “Daybreak” show, staffers sang his praises, music with a Georgia theme was played and some file footage of his memorable moments were carried. Kevin O’Neill, who left Channel 4 for Channel 2 a while back, also praised the station for showing class in allowing people who leave the station to take a final bow.
Of course, McNeil is leaving Channel 2 but staying in the Gannett family. The Atlanta station is owned by the same company. When news personalities bolt for a rival station or rival company, they usually don’t get on-air goodbyes.
• I won’t lie to you. I get a kick out of the promo for the new Fox series, “Lie to Me,” which uses a successful faked field goal by the Buffalo Bills against Seattle from the 2008 season opener. The lead character in the series claims he knew it was a fake.
• I’m still waiting for WNGS-TV to announce its new program schedule, more than a week after it dropped all the classic reruns like “Magnum,” “Knight Rider” and “The A-Team” that were popular by the channel’s standards.
• I’m also waiting for an official release on whether Joe Arena really has become Victoria Hong’s co-anchor on Channel 4’s “Wake Up.” Of course, I speculated that the newly hired Arena would get the job after the station dumped Lisa Scott from the program. It is unclear if he’s just having a tryout now or if the job is his permanently.
• Remember Michael O’Shea from his days working the post-game Buffalo Bills show on WBEN-AM? O’Shea was the alter ego of Howard Lapides, who has gone on to become an agent and TV producer in California. Lapides is one of the executive producers of “Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew” on VH-1 and its new spinoff, “Sober House,” which premieres Thursday.
• Bet you didn’t know that “The Doctors,” which has given Channel 7 such a strong lead-in that it has revived the station’s afternoon news block, gets higher ratings in Buffalo than it gets in any other television market. I don’t know what that says about the area’s health.
• Channel 29 General Manager Nick Magnini reports that episodes of “Seinfeld” have been remastered and will be available in HD starting Jan. 26. The station also airs reruns of “Two and a Half Men,” “Everybody Loves Raymond” and “Desperate Housewives” in HD and commercials in HD.
• C’mon, admit it, you weren’t as smart as Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) and really thought Tony Almeida (Carlos Bernard) had turned into a domestic terrorist in this season’s “24.”
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