Fox forces CATV to pull WBRC from dial
Published 6:42 pm Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Demopolis CATV customers who noticed a change on their dials late in 2011 likely noticed another one Monday.
CATV president Lynn Goldman said his office received a fax Monday morning from Fox Broadcasting Company demanding WBRC Fox 6 be removed from its programming.
Goldman said the issue is that Demopolis lies in the Montgomery Fox station WCOV footprint, even though Demopolis is geographically closer to Birmingham and the Montgomery signal strength will not reliably reach this far west.
“WCOV is 119, or thereabout, miles away,” Goldman said. “Birmingham is a little closer but Fox 6 signal is a lot stronger.”
Goldman said he had received a waiver from the ABC affiliate in Meridian, Miss. to seek programming from Tuscaloosa and would seek a similar arrangement from Montgomery to bring back the Birmingham-based programming.
“I’m going to try and get them down here to prove to them I can’t get the signal,” he said.
“That it’s not strong enough.”
In the meantime, Goldman said he would also contact the Fox parent company office, the Federal Communication Commission and congressional representation to get the issue sorted out.