The Enron of Cable TV Sold!

[Nickdfresh]

April 9, 2005

Sale of Adelphia May Benefit Southland Cable-TV Watchers
Time Warner, known for good service, would have a 98% share in the city of Los Angeles, 70% in L.A. and Orange counties.

By Sallie Hofmeister, Times Staff Writer

If Time Warner Inc. succeeds in taking over Adelphia Communications Corp.'s cable properties in Los Angeles, local legislators and regulators vow to extract improvements for customers.

The largest cable provider in Southern California, Adelphia has the worst service among the five operators in Los Angeles, according to city regulators.

City officials are thrilled that Adelphia's franchises could soon be in the hands of Time Warner, which boasts the city's best service record.

"Time Warner has been one of our poster children," said Dean Hansell, president of the board of the Information Technology Agency, which regulates the city's cable TV providers.

Councilman Dennis Zine, whose West San Fernando Valley district is divided into Adelphia and Time Warner areas, said: "The consumer is going to be better served by Time Warner."

Time Warner and its joint bidding partner, Comcast Corp., agreed this week to take over Adelphia for $17.7 billion in stock and cash, dividing up the assets in a way that would make Time Warner the No. 1 cable company in Southern California. A Bankruptcy Court judge and Adelphia's unsecured creditors must sign off on the deal. Adelphia filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2002 amid an accounting scandal.

Under the agreement, Time Warner would serve about 70% of cable customers in Los Angeles and Orange counties and about 98% in the city of Los Angeles alone.

The company currently serves about 120,000 West Valley customers, and more than 200,000 in Orange County.

It would add Adelphia's 1.1 million subscribers in Eagle Rock, Hollywood, Sherman Oaks, Santa Monica, Manhattan Beach and parts of Orange County.

Time Warner would also take over some 850,000 served by Comcast in exchange for giving its takeover partner subscribers in other parts of the country.

All told, Time Warner would serve about 2 million subscribers in Southern California. Time Warner declined to comment.

Los Angeles city regulators said a sale of Adelphia would give them rare leverage to influence service and rates. Any new owner must get approval from the city before a local franchise can be transferred.

"If Time Warner wants Adelphia's franchises, we're going to hold them to a very high standard of service," said Councilman Jack Weiss, whose San Fernando Valley and West Los Angeles district is largely served by Adelphia.

He would not outline specific demands, but indicated they could involve rate relief.

"I've thought Adelphia was greenlining," he said, accusing the company of "gouging" affluent customers while charging lower rates elsewhere.

Adelphia, however, says its rates are competitive with other area cable providers.

Since its bankruptcy filing, Adelphia has had a testy relationship with the city. Officials rolled back rate increases, collected unpaid franchise fees and pressured Adelphia's management to speed their upgrades.

"Everything they've promised hasn't been delivered," Zine said. "I've had nothing but a wonderful experience with Time Warner and nothing but aggravation and complaints dealing with Adelphia. It's been very painful and frustrating."

Hansell said Adelphia had been plagued by complaints about picture quality, long customer waits on telephone help lines and out-of-state service representatives unfamiliar with local conditions. He said the city would consider asking Time Warner to have local customer representatives.

"Time Warner's call center is not local either and that's been somewhat of a problem," he said.

Adelphia has made strides in improving its local service over the last two years. Customer complaints in Los Angeles, where it serves about 226,000 customers, have dropped more than 50% annually.

The company says that by the end of the year, nearly all of its systems in the region will be equipped with digital technologies capable of delivering such advanced services as high-speed Internet and video-on-demand.

"Southern California customers are experiencing a very different Adelphia than they had two to three years ago," spokesman Bob Gold said.

Yet city regulators say Adelphia's consumer complaints remain the highest in Los Angeles, and are 10 times higher than Time Warner's in some areas.

Since 2001, Adelphia has lost 11% of its local subscribers to satellite rivals. Hansell attributes the migration to Adelphia's rate increases and its poor customer service.

By comparison, Time Warner is one of the few local operators that has increased its customer base, inching up 2% since 2001.

Unlike debt-burdened Adelphia, Time Warner is the world's largest media giant and has deep pockets.

Time Warner has been at the forefront in converting its cable systems to offer customers digital cable, high-speed Internet access, video-on-demand, personal video recorders and telephone service via cable.

But transforming Adelphia will be a challenge, Hansell predicted.

"They are going to have their hands full," he said. "Adelphia's systems are the least state of the art in the city."

These rotten bastards are my provider!

[Nickdfresh]

I just want to say, hallelujah!! "Praise Gawd!" Those Regises are rotten pricks!

[blueturk]

Compared to a dish, ALL cable sucks. That said, I don't see how any company could be worse than ( hell yeah I'm giving names ) Charter Cable in North Carolina. These fuckers suck so bad that city counsel meetings are held just to discuss how much they suck. Although I guess I owe them one for making me choose satellite TV. Fuck cable!

[Jesterstar]

cable is about a billion times better than sattalite.

[blueturk]

Originally posted by Jesterstar
cable is about a billion times better than sattalite.

And how in the hell would that be?

[Jesterstar]

When the wind blows my screen doesn't go all fuzzy. END OF STORY.

OWNED.

[BrownSound1]

My screen doesn't go fuzzy with my dish. Digital satellite is either all the way on or all the way off. I would dare say we get a hell of a lot worse storms where I live, than you do in Syracuse. The ONLY time you might lose a signal is when you have a super cell that has hail in it or EXTREMELY heavy rain. Other than that I never have a snowy picture or have to worry about some kid hitting the pole with a car and disrupting the service.

Picture quality is 10 times what cable is...

[blueturk]

Originally posted by Jesterstar
When the wind blows my screen doesn't go all fuzzy. END OF STORY.

OWNED.

OWNED my fucking ass. The only time I have any trouble with my reception is MAYBE if snow piles up on the dish, and then I just scoop it off.
And I have 100 per cent digital programming. Digital cable is 20 per cent analog and costs a hell of a lot more than my fucking dish. So enjoy your fuzzy lower channels and ever-increasing bill, and don't run your fucking mouth unless you know what the hell you're talking about. END OF STORY.

[twonabomber]

Originally posted by BrownSound1
The ONLY time you might lose a signal is when you have a super cell that has hail in it or EXTREMELY heavy rain.

we've had the dish five+ years, and it's gone out less than ten times. our dish is on the side of the house so it's slightly protected by the soffit overhang, snow doesn't stick to it at all. last time i had cable, it went out in most summer storms.

[Nickdfresh]

I had an Adelphia service tech at my pad the other day. I asked him about high speed internet only as opposed to their cable package, he said "fuck no I don't have cable, just the high speed internet and I have satellite!" OWNED!

[Jesterstar]

Originally posted by blueturk
OWNED my fucking ass. The only time I have any trouble with my reception is MAYBE if snow piles up on the dish, and then I just scoop it off.
And I have 100 per cent digital programming. Digital cable is 20 per cent analog and costs a hell of a lot more than my fucking dish. So enjoy your fuzzy lower channels and ever-increasing bill, and don't run your fucking mouth unless you know what the hell you're talking about. END OF STORY.


Actually I do own your Ass. You see I don't have to hop on the roof to to clear my reception. I don't spend that much time in front of the ideot box. Your owned. Forget and Set it then for Get it again.

[Jesterstar]

Originally posted by Nickdfresh
I had an Adelphia service tech at my pad the other day. I asked him about high speed internet only as opposed to their cable package, he said "fuck no I don't have cable, just the high speed internet and I have satellite!" OWNED!

Your Penis has never touched a moist Vagina...........Your owned.

[blueturk]

Originally posted by Jesterstar
Actually I do own your Ass. You see I don't have to hop on the roof to to clear my reception. I don't spend that much time in front of the ideot box. Your owned. Forget and Set it then for Get it again.

You're (that's how you spell it) a fucking idiot ( and that's how you spell that). There aren't too many dishes on the tops of houses. Most of them are on the side of the house, like mine, at about eye level.
It's obvious that you have no idea what you're trying to argue about, so just shut the fuck up.

[Jesterstar]

Originally posted by blueturk
You're (that's how you spell it) a fucking idiot ( and that's how you spell that). There aren't too many dishes on the tops of houses. Most of them are on the side of the house, like mine, at about eye level.
It's obvious that you have no fucking idea what you're trying to argue about, so just shut the fuck up.

Dude Replace the word........"HOUSE" with the word "TRAILOR" which is what you actually live in.

I mean really.


You call it a Dish because that is what you know hot to call it. it looks like what you Wash at work.

OH FUCK WHAT A INCREDIBLE COME BACK!!!!!!!!!!!

YOUR OWNED>

[blueturk]

Originally posted by Jesterstar
I cant figger out this dish stuf. You mean thers things in the sky that beem down TV shows? They cant look better than cabul. Your crazee.

No, I'm serious!

[Nickdfresh]

Originally posted by Jesterstar
Dude Replace the word........"HOUSE" with the word "TRAILOR" which is what you actually live in.

I mean really.


You call it a Dish because that is what you know hot to call it. it looks like what you Wash at work.

OH FUCK WHAT A INCREDIBLE COME BACK!!!!!!!!!!!

YOUR OWNED>

What the fuck arer you talking about Jeusteretard? At least he might be able to afford a trailer without daddy paying for it.

POT-MOTHERFUCKING-TEA KETTLE!!

owned.

[Phil theStalker]

Those peeps who own Cablevision are craZEE, t2oo. Wait till the kinky scat they're int2o hits da fans on Wall Street.

http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/rvp/pubf/chronicle/v10/a11/wallstreet.html

:spank:

[Phil theStalker]

Larry owns da fiber optic line and he fakked up da link.


:spank:

[Phil theStalker]

So heer's da article from Boston College in, um, Boston.


:spank:

[Jesterstar]

Originally posted by Nickdfresh
What the fuck arer you talking about Jeusteretard? At least he might be able to afford a trailer without daddy paying for it.

POT-MOTHERFUCKING-TEA KETTLE!!

owned.

Please Mom and Dad never pay as much as you'd love to dream and masterbate about fag. Stay on topic or send this thread to the Dump. Nick can't stay on topic.

[blueturk]

Originally posted by Jesterstar
Dude Replace the word........"HOUSE" with the word "TRAILOR" which is what you actually live in.

I mean really.


You call it a Dish because that is what you know hot to call it. it looks like what you Wash at work.

OH FUCK WHAT A INCREDIBLE COME BACK!!!!!!!!!!!


YOUR OWNED>

So I guess this stupid ass post WAS on topic, right?

[FORD]

Originally posted by Phil theStalker
Those peeps who own Cablevision are craZEE, t2oo. Wait till the kinky scat they're int2o hits da fans on Wall Street.

http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/rvp/pubf/chronicle/v10/a11/wallstreet.html

:spank:

Rupert "Son of Satan" Murdoch owns Direct TV. Can't get much worse than that.

[Jesterstar]

Originally posted by blueturk
So I guess this stupid ass post WAS on topic, right?

I was pointing out to you that CAble was Better than Sattalite. Which I proved beyond a shadow of a doubt. Now go back to Plywooding your porch.

[Nickdfresh]

Originally posted by Jesterstar
Please Mom and Dad are very ashamed of me and I and masterbate about a fag. Stay on topic or I'll get out my nipple clamps and anal lube and I'll party it up.

[Jesterstar]

Nick your really in Gay love with me.

[Nickdfresh]

Originally posted by Jesterstar
Nick please tell me your really Gay. I am in love with u.

Sorry Jester, not my thing dude.

[Ally_Kat]

Since we're talking about satellite vs cable --

with satellite, is there a guide? I have Time Warner digital cable here at the house and we have a guide button where you can skim thru what's on what channel and the like. Does satellite have anything like that? Everytime I go someplacew ith satellite, I usually end up just going thru the channels themselves, not knowing which I was on or what I was watching.

As for quality, I can't tell the difference between digital satellite and digital cable. Right now I side with the cable because of the guide thing. I like to know where things are and what time.

[Nickdfresh]

My sister and brother-in-law had satellite before they moved, and they had all of those features.

Plus, as previously stated, everything was digital. I may go to satellite myself, but I have a very good deal with Adelphia. We'll see how TIME WARNER works out.

[bastardog]

Originally posted by Ally_Kat
Since we're talking about satellite vs cable --

with satellite, is there a guide? I have Time Warner digital cable here at the house and we have a guide button where you can skim thru what's on what channel and the like. Does satellite have anything like that? Everytime I go someplacew ith satellite, I usually end up just going thru the channels themselves, not knowing which I was on or what I was watching.

As for quality, I can't tell the difference between digital satellite and digital cable. Right now I side with the cable because of the guide thing. I like to know where things are and what time.

Come on.....I can't belive you can't figure out that the GUIDE buttom on Dish or Directtv is to show you the guide.
and by the way you can keep seen tv while moving on the guide.

[Nickdfresh]

For more info on what thieving bastards these guys are:

RIGAS BOYS
GO DOWN
The Block Curse Strikes Again!
Adelphia Family Censors
Caught Masturbating their Figures

By Dr. Susan Block

So, did you dump all your Adelphia stock like I told you to? No? Didn't take me seriously 10 months ago when I said SELL, huh? Thought I was just some distraught public access pornographer, and that Adelphia, overseen by those fine upstanding censors John J. Rigas and Sons, was as sound an investment as woolens in winter. Well, think again.

Adelphia Communications Corp. stock (WHICH I TOLD YOU TO DUMP back in October, 2001, when it was at its peak) has been plummetting into the muck ever since the end of March when the Rigas Boys were forced to admit that the Securities and Exchange Commission had opened a formal investigation into their accounting practices. It seems that Adelphia, now America's sixth-largest cable television operator, failed to report that it had guaranteed as much as $2.7 billion in private debts incurred by the family of its founder, John Rigas. Now it's stock is down 64% since March 26, 2002 when, since June of 2001, it was already down by more than 50%.

Why am I not surprised? Because the biggest censors often turn out to be the biggest financial frauds. Censorship is one kind of cover-up. Deceptive Accounting is another. Censors don't want viewers to see what they deem naughty sex practices. Financial tricksters don't want investors to see their own naughty bookkeeping practices. Hey, it's all about covering up figures.

Take Charles Keating, founder of such energetic censorship groups as Citizens for Decent Literature and Citizens for Decency through Law before he turned into the Citizen-Poster Boy for the American Savings & Loan Disaster when his Lincoln S&L went belly-up. Then there were the Hunt Brothers, the oil-rich, John Bircher Billionaires from Texas who went from being one of the wealthiest, most right-wing (virtually pro-Nazi), Born-Again Christian families in America to declaring bankruptcy to being convicted of conspiring to corner the silver market. Now we have the Rigas Boys, moralizing TV Censors who don't want you to see boobs or their balance sheets. Now that's obscene.

Beware of Those Who are Holier than Thou,
For Often They Are Fleecers of their Own Flocks.

Since Adelphia Communications is not as famous as Lincoln Savings & Loan, a little explanation may be in order here: Adelphia is a family-operated, publicly-traded company based in the tiny little backwater town of Coudersport, Pennsylvania. Until it found itself smack in the middle of a leviathan accounting scandal, Adelphia was busy swallowing up cable TV companies all over America, including three in LA, one in the lovely liberal community of West LA (formerly called Century Cable), where The Dr. Susan Block Show had been airing without censorship for almost 10 years.

"Family-operated" sounds so warm and cozy, but cold and calculating might be more apt adjectives for the family that operates Adelphia. This would be the Rigas Family, headed up by John J. Rigas who, until his beloved Adelphia became the Enron of Cable TV, was determined to impose his own slightly-left-of-Jerry-Falwell form of Family Values on as much of America as he could buy, striking even in the heart of liberal LA. A man who refused to let you see what he didn't want you to see (in my show's case, a few naked people), when what he really didn't want you to see was his sons' hands stuck in the Adelphia stockholders' cookie jar.

For John J. Rigas is just one man, and it takes more than one man to create a dark, chilling shroud of censorship on a cable TV company that has always prided itself on serving one of the brightest, most open, most liberal communities in the country. There are a few other men who have helped John Rigas to censor West LA, plus as much of America as he could buy, perhaps illegally, through loans to a closely held partnership that wasn't included on Adelphia's balance sheet. And when I say men, I mean MEN. Not many women are in power positions in the Adelphia organization. At least three of these men are related to John J. Rigas, being his sons: Michael J. Rigas, Vice President of Operations, Timothy J. Rigas, Vice President & CFO, and James P. Rigas, Vice President for Strategic Planning. This is the Adelphia Dynasty who treated their publicly held company, and even their subscribers, like their own little kingdom in more ways that one. John's Three Sons. No daughters, unless he keeps them home in the kitchen or convent, or wherever he keeps his wife, who also is curiously absent from the Rigas family operations.

The Greek word "Adelphia" means brothers, not sisters. That is, Adelphia is run by a quartet of Good Ol' Boys, and when I say "old," I mean old-fashioned, their aim being to take America back to the 1950's when Father knew Best, Mother took Valium and kids considered suicide if their family life didn't quite match that of Ozzie & Harriet, or maybe back to Victorian times when parents put children's genitals in torture chambers so they wouldn't masturbate. Yessir, keep the women in the kitchen, and let the men go out to work and steal money from their stockholders, and let no one see a naked vulva or God forbid, a penis on public access TV. That's Family Values, Rigas-style. And it's a slippery slope. Censoring images leads to censoring words which leads to censoring ideas and then actions, including unsavory business practices. When truth is censored, liars prevail.

Censorship is all over America these days. It's in the air like the smog, polluting our natural atmosphere, clogging our brains like smog clogs our breathing passages. America is the most powerful country in the world right now, and it's in the self-destructive throes of a Full-On Censorship Crusade. It's coming from all directions, from the government and corporations, from the Right and the Left. But whether it's right-wing reactionary religious fundamentalist ranting or left-wing politically correct psychobabble, it all adds up to hypocrisy and oppression, a step backwards in our cultural development when we have so much potential to move forward. A fall back into the darkness, tripping over our fears. What did we call the most repressed, the most censorship-riddled period in Western History? The Dark Ages.

History knows. Censorship begets ignorance. Censorship hurts. Censorship kills images, ideas, people, liberty. Censorship seems easy, when you're in power. "I don't like what I'm hearing, so I won't let them say it. I don't like what I'm seeing, so I won't let them show it." And if the people accept the censorship, then the folks in power stay in power, and pass it onto their sons-from Bush to Bush, Hunt to Hunt, Rigas to Rigas. In the Information Age, censorship is the ultimate oppression of the Haves over the Have-Nots, because censorship means they won't let you have the information or images you desire. We're not talking about them not letting you kill somebody or steal something; we're talking about them not letting you have information. Censorship means you only have the information that they want you to have.

Which makes you wonder: What else could the Adelphia Brotherhood be hiding?

Over 30 years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King faced another oppressive, hypocritical situation in America, and he said "I have a dream." Part of his dream was that there would come a time when "we would judge each other not by the color of our skin, but by the content of our character." That dream seemed like a pipedream back then, but at the turn of the twenty-first century, despite the awful attacks of a few reactionaries, that dream is coming true. So with all due respect and humility, I'd like to borrow a page from Dr. Martin's book, and say "I have a dream." Or perhaps, considering who I am, I should say: I have a fantasy...

I have a fantasy that there will come a time when a woman's genitals will not be considered obscene.

I have a fantasy that there will come a time when a man's genitals will not be considered indecent.

I have a fantasy that there will come a time when a woman's breasts will not be banned--as obscene, indecent, offensive, censored, unseeable on American television.

I have a fantasy that there will come a time when sex will not be lumped together with violence as something base, something evil, something that children should never see.

I have a fantasy that there will come a time when we will judge people not by their sexual orientation but by their basic humanity, and not by superstitious, irrational religious morality but by simple ethics and decency.

I have a fantasy that there will come a time when censoring beautiful images of human sexuality like you see on my show will seem as silly as putting bags over the heads of Congress (in fact, it makes more sense to put bags over the heads of Congress--at least some members).

I could go on. I have many fantasies, and I'm sure you do too. Just remember that the people who want to censor our fantasies tend to be the ones with something BIG to hide (and I don't mean their genetalia).

But they can't hide forever. Coudersport is not the caves of Afghanistan. Thus the Block Curse strikes another arrogant adversary who grossly underestimated its power: Adelphia Family Censors. John J. Rigas & Sons: Repent! Repent of your wicked attempts to censor your viewers and fool your investors! Repent, or all the riches you have earned off the backs of these people shall slip through your slippery fingers like dust.

To join the fight against censorship, email liberties@blockbooks.com.

www.drsusanblock.com/editorial/AdelphiaAccountingScandal.htm

[twonabomber]

Originally posted by bastardog

and by the way you can keep seen tv while moving on the guide.

not me. my receivers are over five years old.