Spanish-Language Channel Replaced : Cable TV Swap Roils Simi Latinos

The removal of a Spanish-language television station from the basic package of channels available to cable subscribers in Simi Valley has prompted protests from the Latino community there.

On Oct. 19, Group W Cable Inc. replaced the Spanish-language station, KMEX Channel 34 in Los Angeles, with “Prime Ticket,” a sports station, in the 12-channel package available at the basic cable subscription rate of $10 a month. Spanish-language programming remained available, but only as part of Group W’s SuperCable package, which provides nine extra channels for another $3.95 a month.

Don Granger, Group W Cable’s general manager, said the change was made after a poll of 700 of the 15,500 cable subscribers in Simi Valley found that most of them wanted more sports programming.

“My intent was not to eliminate but to provide additional services,” Granger said.

The change, however, angered members of Simi Valley’s substantial Latino community, said Lourdes Gomez-Rubio, who helped organize a meeting Sunday of about 100 “very upset” subscribers at St. Rose of Lima Church. About 7,000 of the city’s 77,500 residents are Latino, according to a 1980 Southern California Assn. of Governments report.

“What they have done to us is just terrible,” said Gomez-Rubio, a teacher at the church’s school. She said the group decided at the meeting to try to recruit more people to file complaints with Group W and city officials.

Granger said his office has received 50 to 100 inquiries about what happened to the station, and about 20 complaints about the switch. He said he considers the number of complaints small in light of the thousands of cable subscribers in Simi Valley.

Jocelyn Reed, program administrator of Simi Valley’s Human Resources Department, said she told Gomez-Rubio’s group that the city has no authority to regulate cable television programming. But Reed said that, because the city is surrounded by mountains, cable is necessary to receive most commercial stations.

“They’re trapped between paying a higher price or not receiving the service at all,” Reed said.

Luis E. Gomez, a political science professor at Moorpark and Ventura colleges who lives in Simi Valley, said the issue among Latinos is not the extra $3.95 they will have to pay for the Spanish-language station, but “the principle.”

He said he and others feel discriminated against because the cable company removed the only Spanish-language programming from the basic cable package when it could have removed one of several independent English-language stations.

“Unless they feel there is big public pressure, then they won’t respond,” Gomez said of the cable company.

Gomez-Rubio said her group has scheduled another meeting after Mass on Sunday at St. Rose of Lima to further develop a “plan of attack.”