The Region - News from Sept. 15, 1987

One of Los Angeles’ most troubled cable-television franchises--the CommuniCom Cable TV system, which serves a densely populated area from downtown and Hollywood to the Westside--was acquired for $87 million by a Boston-area cable firm. The acquisition by a subsidiary of American Cablesystems Corp. of Beverly, Mass., which has extensive cable holdings in the East, ends a year of negotiations over CommuniCom, which filed for federal bankruptcy protection last year. American Cablesystems officials said they plan to pour a large amount of money into CommuniCom, which has 69,000 subscribers, to turn around its performance. The franchise, granted by the city in 1982, has faced the highest complaint rate among the city’s active cable systems.