There Are No Bravos for Cable TV in Del Mar

Culture, politics and news are important stuff in Del Mar, and anyone who monkeys around with any of them can expect a fight.

So it shouldn’t be surprising that a portion of the Del Mar citizenry is sorely upset with a decision by Daniels Cablevision to eliminate both the BRAVO culture channel and C-SPAN-2 (which shows U. S. Senate hearings) and to reduce CNN-Headline News.

Buoyed by a survey of viewers from its overall North County service area, the company says the changes reflect the druthers of its 42,000 customers.

After all, as part of the same channel shuffling, subscribers will get Turner Network Television (lots of colorized movies), Showtime movies, more Nickelodeon for children, more C-SPAN-1 (seminars and House hearings), and, for an extra fee, 42 Padre home games.

Del Mar, which has 2,100 Daniels subscribers, is not moved.

A protest petition is being circulated, and the City Council on Monday night named Councilwoman Brooke Eisenberg to negotiate with Daniels before the April 1 bye-bye for BRAVO and banishment of CNN-Headline from evening hours. C-SPAN-2 was yanked Feb. 1, just as the Senate hearings and debate on John Tower got spicy.

“They’re taking off BRAVO, which offers ballet, classical music and wonderful foreign movies like the Japanese films and (the English film) ‘My Beautiful Laundrette,’ and giving us Showtime with RoboCop and Beverly Hills Cop II,” Eisenberg said. “That’s not a fair exchange for Del Mar.”

Daniels’ official Phil Urbina is trying to assure Del Mar that changes were not made willy-nilly. Viewers throughout Del Mar, Encinitas, Carlsbad, Solana Beach, San Marcos, Vista and Fallbrook were polled.

“We agonized on how to offer balanced scheduling,” Urbina said. “We feel we’re meeting the cultural niche.”

He points out that Daniels has two Public Broadcasting Service channels, the Arts & Entertainment channel and the Discovery channel.

Nerys Levy, the painter and writer who is leading the petition drive, says that’s nice but it doesn’t take the place of BRAVO. For example, she says her husband, an anthropology professor at UC San Diego, assigns his students to watch BRAVO.

“What we’re losing is a window to other cultures, a perspective on excellence,” Levy said. “What if we took a poll to see what should be in the art museums? To take off BRAVO and the U. S. Senate is an absolute indictment of the company’s taste.”

Eisenberg wants to see if Daniels, which has a cable monopoly in Del Mar, can provide Del Mar with a more highbrow lineup than other cities.

Urbina said he will check but doesn’t think that it’s electronically possible.

Abbreviated War

Inter-agency rivalry in law enforcement is a fact of life, and the Rogers bombing case is no exception. Two young boys, looking at scads of men in identical baseball caps and jackets combing the area, asked what the letters FBI stand for.

“Famous But Incompetent,” suggested an agent from a rival agency, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Enforcement.

Going to Bat for Garvey

After his paternity dilemma became public, Steve Garvey resigned from the board of trustees of the University of San Diego, which is associated with the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego. But Garvey still has some friends at the diocese.

At Sunday Mass, Msgr. I. Brent Eagen asked parishioners at Mission de Alcala to show forgiveness for a San Diego “sports figure” being pilloried in the press for personal indiscretions.

Eagen titled his sermon, “He that is without sin . . . .” As chaplain to the San Diego Chargers, he says he has met a number of professional athletes from different sports and offered them counsel.

Garvey and his bride, Candace Thomas, plan a delayed wedding celebration at the mission this spring if Garvey receives a church annulment of his first marriage.