Multivision Cuts Multi-Language KSCI Channel 18

KSCI Channel 18, a Los Angeles-based TV station that airs various ethnic programs in 17 languages, has been dropped from the Multivision/ML-Media cable system serving Anaheim, Anaheim Hills and Villa Park.

The station is one of the few institutions--outside of the United Nations--where speakers of Vietnamese, Cambodian, Arabic, Hebrew, Hindi, Persian, Japanese and Korean coexist.

Despite about 100 telephone calls and 20 letters that the cable system has received protesting the cut, including one from Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove), the company has refused to reinstate the independent station. KSCI was dropped on Sept. 1.

On Sept. 21, Dornan wrote to John Merritt, Multivision’s general manager, saying that the cut “has caused considerable concern among the foreign-speaking residents who live within this service area, many of whom are not able to receive KSCI off (the) air.” KSCI is broadcast on UHF Channel 18.

The station’s customer service representatives received the phone calls and letters protesting the cut, according to Karen Pescetti, Multivision’s regional programming manager.

Merritt said in an interview that the decision to drop KSCI was based on a regular viewer survey sent to the system’s 30,600 subscribers. In anticipation of a programming reshuffle that included the addition of two channels, subscribers were asked to list the services they wanted to see added and the ones they wanted dropped, Merritt said.

“We looked at what people wanted and what they didn’t want and made the cut accordingly,” Merritt said. “We have a mandate to please as many people as possible.”

Of the 6,023--or 19%--of the subscribers who responded to the survey, Merritt said, most asked for the addition of pay-per-view movies; an expansion of the Arts & Entertainment channel, which had been carried half time on the system; the new Turner Network Television; American Movie Classics; and the Learning Channel.

Most of those who responded said they would like the system to drop non-English-language programming, without naming a particular channel, Merritt said. In addition to KSCI, Multivision carries non-English-language programming on its public access channel--which it is required by law to maintain--and KMEX, which broadcasts in Spanish.

KSCI’s cable relations manager, Steve Israelsky, said he questioned the results of the survey with regard to his station because it was in English and many of KSCI’s viewers are recent immigrants who do not speak the language.

“I believe there is a cultural bias inherent in almost any test,” Merritt said. “Sending out a survey in 17 languages would border on absurdity. English is the official language of the country.”

“We really haven’t deprived people of something they can’t get over the air,” Merritt said.

But Israelsky said that, in the Anaheim Hills especially, it was very difficult to receive the signal.

With the exception of 12 hours per week in French, Spanish and Italian, most of the programming on KSCI is in languages of Asia and the Middle East.

Martie Quan, KSCI’s publicity manager, said the cut was especially difficult because “our viewers are totally without their international programming.” Quan said that, according to the 1980 census, there were 13,321 Asians living in Anaheim, but that projections by the U.S. Population Bureau suggest that number has probably since doubled.

KSCI was dropped by Dimension Cable in South County in 1986 but was restored this past April, according to Rich Anderson, the system’s vice president and general manager. The decision to reinstate the station was based on a viewer survey and suggestions from the system’s sales representatives in the area.

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