Century Cable Told to Shape Up or Be Unplugged : Cable TV: The threat from the city’s Telecommunications Commission comes after a rancorous public hearing. Subscribers present a litany of complaints.

The Los Angeles Telecommunications Commission has threatened to revoke the franchise of the troubled Century Cable Co. if its executives cannot prove over the next month that cable service will be vastly and quickly improved.

In an unusual move after a rancorous public hearing Tuesday night, commission President Lance E. Drummond said he and another commission member will meet with Century officials to demand a specific plan for improvements to Century’s three aging systems.

“I intend to give them a short timetable,” Drummond said Wednesday. “And I think it’s going to cost them some dollars. . . . If I see they’re going to stonewall, then I’m going to recommend revocation.”

Century, which has 26% of the city’s cable subscribers, generates 41% of consumer complaints, according to the city’s Department of Telecommunications. Century operates the Westside, Sherman Oaks and Eagle Rock cable systems and holds three of the city’s 14 cable franchises.

“They have a lot to fix,” said Susan Herman, general manager of the city’s Department of Telecommunications. “Certainly the specter of revocation is there.” It would be the first franchise revocation in the 20-year history of cable television in Los Angeles, she said.

Hundreds of frustrated and angry Century customers filled a Westside theater Tuesday night for the public hearing on Century’s problems. They were met by several hundred Century employees who had been bused to the session so that they “could hear firsthand” the opinions of their customers, according to Bill Rosendahl, a spokesman for Century.

What they heard was a litany of complaints about poor reception, rude employees, long waits for service and incompetent repairmen.

Richard Friedman, a Century customer in Studio City for nine years, told the commission that during that time he has requested at least 100 service calls. He ticked off a list of grievances: “Flashing, cross-modulation or streaky lines, snow, diagonal beats, paging, hum bars, graininess, herringbone, distorted sound, bars and ghosts, AC-type interference, noisy picture and more.”

Other complaints were less technical.

“Their phones seem to ring endlessly,” said Hyman Haves of Palisades Highlands.

Edward Costello Jr., a Westside lawyer, called the Century system “the world’s worst mousetrap.” He said he had wasted 37 hours waiting in vain for cable repairmen to arrive at his home.

On three occasions, Costello said, repairmen “called the day before in the late afternoon to remind me of the appointment the next day and then didn’t show up.” The crowd roared with laughter.

Hank Cicalo of Westwood said he called Century repeatedly over a period of months to request that a Century cable in a tree limb in his back yard be removed because it was splitting the limb.

Ultimately, a Century employee told him the company would not rectify the problem because it was “an act of God,” Cicalo said. “Maybe God works for Century, I don’t know.”

Century officials at the hearing Tuesday said they are making many improvements in the system and urged customers to be patient. Rosendahl, the Century spokesman, said Wednesday that the company welcomes the city review of its operations and will cooperate fully.

In a letter to the Telecommunications Commission on Wednesday, Mayor Tom Bradley noted the “extraordinary magnitude of the public’s dissatisfaction” and instructed the commission “to take whatever action is necessary--including revocation of Century Cable’s franchise” to ensure that the company delivers adequate services.