Just Switch Channels

Gregg B. White’s suggestion in Counterpunch Letters (“Try Scrambling the TV Signal,” Aug. 2) has a fatal flaw.

Even if the Federal Communications Commission were receptive to such a proposal (and I doubt that it would be, since the public airwaves are designed to be received without obstacle by all) and there were some way to finance the installation of the millions of de-scramblers necessary, the technology would be incompatible with equipment in place on the several dozen cable systems serving the Los Angeles metropolitan area.

As a former cable TV engineer, I can assure White that a scrambled broadcast signal, routed through a cable system using its own method of scrambling and descrambling its service, would be nearly impossible to properly, consistently de-scramble.

I suggest that two appropriate control devices are already in place in every TV-equipped home: the channel selector and the on/off switch. I suggest that those who object to excessive violence and sex use these already-installed controls and stop their search for ways to regulate and control what those of us who do not object can watch on our own TV sets.

KYMBERLEIGH RICHARDS

Woodland Hills