THOUSAND OAKS : Preacher Allowed to Use Cable-TV Studio

Weeks after suspending a local preacher from using its equipment and facilities, Ventura County Cablevision has allowed him back into the studio to produce his religious programs.

Company officials had suspended Bill Woodard, host of “Love & FaithWorks” and “Window of Hope,” saying that he had tried to intimidate station workers.

Woodard said the suspension was the result of the company’s lack of commitment to community-access television, long-running disputes with station personnel and racial and religious prejudice--charges the company denied.

In a letter to Woodard dated Sept. 26, Cablevision’s vice president of operations, Dan Deutsch, wrote that Woodard should again be allowed to use the company’s equipment to produce his shows.

Deutsch also wrote, however, that the temporary suspension had been justified. Several station staff members, he wrote, had been asked by Woodard to “step outside” to settle disputes and felt physically threatened by him.

Should problems persist, Deutsch wrote, Woodard would be suspended again.

Alan McDaniel, Cablevision’s community programming manager, said company officials chose to revoke Woodard’s suspension because they had not previously stated their complaints in writing. The Sept. 26 letter, he said, clearly spelled out how the company viewed past problems and what it would do if such problems continued.

“We wanted to make sure it was understood in case this ever happens again,” he said.

Woodard, who said that he has never tried to intimidate or threaten station personnel, said relations with staff have been cordial since he began using the studio again.

“It’s businesslike,” he said. “We come in, and we’re polite, they’re polite, and we get it done. That pleases us fine. . . . We’re satisfied because all we care about is producing our program.”