Cable Obstacle Course--The Hard Way to Get Wired

I had resisted the idea of getting cable TV in my Los Angeles apartment, built many years before the advent of television, much less cable.

I was too cheap to pay for it. And after 20 years of trying, I had learned there were many obstacles to installing cable in such an old building. So, I was content to watch whatever was picked up by the rabbit ears that passed for a TV antenna.

But then, last year, I took a year’s leave of absence from The Times to teach journalism at the University of Arizona in Tucson. There, in an apartment equipped with cable, cable TV for this self-admitted sports nut was a wonderful diversion.

It became such an indispensable part of living--even the Golf Channel was a godsend--that I knew I had to get cable when I returned to L.A. in January.

*

It wasn’t easy.

I had tried over the years to get cable but ran into one barrier after another.

In the late 1970s, the cable guy took one look at my apartment building and asked for a fee, in addition to an installation charge, to get cable service. The building, built in the 1920s, offered a spectacular view of downtown L.A. and the nearby hills. But it also was atop a steep hill overlooking Sunset Boulevard, where the cable lines were. There was no cable access on top of the hill. So a fee would have to be charged in order for the cable company to string a line up the hill from Sunset.

“A thousand dollars” was his estimate.

Under regulatory rules governing cable companies that operate in the city of Los Angeles, officials say, it is not uncommon for a cable customer to be charged what some might consider to be an unusual amount of money as a one-time fee to ensure service. Bob Jystad, a telecommunications regulatory officer who oversees enforcement of city cable franchise rules, admits that companies are free to charge high fees for “nonstandard” installations. That especially holds true, Jystad adds, if a parcel of private property blocks direct access to the cable lines.

An executive with a cable company in the Hollywood area underlined the view that cable companies are in the business of making money by recounting the story of a man in the South Bay who wanted cable service in the loft where he lived.

The area cable company investigated his building and concluded that it wouldn’t be an ordinary hookup. It determined that it would cost the would-be customer $3,000 to get service. Faced with that, he decided against it, the executive said.

There are an estimated 600,000 cable subscribers in L.A. and stories about luckless folks, who are in futile searches for cable, aren’t that uncommon.

I didn’t pay the $1,000.

Undeterred, I kept up inquiries about cable service. The calls multiplied on the occasions when the cable company flooded the area with mailers offering service with discounted installation charges.

Some in the area got cable, but not me.

For a time, excuses ranged from “It’ll take us a few months to get cable lines run to the power poles on your street” to “Your television (a 1979 Magnavox) will need a conversion box. We’ll let you know.”

Once, in the early 1990s, a cable representative said service in the apartment building was possible, but only if the company could gain access to each apartment and prewire the units for cable.

The proposal quickly died when the neighbors balked. The whispers around the building were that some of the residents were pirating and didn’t want to be caught.

After hearing about my futile efforts to get cable, a friend offered to introduce an acquaintance, who could hook up the apartment illegally for a fee. No more messing around with the cable company, he promised.

The offer was politely declined.

*

Back in L.A. from Arizona, the thought of a cableless existence was too much to bear.

Determined to get wired, I called the cable company and encountered another roadblock. According to company records, my apartment hadn’t had cable in the past 20 years, if ever. That made my place a possible problem area, a representative for the cable company said.

A “serviceability” study would have to be performed to see if the apartment could actually get service, she said.

The study would take two or three weeks to complete.

“Who was going to do the study?” I demanded. “Why was a serviceability study necessary? Would someone actually come over to physically inspect the apartment? Why would it take so long?”

I was puzzled because several of my neighbors in my year’s absence were able to get service from a cable line recently attached to a power pole next to the apartment building. A line was then strung from the power pole to the roof of the building and voila, they got cable. Nevertheless, the representative said the study would still have to be done.

After a week of insistent demands, the company announced that it would give me service. Then, on a recent Saturday morning, it took two workers less than 30 minutes to do what they had already done for my neighbors. They dropped a cable line from the roof to my apartment.

Finally.