Fewer Calif. options for Tahoe cable customers

By Kathryn Reed

Charter Cable customers in Lake Tahoe have one less California network affiliate. That means KCRA is the lone California station accessible to viewers around the clock.

Last week the company stopped providing KTVU, the Fox affiliate out of Oakland, during the day and instead offers Reno’s KRXI.

KTVU and KRXI representatives told Lake Tahoe News an agreement between the stations could not be reached. However, the 10pm news on KTVU can still be seen via the KRXI channel. KTVU is also available online.

This reporter placed an anonymous call to Charter inquiring about initiating service in South Lake Tahoe. At first the cable company salesman didn’t know if the network affiliates are in California or Nevada. Then after some research he came back and said all the channels are in California.

This just isn’t true.

The only California network channel that people in the Lake Tahoe Basin can get throughout the day and night is NBC affiliate KCRA.

The troubling aspect for California viewers is that during an election season all the news and advertising is from Nevada.

In summer 2004 Meyers got KCRA after not having the California channel for a year. At that time the problem was blamed on the need to put in fiber optic lines on the power poles in the Upper Truckee area, which of course required Tahoe Regional Planning Agency approval.

“The last time they dropped the ABC San Francisco station, the City Council asked the Charter regional manager to come in and explain why that had happened. The discussion led to the leaving of KTVU and KCRA. They wanted to be rid of KCRA at the time because of what they explained to us were transmission problems. The KCRA station managers also came up and said that they had the capability to provide the signal,” a Lake Tahoe News reader said in an email.