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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Popular channels pulled from Sunflower's lineup
BYKEVINHARDY khardy@kansan.com
The CW's hit show "Gossip Girl" used to be a Monday night fixture for Julie Leider and her friends. Not anymore.
Kansas City's CW and ABCaffilc,
kCWE, KWC and KMC, respi
tively, were pulled off Sunflower Broadband's lineup on Jan. 1 because the companies could not agree on the terms of a retransmission agreement.
Leider, Chicago junior, said she and her friends weren't
"We were under the impression that we would receive an extension to carry the stations."
happy about losing some of their favorite CW programs, shown on Sunflower's Channel 17. Leider and others have resorted to watching CW shows online. She said it wasn't always easy with Internet providers charging for broadband overages.
"You can't watch it online with your friends like you can on TV," Leider said. "You can't just all sit around a laptop."
Rod Kutemeier, general manager
ROB KUTEMEIER
Sunflower GM
of Sunflower Broadband, said the Lawrence cable provider was notified on Dec. 31 that it would have to discontinue airing the stations after failing to reach an agreement from negotiations that began in November. Kutmerie said KMBC asked for three times the amount other Kansas City stations asked for.
"They purposely notified us on the last day of the month," Kutmeier said. "We were under the impression that we would receive an extension to carry the stations."
Kutmeier said he thought KMBC pulled the stations in
order to pressure the provider to settle taster and at a higher cost.
Wayne Godsey, president and general manager of KMBC and KCWE, said Sunflower Broadband represented only 30,000 of the 900,000 viewers in and around the Kansas City area. He said KMBC, aired locally on Channel 9, had historically been one of the most-viewed stations on Sunflower Broadband.
"The compensation we have requested from Sunflower Broadband is a small fraction of the fee it charges its subscribers and is well below what cable companies like Sunflower pay for other, less popular programming," Godsey said.
Godsey said the offer made to Sunflower represented a per-subscriber rate identical to offers it made to other cable providers.
"If we were to make a more favorable deal with them," Godsey said, "imagine the problems it would create with other companies."
Kutmeier and Godsey agreed they were looking forward to reaching an agreement and getting the two stations back into Sunflower Broadband's lineup.
In the meantime, customers can continue to view ABC programming on the Topeka affiliate KTKA channel 12. Both KCWE and KMBC are still available to DirecTV and Dish Network subscribers as well.
"I just don't understand why they haven't gotten it fixed yet, or sent out a letter to customers or anything," Leider said. "It's really frustrating."
Edited by Chris Horn
Illustration by Emily Eisenbarth
Healthy Volunteers Needed Experimental Vaccine Study
Are you a healthy male or female, 18-55 years of age and willing to undergo study-related medical evaluations laboratory tests and other screening procedures?
If so, you may qualify for the Respond study, which is an investigational vaccine research study.
If you participate, you will be asked to visit the investigative site for a total of 9 visits over a 19 month period. If eligible your participation will be completely voluntary.
Qualified participants will receive study-related medical evaluations and the investigational vaccinations at no cost. Compensation for participation up to $1,315 will be provided.
For more information, please call: Johnson County Clin-Trials (913)825-4400
WHO? 510 colleges and universities nationwide!
WHAT? The national collegiate recycling competition.
WHEN? NOW thru March 28th (10 weeks total).
WHERE? HERE! The KU Lawrence campus.
WHY? To recycle the most and win!
HOW...can you help? Easy! Just make sure to toss this newspaper, soda bottles or cans, and other recyclables you're carrying around into a nearby KU Recycling bin! To find a bin near you. visit our website and click on Recycling Locations. Doing your part to recycle on campus will increase our numbers and help our ranking, which will be updated online weekly!
For more information please visit:
www.recyclemanlacs.org
www.recycle.ku.edu
CHARITY U.S.philanthropic groups increase giving amounts
SEATTLE America's biggest charitable foundations are stepping up their giving to help during the recession, according to a group that studies institutional giving.
As of mid-January, 50 of the nation's largest foundations had committed more than $100 million in grants aimed at reducing foreclosures, keeping food bank shelves stocked and providing services to the homeless and financial counseling for others.
The donations are also just one aspect of the way foundations are responding to the economic downturn, said Steven Lawrence, the Foundation Center's senior director of research and author of a report on emergency giving in response to the economic downturn.
Foundations have seen their assets drop dramatically, but many are committing to keeping their giving steady, increasing amounts beyond the 5 percent of assets required by the Internal Revenue Service, to keep their promises to the causes they support.
The nation's largest foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, announced this week it would increase its giving from 5 percent to 7 percent of its assets in 2009, despite a 20 percent drop in the value of its assets.
"My armchair expectation is that while this crisis may be more severe," he said, "foundations made adjustments in their practices to be better able to respond."
The last economic downturn hit large foundations more dramatically because it followed years of tremendous asset growth and big long-term financial commitments that were hard to meet, Lawrence said.
Associated Press
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