Cox Cable Customers May Lose KEYT

Maybe they can find another cable provider on Craig's List; that's where they regularly run calls for a news director for the "most watched local news in the area".
Obviously the owners in Boston think they're a bigger deal than they are.

I never watch KEY News, and I don't even know what programs ABC is running.

I never watch KEY News, and I don't even know what programs ABC is running.

blackpoodles (anonymous profile)
August 17, 2012 at 11:07 p.m.

I think it was the Partridge Family--last time I checked. Were they on ABC?

They will work out a deal. But even with more such revenue, KEYT will not hire more or better reporters. Cox then will use this as yet another excuse to raise the rates to customers in the monopoly they enjoy.

Keeping Cox will thus be less and less desirable and the public and government TV will shift to the websites for this content.

Watching KEYT is like watching local over-the-air programming in 1982. The broadcast picture still looks and feels low-def and analog; the national HD signal is weak and sloppy. Sound is uneven and pumped up for ads and is rarely surround-quality. The station's graphics are ancient. If it weren't for important local news broadcasts this affiliate would otherwise be a waste of time. But Cox has a death-grip on SB.

KEYT's news does have that old analog feel. They need to follow suit with KSBY & KCOY and upgrade their studio equipment to HD (i.e. no black bars when viewed in 16:9).

I'm no fan of Cox either. During the London Olympics, subscribers of the basic cable lineup were not allowed to stream live/recorded events at www.nbcolympics.com. Only Cox premium package subscribers had access (you had to enter your Cox password).

COX owns Santa Barbara. Their tech service is superb - the rest is worthy of the Chicago Mafia! It's a rip and will die of it's own abuses.
What do we have to do to get Ch3 w/o cable - buy rabbit ears? Times change!

Cox, sucks a big, well you know.

You can get Ch.3 KEYT with an antenna, as far away as Ventura at least.
The Cox negotiator should show KEYT all these comments!
Have you noticed a lot of KEYT's weekend and late-night programming is infomercials? Why should Cox customers pay more for that?

@toto1 ... to find out which TV stations are available in your neighborhood using a digital antenna, go to this list of national TV markets:

http://www.rabbitears.info/market.php

Scroll all the way down until you see the link that says "Santa Barbara" (we are currently the 116th-ranked market in the nation) and click the link. A list of stations now appears.

For each station in the list, you can see a "coverage map" that shows geographically where its signal can be received clearly or not.

As an example, click on "KEYT-TV" which is the first station in the list. The list will now expand and you'll see a bunch of text appear in a big yellow box. Go to the line that says:

DT-LIC: Channel 27 SANTA BARBARA, CA (SCM) (Est. Pop. 1,275,664)

Now click on the tiny icon that looks like an antenna and appears right after the text "Channel 27".

A Google map now appears that shows KEYT's transmitter on Broadcast Peak (appears as an arrow). Colors on the map show signal strengh. Use the map controls (upper left of map) or your mouse + mouse wheel to pan & zoom to where you live.

Use the signal strength (color) in your neighborhood to determine whether you can receive the over-the-air stations you want to see, and to figure out whether you'll need an indoor or outdoor antenna. You can buy them on Amazon.com (don't know who the local dealers are).

The legend that tells you what kind of antenna you'll need for a certain signal strength (color) is on the right side of the page.

I've got hills in my neighborhood that cast radio signal shadows, so I would need an outdoor antenna just to get KEYT. But for many folks, an indoor antenna will work fine.

Have you noticed the picture- which is apparently current- is of the old antiquated TV?!

LOL, how appropriate.

It's understandable that KEYT's MyRTV would be broadcast as a 4:3 picture since that's all old programming (e.g. reruns of the original "Battlestar Galactica").

But new programming on KEYT should be broadcast in HD (16:9). My plasma TV doesn't like those black bars!

New "news" programming.

Those black bars will burn in if you're not careful, the major flaw of plasma. We had a projection TV that had the same drawback, eventually logos started burning in.

One thing I like about the Panasonic plasmas is you can change the color of the vertical black bars to gray. Gray bars aren't as pleasing to my eye, but they're easier on the plasma panel.

Plasmas have come a long way. Much better tech and value now, but kind of a marketing dark horse. Panasonic closed one of their plasma fabs in Japan last year.

I still miss Bill Huddy

ED, with ya about the grey. One solution might be to get some fabric/faux drapery to cover the grey bars- sort of like a theatre curtain a la Rube Goldberg PlayHouse!

That is a significant Old School remembrance.

Bill Huddy goes back to the days when Walter Cronkite was still on the air. And color TV has just recently been adopted by the big 3 networks; our 12 channels were barely filled.

Golden days of regional television.

Wellllllll.

My spouse and I live up a canyon, pay whorehouse rent, cannot afford Cable, and we feel very lucky to be able to get KEYT on our trusty old antenna; the only other stations we can get are in Español, and we don't habla.

As far as KEYT's programming goes, it is indeed "generally horrible" - especially compared to stations in other parts of the country we've experienced. The infomercials and commercials are often annoying... "No-No" for the former; AAA-repeats for a painful 60-minutes on Sunday morning between ABC's GMA and "This Week" for the latter.

However. Local programming - including their extensive news coverage is so important to not only the sense of community we all seem to need but lack, and it is obvious that the people we see on KEYT are dedicated and professional. And they want to make a go of it.

I hope Cox and KEYT can seal a deal. for the sake of our dear community.

I miss Jennifer Bjorklund. Bring back Jennifer!

Hardly can call it news...I wont miss it!

Get George Leis in the negociation. He gave SBBT away in a 4 AM bargaining session with the Texans!

Three hours of infomercials on KEYT this morning (Sunday)! Good riddance to Channel 3! I mean really, would we really miss it that much?

I think COX started today by turning the Ch3 audio down 25%! Both outfits are losers!

I don't watch KEYT news, but I do watch college football and ABC carries some big games. Cox also screwed over Santa Barbara by calling us a "specialized area" and refusing to add the new Pac-12 network other than one standard def channel when the rest of California got two in full HD. I would leave for another provider in a heartbeat if there was a viable option (I don't consider Direct TV to be one).

And that doesn't even touch on their shady billing practices - random $2, $5, $3 increases every quarter or so with no explanation.

Not that this particular dispute is all Cox's fault.

Turn both outfits over to Bain Capital and see what happens!

@Toto
I've long noticed the sound differential on KEYT whether I was watching over the air or cable. Until a commercial comes on, its very low volume.
An old broadcasting trick is indeed to jack up the volume on commercials. Then at one point at least, the FCC tried to control this after years of complaints- some stations found a work around by going even lower with their program volume.

goin' with goletaguy stating "Three hours of infomercials on KEYT this morning (Sunday)! Good riddance to Channel 3!" --I got rid of my TV 20 years ago, thank gawd.

KEYT is an embarrassment to TV. It's amateur hour. I can't watch the news without screaming at the TV because of their abysmal technical standards.Of course, that would assume they have standards. KEYT is the video equivalent of the News Press.

Gotta love the reporter suggesting viewers install "malware" into their computers to combat viruses.

Unpaid interns: We get what they don't pay for and they pass the savings onto us. It's like the time they waited over six months to report a break-in at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. (After the official media relations person at the museum had reported the break-in to KEYT the day after it happened) Additionally, KEYT reported a rumor from an anonymous source about it supposedly being an inside job when in fact they were told specifically that the museum has ONE person who handles all media matters. KEYT really stuck it's foot in their mouth on that one.

Well I for one would really miss Joe's raised eyebrow. Not!

People actually watch KEYT, the feeble re-hash of what the laughable SBNP printed the day before? Puhhhhleeeeze. I wonder what all these tourists think of our town when they see it on their hotel room screens... I would hope most people turn it off and go outside.

On an alternate note: I dropped Cox Cable TV (but kept the Internet) and use Roku - which has turned out to be WAY better than expected and it's perfect for what I want to watch on TV... Comedy, News, Sitcoms, Movies, etc.

Oh and two years ago, I dropped their overpriced Digital Phone ($40/mo) and replaced that with Ooma and haven't had any issues what-so-ever and FREE CALLS across the US... It too uses the Internet connection you ALREADY PAY TOO MUCH FOR with Cox.

There are much better, more cost effective ways to get what you need and probably more than you expected for these services. As for me, as soon as the local Cox Monopoly gets some REAL competition for viable (no, not DSL) Internet options, I'll be happy to kick the last bit of their bloated, greedy a$$ out the door.

Feel the love....

Thanks for the tip about Ooma SS180Girl. Interesting product for those who want to dump their landline or have crappy cell coverage at home.

I was wondering how Ooma manages to stay in business. They have to pay fees to an ILEC (AT&T or Verizon) or a CLEC (Covad) to connect all the digital calls to the old traditional phone system. I found out ~25% of Ooma customers sign up for their premium service which costs around $10/month. That probably generates enough recurring revenue for Ooma to cover their ILEC/CLEC costs.

Speaking of the Roku box (the local Costco has them) ...

I use a WDTV box (which Costco also used to sell). WDTV's can be used to view legally and not so legally obtained media. If you're a Bitorrent user and have no qualms about copyrights, you have the world of TV shows at your fingertips.

For example, click the "-- select show --" box here:

http://eztv.it/

This is especially useful for viewers who can't wait the years it takes for BBC programming to show up in the U.S.

I'm not advocating using the WDTV this way (heck, pre-teens already know about this) but with all the new media players plus the new "internet aware" bluray players and HDTV's, there are lots alternatives to cable/sat TV.

KEYT is what I call "Oklahoma by the sea"

EastBeach: The only fee I pay is the state/federal taxes, which amounts to about $3.99/mo, but I think they have a yearly "plan" now, not sure, I bought mine over two years ago. I only kept the land-line for my young kids, so they can yap with family and friends, as I won't be providing them cell phones any time soon.

You can port your current number if you want (small fee) or pick a new one; the Premier level has a pile of options that are great for those who want/need them (I don't) and the reverse-911 system DOES work, you just need to keep your info up-to-date on your account (easily done online or over the phone). They also have a very easy to install wireless adapter now, just plug it in to the unit, connect it to your wireless and voila, you're up and running within a minute. If offers an answering machine or you can use the one on your existing handset (I do) and you use the phone(s) you already own. They also have their own wireless phone, but I didn't want it.

The customer service is great and after using them to help me set it up the first time (before the wireless adapter) and I've not had an issue with it since. Your service will "go down" if your internet goes down and you don't have a modem with a battery backup (and this is what Cox will try to convince you, that it's the END OF THE WORLD if you can't dial 911 on your land-line...) I don't have one w/a battery, nor have I had to make any emergency calls that couldn't also be done on my cell... Just sayin'.

They're usually available at Costco and Costco.com, or at ooma.com - and no, I'm not getting any $$ for this endorsement :)

Losing KEYT would have the same impact as losing the News-Press. Both are dispensable and many other sources are available for news. I've seen small-town TV stations all across the country in my travels and it always seemed that KEYT was the most amateurish of them all. I doubt there would be much of an outcry if KEYT went black.

@duvidi is spot on: losing the News-Suppress AND KEYT would enhance news in our town...let them both fall due to shoddy business practices, the quality of dialogue will improve in SB

Cox Cable---how quaint. With so many better alternate choices, DirecTV is the ONLY way to have no reason whatsoever to watch the antiquated and amateurishly produced KEYT news.