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Letter to the Editor

Wed, 04/29/2020 - 06:17
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Dear Editor:

I am only one of millions of Americans that are being ripped off by a nationwide service, and since the COVID 19 virus is the main culprit, forcing me to stay at home with little to do, I finally decided to write to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) again with my complaint. I complained about the same problem in a letter to the FTC a few years back when I lived in Colorado.

METV, I believe, may have gotten word about my complaint, because I noticed several times that they aired Andy Grif fith and Gunsmoke shows longer than their allotted times. Andy Griffith aired for 35 minutes and Gunsmoke aired for 1 hour 10 minutes. However, they are now back to their alotted 30 minute and 1 hour time slots.

I live here in rural America, and without CATV, I would not be able to get these shows. I am a senior citizen, and I enjoy the episodes of Gunsmoke, Andy Griffith, well... there are just too many to list. Since COVID 19 has kept me homebound, I have been trying to watch the cable TV that I subscribe to.

Here is my complaint once again: the TV commercials. On numerous occasions, while watching an episode, the commer cials take over. A big part of the shows are chopped out, and when the commercials are over, the shows come back on with a bunch of it missing. For instance, a one-hour episode of Gunsmoke has been cut down to between 32 and 35 minutes, leaving about 10 to 13 minutes of the show gone. A full one hour Gunsmoke episode lasts about 45 minutes. Using a VCR, I have been able to time how much of the shows have been removed. Most of the episodes have now been cut to between 32 and 35 minutes.

The commercials are in their entirety, though. I have gotten so tired of them that I lose interest in the show. I have started taping the show, and that way I am able to bypass all the commercials. I do not know if anyone else has the problem I have with these very stupid commercials that are airing now, like the struggling actor who advertizes for Liberty Mutual Insurance, making fun of people who have speech impediments. I always thought it was illegal to make fun of disabled people in public who have speech problems, or any problems for that matter. Or the guy riding in a car that his wife is driving, and he is licking her face, and she tells him she saw him eating poop earlier. Now tell me, is that sick, or what? Of course I realize that we are now living in the year 2020, and anything and everything can be advertized.

I realize that CATV will not give up its air time to the commercials, as that is where the money is. The American public is also paying for CATV, so doesn’t that make it wrong to pay for something and not get what you are paying for? Whoever is in charge of programming these episodes should at least allow the shows like Gunsmoke to run for 1 hour and 15 minutes, in order to get the commercials all in, and also give us the complete episodes to watch. People with DVRs or VCRs can do as I do, which is to tape the series, show and fast-forward the commercials if they choose.

One story that I missed was about a car race on Feb. 4th, that President Trump attended. On KAKE-TV out of Wichita, they kept saying throughout their 10:00 p.m. newscast of a very serious accident that occurred on the racetrack, and that they would have the story of what happened. Well, I watched KAKE until 10:30 p.m., and it was never told. I never did see what happened on the racetrack. All the commercials took up all the air time. I paid for my cable TV and never got to see what happened. Duh. Oh well, it wasn’t all that important, but I would liked to have known what happened on the racetrack.

Thank you for your time. Regardless of how you interpret this letter, I still feel I am being cheated out of the service that I am paying for. How much longer will we be homebound, and cheated out of our TV for entertainment?

Steve Anderson

Stockton

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