What happened to WTVS-Detroit?

Something terrible happened to channel 43 this summer.

Sometime, when I wasn’t paying attention, my tied-for-favourite PBS channel, WTVS-Detroit, vanished from my Shaw Cable lineup. And in its place was some cruddy kiddy TV station showing idiotic baby-oriented cartoons with primary colours, shrieking voices, and loud, clunky soundtracks.

It took me a few weeks to realize what had happened. I’d been tuning in during the day, and somehow mistook Treehouse, a toddler-centric station geared to the very, very young, for the regular morning children’s programming on PBS.

Normally, I figure stuff like this out right away. I was pretty distracted. July heatwave, anyone? But a few nights ago, as I was flipping around the dial, I landed on channel 43 – proud home, I thought, to PBS.

Something was amiss. There was no Frontline or Nova, Masterpiece or Mystery. A clue lay stamped on the screen in the lower right hand corner: the distinctive logo of the Treehouse channel. What the hey?I logged onto the Shaw website, and found the explanation: Shaw has removed WTVS-56 from the regular cable package.

It’s now only available through the digital cable package – an upgrade. Worse, regular cable subscribers must live with a poor substitute in its place in the 43 slot, Treehouse, a children’s TV channel. I emailed Shaw Cable the next morning, demanding to know what was up, and to register a complaint at the switch.

I also explained that I relied on WTVS- Detroit for my PBS viewing because the Seattle-based KCTS-9’s signal has been unreliable – pixelating, blips and breakups, a problem their customer service person assured me originated with my cable provider and not them (I never got a response from Shaw on the matter, BTW).

This morning, I finally got a response, from a Shaw “E-service” agent named Stacey who seems to go by her first name only. Here it is:

Thank you for contacting Shaw Eservice.  We apologise for the delay in response as a result of higher than normal email volumes and thank you for your patience. We certainly appreciate your concerns regarding our available channels, and we have forwarded your message to the appropriate department for consideration.

Shaw is working constantly to improve our services in order to better meet the needs of our customers, and sometimes this ongoing process necessitates significant changes, such as the discontinuation or reassignment of certain channels. The decision to move a given channel is not one which is made lightly, and is the result of much deliberation on the part of our planners and engineers. As such, the decision to relocate PBS-Detroit is not arbitrary, but one which we feel will, when followed by other changes, allow us to improve our services for the vast majority of our customers, and to increase our selection of digital and high definition programming.

We do apologise for any inconvenience that this decision may have caused, and hope that the ongoing improvements to our service will allow us to continue to meet your needs. We hope this information has been useful to you.  Please feel free to contact us by phone 604-629-8888 or by email response.  If you need further assistance you may also visit our website at www.shaw.ca .

That’s it. I’m not sure I’ll hold my breath while I wait to hear back from Shaw. Meanwhile, I hope they’re going to add my complaint to a list of customers who are protesting the removal of WTVS from the line up. If enough people complain, maybe they’ll bring it back. Ok, I guess that sounds pretty unlikely, but still.

Why should Shaw get away with the decision to remove a public television network – that many Canadians help support through donations – from regular cable and then only make it available through the premium, upgraded, digital cable package?

I have no intention of upgrading to digital. I’m otherwise pretty happy with old school cable and don’t see why I should have to pay for another ugly box to plug in and store near my TV.

Let’s protest! Shaw Cable subscribers, are you with me? Contact Shaw at www.shaw.ca or call the phone number listed above, I guess.

The loss of WTVS is one less reason to watch TV at all. A big reason. And it’s one more reason to love my MacBook and high speed internet service.

I just checked the Detroit Public TV website. Some of their shows are available online! You know what that means?

Suck it, Shaw. I love PBS. Having two channels from two different U.S. cities meant variety and choice. Viewers on the west coast could watch superb prime time PBS programming a couple of hours earlier each evening.

For instance, I always preferred to watch Frontline, the remarkably intelligent, always fascinating hour-long news magazine on WTVS because at 7 or 8 p.m., I was more alert than at 9 or 10 p.m., when it airs on Seattle’s KCTS. And I always caught NOW and Bill Moyers, two issues-driven current affairs shows, on Sunday mornings on PBS Detroit. I could go on. I’ll close simply by saying I’m going to really miss WTVS, and it’s not going to be the same. Nothing against KCTS-9. It’s just that I’m old and I can’t stay up that late anymore. Guess that ancient VCR will come in handy. And that Wi-Fi connection.

To the future.

Update: For another perspective on what’s really going on over at Shaw Cable, read this post on the Total Recoil blog: Shaw Cable’s “migration” to digital. The situation’s worse than I thought.