1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,400 Low-cal, light FM, patted with tired tunes and empty happy faces talking about nothing 2 00:00:07,400 --> 00:00:08,400 but self-promotion? 3 00:00:08,400 --> 00:00:12,000 Well, I'm your antidote to safe radio. 4 00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:16,240 This is Bernie Fleschken, agent to the stars, and you won't find me trying to buy your attention 5 00:00:16,240 --> 00:00:19,680 with big-dollar contest promotions, no sir! 6 00:00:19,680 --> 00:00:24,520 You'll never hear me stooping so low as to give away loads of cash, but what you will 7 00:00:24,520 --> 00:00:26,840 hear is nothing you'd ever expect. 8 00:00:26,840 --> 00:00:31,000 We play fabulous rock and roll other stations are afraid might get their listeners to start 9 00:00:31,000 --> 00:00:32,000 free-thinking again. 10 00:00:32,000 --> 00:00:33,000 Whoa! 11 00:00:33,000 --> 00:00:37,680 That would be a real tune-out factor for those flaming media pigs like K-Rock and WNEW, where 12 00:00:37,680 --> 00:00:39,920 rock lives on respirators. 13 00:00:39,920 --> 00:00:44,080 But on the Bernie Fleschken Show, you'll meet the likes of show waitress Dixie Lilly, chanteuse 14 00:00:44,080 --> 00:00:51,040 Vanessa Tease, The Missing Link, Aaronis Guy, and America's latent superhero, Captain Fabulous, 15 00:00:51,040 --> 00:00:53,640 in his yellow-ribboned cape. 16 00:00:53,640 --> 00:00:56,320 And even celebrities like Elvis and Johnny Cash. 17 00:00:56,320 --> 00:01:00,640 So tune into the Bernie Fleschken Show on WBAI on the first Monday morning of every 18 00:01:00,640 --> 00:01:02,280 month at 9.30. 19 00:01:02,280 --> 00:01:05,160 It's a rock and roll comedy adventure you won't soon forget. 20 00:01:05,160 --> 00:01:06,680 Just ask the FCC. 21 00:01:06,680 --> 00:01:11,160 That's the first Monday morning of every month at 9.30 on free speech, listener-sponsored, 22 00:01:11,160 --> 00:01:13,920 hey buddy, gotta dime radio, WBAI. 23 00:01:13,920 --> 00:01:15,120 Who loves you, sweetheart? 24 00:01:15,120 --> 00:01:17,120 Ciao, muchachos! 25 00:01:21,120 --> 00:01:24,520 And this is WBAI in New York. 26 00:01:24,720 --> 00:01:28,720 The alternative station for the greater metropolitan area. 27 00:01:28,720 --> 00:01:30,720 Time now for Off The Hook. 28 00:01:54,720 --> 00:01:56,720 I expect the worst. 29 00:01:56,720 --> 00:01:58,720 I hope that's understood. 30 00:01:58,720 --> 00:02:00,720 Monday, let's go! 31 00:02:24,720 --> 00:02:26,720 Monday, let's go! 32 00:02:37,720 --> 00:02:41,720 And tonight on Off The Hook... 33 00:02:46,720 --> 00:02:53,120 Tonight on Off The Hook we're going to be speaking about cable television and various 34 00:02:53,320 --> 00:02:55,320 nasty things. 35 00:02:55,320 --> 00:03:24,320 Alright, we're not 100% certain... 36 00:03:24,320 --> 00:03:25,320 Oh yeah, I can hear myself. 37 00:03:25,320 --> 00:03:29,320 I wasn't sure my voice was actually going out, but the only reason I know my voice is 38 00:03:29,320 --> 00:03:31,320 going out is because I see those meters moving. 39 00:03:31,320 --> 00:03:34,320 But that's how radio works sometimes. 40 00:03:34,320 --> 00:03:39,320 Okay, we're going to be speaking about cable TV tonight and Big Brother and all kinds of 41 00:03:39,320 --> 00:03:40,320 things like that. 42 00:03:40,320 --> 00:03:42,320 So get your phone calls ready. 43 00:03:42,320 --> 00:03:45,320 We'll be asking for some input here. 44 00:03:45,320 --> 00:03:47,320 We'll be speaking with some special guests. 45 00:03:47,320 --> 00:03:49,320 Just a moment. 46 00:03:49,320 --> 00:03:57,320 And dance so totally that your egos melt and disappear. 47 00:03:57,320 --> 00:04:09,320 Dance so totally that the dancer is no more there, but only the dance remains. 48 00:04:09,320 --> 00:04:13,320 You start feeling. 49 00:04:13,320 --> 00:04:16,320 You start swaying. 50 00:04:16,320 --> 00:04:20,320 You suddenly feel a rush of energy. 51 00:04:20,320 --> 00:04:23,320 You would like to dance. 52 00:04:23,320 --> 00:04:27,320 You would like to dance yourself. 53 00:04:27,320 --> 00:04:30,320 This is synchronicity. 54 00:05:47,320 --> 00:05:48,320 Come on, come on. 55 00:05:48,320 --> 00:05:49,320 Here we go. 56 00:06:16,320 --> 00:06:18,320 You start feeling. 57 00:06:18,320 --> 00:06:20,320 You start swaying. 58 00:06:20,320 --> 00:06:23,320 You suddenly feel a rush of energy. 59 00:06:23,320 --> 00:06:26,320 You would like to dance yourself. 60 00:06:26,320 --> 00:06:45,320 Well, for those of us who have cable TV, we may be aware of some of the things that are 61 00:06:46,320 --> 00:06:47,320 advantages. 62 00:06:47,320 --> 00:06:51,320 We may be aware of some of the disadvantages such as always seeming to be the first thing 63 00:06:51,320 --> 00:06:58,320 to go out in a storm and not having as many channels as you want, all kinds of other things 64 00:06:58,320 --> 00:06:59,320 like that. 65 00:06:59,320 --> 00:07:08,320 But a couple in Long Island have raised a whole kettle of fish here with the possibility 66 00:07:09,320 --> 00:07:17,320 that cable vision or cable TV actually is an extension of Big Brother. 67 00:07:17,320 --> 00:07:24,320 Now, what I'm going to do here is read an article that appeared in Newsday on August 68 00:07:24,320 --> 00:07:25,320 2nd. 69 00:07:25,320 --> 00:07:34,320 And that article will detail some of the accusations that these people are making. 70 00:07:34,320 --> 00:07:40,320 And then we'll be speaking to the Vice President of Operations for Cablevision out in Long 71 00:07:40,320 --> 00:07:41,320 Island. 72 00:07:41,320 --> 00:07:46,320 And we'll be taking phone calls, too, at 212-279-3400. 73 00:07:46,320 --> 00:07:52,320 Okay, this article was written by Gene Dugan Cooper, appeared in Newsday on August 2nd. 74 00:07:52,320 --> 00:07:55,320 Is Cablevision watching you? 75 00:07:55,320 --> 00:08:02,320 Well, a Huntington couple complained to state cable regulators that particular week that 76 00:08:02,320 --> 00:08:08,320 Cablevision Systems Corporation, with its new sophisticated fiber optic system, knows 77 00:08:08,320 --> 00:08:14,320 exactly what they're doing with their televisions and when. 78 00:08:14,320 --> 00:08:19,320 Cablevision denies it knows what subscribers are watching individually, which is a violation 79 00:08:19,320 --> 00:08:21,320 of state regulations. 80 00:08:21,320 --> 00:08:26,320 I don't know if it's written specifically in state regulations someplace that you won't 81 00:08:26,320 --> 00:08:27,320 do that particular thing. 82 00:08:27,320 --> 00:08:30,320 But according to Newsday, it is a violation. 83 00:08:31,320 --> 00:08:39,320 Its new system, scheduled to be in 560,000 Long Island homes by late 1994, can track 84 00:08:39,320 --> 00:08:42,320 what people are viewing en masse. 85 00:08:42,320 --> 00:08:48,320 The controversial issue came to light when Calman and Gail Brenner filed complaints with 86 00:08:48,320 --> 00:08:53,320 the New York State Commission on Cable Television and the New York Civil Liberties Union, contending 87 00:08:53,320 --> 00:08:57,320 that Cablevision's new system is invading their privacy. 88 00:08:58,320 --> 00:09:03,320 Brenner's gripe began in early July, when Cablevision supplied them with a new converter 89 00:09:03,320 --> 00:09:12,320 box and remote control as part of its $100 million island-wide upgrade project launched 90 00:09:12,320 --> 00:09:14,320 in Huntington. 91 00:09:18,320 --> 00:09:25,320 And Gail Brenner said that she had trouble taping a program, so she called Cablevision's 92 00:09:25,320 --> 00:09:28,320 customer service department. 93 00:09:28,320 --> 00:09:37,320 A Cablevision employee asked for our phone number, and called up the account on the computer. 94 00:09:37,320 --> 00:09:42,320 And she said, you were watching Channel 6 and trying to tape Channel 6, and she told 95 00:09:42,320 --> 00:09:45,320 me what time I was doing this. 96 00:09:45,320 --> 00:09:52,320 The employee told Brenner that she had failed to tune her VCR to Channel 3. 97 00:09:53,320 --> 00:09:57,320 I just said thank you for your assistance and got off the phone and said to Cal, my 98 00:09:57,320 --> 00:09:59,320 goodness, this is scary. 99 00:09:59,320 --> 00:10:02,320 They know everything I was doing. 100 00:10:02,320 --> 00:10:09,320 William J. Quinn, Cablevision's general manager, calls the Brenner's claim absolutely impossible. 101 00:10:09,320 --> 00:10:14,320 The customer service representatives are not now, and never have been, capable of telling 102 00:10:14,320 --> 00:10:17,320 people what channel they're watching. 103 00:10:17,320 --> 00:10:22,320 He says it's just a matter of, after doing it a while, you know the problems. 104 00:10:22,320 --> 00:10:27,320 Monitoring an individual's television set without permission violates state Cablecommission 105 00:10:27,320 --> 00:10:34,320 regulations, and carries hefty penalties as well, as in the most severe cases, the possibility 106 00:10:34,320 --> 00:10:37,320 of losing a cable franchise. 107 00:10:37,320 --> 00:10:41,320 The Brenners likely will have a tough time proving their case, said William Finneran, 108 00:10:41,320 --> 00:10:44,320 the Cablecommission's chairman. 109 00:10:44,320 --> 00:10:49,320 These franchises are quasi-public, and I can't see any management jeopardizing their 110 00:10:49,320 --> 00:10:52,320 franchise with unsavory practices. 111 00:10:52,320 --> 00:10:55,320 But civil liberties officials express concern. 112 00:10:55,320 --> 00:11:00,320 It is unlikely that this couple would be able to concoct this scenario, said Laura Murray, 113 00:11:00,320 --> 00:11:05,320 director of legislative affairs for the New York State Civil Liberties Union. 114 00:11:05,320 --> 00:11:10,320 Should you, as a condition of having a television, surrender your right of privacy? 115 00:11:10,320 --> 00:11:15,320 Only in America would Big Brother turn out to be private enterprise. 116 00:11:15,320 --> 00:11:20,320 Cablevision's new system can, in fact, track what individual subscribers are tuned into 117 00:11:20,320 --> 00:11:23,320 at any given time. 118 00:11:23,320 --> 00:11:25,320 This is something that Newsday is saying now. 119 00:11:25,320 --> 00:11:29,320 Cablevision's new system can, in fact, track what individual subscribers are tuned into 120 00:11:29,320 --> 00:11:31,320 at any given time. 121 00:11:31,320 --> 00:11:36,320 But the computer software only supplies the company with bulk information, Quinn said. 122 00:11:36,320 --> 00:11:38,320 It performs a function similar to Nielsen ratings. 123 00:11:38,320 --> 00:11:43,320 It tells us of, say, 20,000 converters in use, which percentage of people tuned in at 124 00:11:43,320 --> 00:11:46,320 that time are watching what. 125 00:11:46,320 --> 00:11:50,320 Cablevision has taken one poll since it rolled out the new equipment in Huntington, increasing 126 00:11:50,320 --> 00:11:55,320 the number of channels there from 38 to 52. 127 00:11:55,320 --> 00:12:00,320 We did it in the daytime and saw that in one case, 53% of us, 53% in use, rather, were 128 00:12:00,320 --> 00:12:03,320 watching one daytime drama. 129 00:12:03,320 --> 00:12:06,320 I said, that was very high. 130 00:12:06,320 --> 00:12:10,320 Eventually, he said, Cablevision could use the capability to decide which programs to 131 00:12:10,320 --> 00:12:13,320 run and which ones not to run. 132 00:12:13,320 --> 00:12:17,320 Under the old system, the company relied on written and telephone polls. 133 00:12:17,320 --> 00:12:21,320 Quinn says, we'd certainly like the ability to know in a very accurate fashion what people 134 00:12:21,320 --> 00:12:23,320 feel about a certain program. 135 00:12:23,320 --> 00:12:28,320 With this computer, we can look at 8, 10 p.m. and see that 13% were watching a certain channel. 136 00:12:28,320 --> 00:12:31,320 The technology is known as addressable cable. 137 00:12:31,320 --> 00:12:36,320 It also lets people buy pay-per-view by pushing buttons and could eventually enable them to 138 00:12:36,320 --> 00:12:40,320 shop from their couches and play games with their remote control. 139 00:12:40,320 --> 00:12:44,320 State consumer advocates aren't as enthusiastic about the technological advances. 140 00:12:44,320 --> 00:12:49,320 They say the price for these enhanced services is privacy, and some are calling for new regulations 141 00:12:49,320 --> 00:12:52,320 to keep the information from being abused. 142 00:12:52,320 --> 00:12:54,320 Is there potential for abuse? 143 00:12:54,320 --> 00:12:57,320 The answer is a definite yes, Finneran said. 144 00:12:57,320 --> 00:13:00,320 Is the potential for personal monitoring there? 145 00:13:00,320 --> 00:13:04,320 Yes, but we have to have sanctions, forfeiture, and big fines. 146 00:13:04,320 --> 00:13:06,320 The laws will be revisited. 147 00:13:06,320 --> 00:13:11,320 The State Assembly intends to hold hearings this fall to study the rapidly changing cable systems 148 00:13:11,320 --> 00:13:13,320 throughout the state. 149 00:13:13,320 --> 00:13:17,320 One issue expected to be scrutinized is how technology could jeopardize privacy. 150 00:13:17,320 --> 00:13:22,320 Perhaps we ought to outlaw these types of systems altogether, said Assemblyman Steve Sanders 151 00:13:22,320 --> 00:13:27,320 of Manhattan, who chairs the Governmental Operations Committee and is organizing the hearings. 152 00:13:27,320 --> 00:13:32,320 I don't want to leave it to the scruples of a cable company to protect individuals. 153 00:13:32,320 --> 00:13:36,320 Quinn defended the industry's ability to guard people's privacy on its own. 154 00:13:36,320 --> 00:13:38,320 We don't sell our lists. 155 00:13:38,320 --> 00:13:42,320 We don't tell anybody who our subscribers are and what they buy, he said. 156 00:13:42,320 --> 00:13:45,320 We've had access to valuable information for years. 157 00:13:45,320 --> 00:13:53,320 Again, that story coming from Newsday, August 2, 1991, and basically a couple in Huntington, 158 00:13:53,320 --> 00:13:58,320 Long Island, accusing the cable company of monitoring them and seeing what they were watching. 159 00:13:58,320 --> 00:14:00,320 Now, we spoke to that couple. 160 00:14:00,320 --> 00:14:02,320 They declined to be on this radio program. 161 00:14:02,320 --> 00:14:08,320 However, we do have somebody from the cable company involved, Long Island Cablevision. 162 00:14:08,320 --> 00:14:13,320 This is the vice president of operations, Wilt Hildenbrandt. 163 00:14:13,320 --> 00:14:19,320 And we'd like to ask you basically, I guess, just to respond to that article 164 00:14:19,320 --> 00:14:21,320 and tell us your side of the story. 165 00:14:21,320 --> 00:14:23,320 Okay, I'll do that. 166 00:14:23,320 --> 00:14:25,320 Just a couple things before we start. 167 00:14:25,320 --> 00:14:31,320 One, in terms of what my job is, it was vice president of engineering operations, 168 00:14:31,320 --> 00:14:34,320 so I'm not necessarily qualified to go into all operational matters. 169 00:14:34,320 --> 00:14:37,320 Okay, let's stay on with the engineering stuff. 170 00:14:37,320 --> 00:14:45,320 Secondly, I was interested by and intrigued by how you opened with the fact that there's good and bad 171 00:14:46,320 --> 00:14:51,320 and people complain about the cable going out in the weather and not having enough channels. 172 00:14:51,320 --> 00:14:58,320 I think one of the things before we get off on the converter discussion that it might be important to get on the record here 173 00:14:58,320 --> 00:15:03,320 is that part of the reason for spending this money in Huntington and on the rest of the system 174 00:15:03,320 --> 00:15:06,320 is to improve those two very things. 175 00:15:06,320 --> 00:15:11,320 The use of fiber optics gets us away from having to use over-the-air microwaves, 176 00:15:11,320 --> 00:15:17,320 which is if the microwave tends to be affected by rain and weather and wind and situations like that. 177 00:15:17,320 --> 00:15:20,320 Fiber is not. It's self-contained. 178 00:15:20,320 --> 00:15:27,320 The more channels, you said it yourself, we went from 38 to 52. 179 00:15:27,320 --> 00:15:34,320 So the converter box that we're going to be talking about is one of the mechanisms we've selected to use 180 00:15:34,320 --> 00:15:39,320 to deliver those channels to everybody that wants them, 181 00:15:39,320 --> 00:15:44,320 as opposed to just delivering those channels to whoever can get them. 182 00:15:44,320 --> 00:15:49,320 I think that's just something I needed to clear up with you first. 183 00:15:49,320 --> 00:15:55,320 Secondly, as far as your reading of the article, you read it accurately. 184 00:15:55,320 --> 00:16:01,320 I don't have anything really different from what Mr. Quinn was quoted as saying in the article. 185 00:16:01,320 --> 00:16:04,320 That's basically how these boxes work. 186 00:16:04,320 --> 00:16:07,320 You can pull them. 187 00:16:07,320 --> 00:16:14,320 It is part of the pay-per-view function in order to be able to find out what someone has purchased at any given time. 188 00:16:14,320 --> 00:16:17,320 And there is the ability to pull the base like you described 189 00:16:17,320 --> 00:16:23,320 and find out how many units or how many boxes, not to use buzzwords here, 190 00:16:23,320 --> 00:16:29,320 how many boxes were actually tuned to a specific service. 191 00:16:29,320 --> 00:16:35,320 It's not important to know, nor do we have any mechanism at this point, 192 00:16:35,320 --> 00:16:43,320 and none coming to know what individual subscriber looked at what individual program. 193 00:16:43,320 --> 00:16:46,320 The subscriber listing he mentioned is true. 194 00:16:46,320 --> 00:16:48,320 It's been true from the beginning. 195 00:16:48,320 --> 00:16:52,320 People call and order levels of service. 196 00:16:52,320 --> 00:16:58,320 And we obviously, by definition, have to know what level of service everybody chooses to take. 197 00:16:58,320 --> 00:17:00,320 We have never published those lists. 198 00:17:00,320 --> 00:17:02,320 We do not sell those lists. 199 00:17:02,320 --> 00:17:04,320 We don't intend to sell those lists. 200 00:17:04,320 --> 00:17:06,320 And there has been pressure to do so, and we don't. 201 00:17:06,320 --> 00:17:12,320 Whereas other things you subscribe to, magazines, and the list is almost endless, 202 00:17:12,320 --> 00:17:15,320 we all know do sell their subscriber lists. 203 00:17:15,320 --> 00:17:18,320 I think that's a fairly key part of it. 204 00:17:18,320 --> 00:17:24,320 Whether or not you want to trust a cable TV company, like whoever said that, 205 00:17:24,320 --> 00:17:25,320 is one issue. 206 00:17:25,320 --> 00:17:27,320 On the other hand, history has to account for something. 207 00:17:27,320 --> 00:17:30,320 And to my knowledge, I know this company has never sold a list, 208 00:17:30,320 --> 00:17:32,320 and I don't know of any company that has. 209 00:17:32,320 --> 00:17:38,320 I'd like to just ask about one line in that Newsday story that was written by the reporter, 210 00:17:38,320 --> 00:17:44,320 saying that the news system can, in fact, track what individual subscribers are tuned into at any given time. 211 00:17:44,320 --> 00:17:49,320 Is the capability there to do what these people are saying, and you just don't do it? 212 00:17:49,320 --> 00:17:51,320 Or is it completely impossible? 213 00:17:51,320 --> 00:17:54,320 Let's talk about what we said here. 214 00:17:55,320 --> 00:17:59,320 The word I'll use is poll, because that's basically what it is. 215 00:17:59,320 --> 00:18:06,320 We can poll the base of converters without paying any attention to where they are, 216 00:18:06,320 --> 00:18:08,320 who's got them, or anything else. 217 00:18:08,320 --> 00:18:13,320 We can poll a base of converters at time increments. 218 00:18:13,320 --> 00:18:17,320 Say 8-10, I believe, was the time you mentioned. 219 00:18:17,320 --> 00:18:23,320 We can poll converters at 8-10, or like Mr. Quinn said, at some time in the afternoon, 220 00:18:23,320 --> 00:18:27,320 and find out where the group of people were tuned. 221 00:18:27,320 --> 00:18:30,320 This is not while they're there. 222 00:18:30,320 --> 00:18:35,320 They may have tuned off by the time we've collected the information. 223 00:18:35,320 --> 00:18:36,320 So we can find out. 224 00:18:36,320 --> 00:18:39,320 It tends to be after the fact. 225 00:18:39,320 --> 00:18:45,320 It's not this live, interactive, it all assumes you move your button. 226 00:18:45,320 --> 00:18:50,320 I know you've moved your button thing that we seem to be headed for in this conversation. 227 00:18:50,320 --> 00:18:52,320 It's not that way at all. 228 00:18:52,320 --> 00:18:53,320 It's absolutely after the fact. 229 00:18:53,320 --> 00:18:55,320 It is not automatic. 230 00:18:55,320 --> 00:18:57,320 It does need to be initiated. 231 00:18:57,320 --> 00:19:05,320 And honestly, I can't think of one benefit to knowing what channel anybody is on 232 00:19:05,320 --> 00:19:08,320 at a specific moment in time. 233 00:19:08,320 --> 00:19:13,320 It seems like it's not information we could do anything with if we wanted to. 234 00:19:13,320 --> 00:19:15,320 Well, you see, what I'm trying to get at is, 235 00:19:15,320 --> 00:19:20,320 is it possible using the existing software or perhaps an upgrade in the future to, 236 00:19:20,320 --> 00:19:24,320 if not do it live, then at least say, okay, what was, you know, 237 00:19:24,320 --> 00:19:26,320 let's say it was a celebrity or something, 238 00:19:26,320 --> 00:19:31,320 and somebody managed to get into the system and was able to manipulate it. 239 00:19:31,320 --> 00:19:34,320 Could they say, what did this person watch at 810, 240 00:19:34,320 --> 00:19:39,320 and pinpoint one particular person, or can it only work with massive numbers of people? 241 00:19:39,320 --> 00:19:43,320 Right now, the way it works, it works with, 242 00:19:43,320 --> 00:19:49,320 and I'm going to answer your question in a way that I think answers what you're after. 243 00:19:49,320 --> 00:19:53,320 How to speculate as to whether someone could get into the system 244 00:19:53,320 --> 00:19:56,320 and manipulate it to find out what, say, 245 00:19:56,320 --> 00:19:59,320 a celebrity or somebody else was watching at a specific time 246 00:19:59,320 --> 00:20:02,320 or what specific program it was watching. 247 00:20:02,320 --> 00:20:06,320 We take a lot of precautions to make sure that access to the system 248 00:20:06,320 --> 00:20:10,320 is controlled to a very few individuals. 249 00:20:10,320 --> 00:20:14,320 It's not available to just anyone in the company, 250 00:20:14,320 --> 00:20:17,320 certainly not available to anyone inside. 251 00:20:17,320 --> 00:20:22,320 If you think it through, people's privacy is an important issue, 252 00:20:22,320 --> 00:20:27,320 but so are all of our business records just in terms of doing business, 253 00:20:27,320 --> 00:20:32,320 so there's lots of reasons to protect, you know, access to a system like this. 254 00:20:32,320 --> 00:20:36,320 Now, the very thing we're talking about, 255 00:20:36,320 --> 00:20:41,320 there are the potential here to put in whatever the article said, 256 00:20:41,320 --> 00:20:45,320 560,000 of these units at some point in time. 257 00:20:45,320 --> 00:20:51,320 And obviously in the Huntington part of the system there aren't 560,000 boxes, 258 00:20:51,320 --> 00:20:55,320 so this polling is not, you know, 259 00:20:55,320 --> 00:20:59,320 there's not a number that says if there's 10,000 boxes out there, 260 00:20:59,320 --> 00:21:04,320 if there's 500,000 boxes out there, if there's 2,000 boxes out there. 261 00:21:04,320 --> 00:21:07,320 There's not a number I can't poll below. 262 00:21:07,320 --> 00:21:10,320 Right now we do not have available in the software, 263 00:21:10,320 --> 00:21:14,320 nor do we intend to have available in the software 264 00:21:14,320 --> 00:21:18,320 the ability to select one particular converter box 265 00:21:18,320 --> 00:21:21,320 and poll it at one particular time 266 00:21:21,320 --> 00:21:25,320 and find out what one particular converter box is looking at. 267 00:21:25,320 --> 00:21:32,320 It's complicated, and I'm not trying to dazzle anybody here with lots of buzzwords, 268 00:21:32,320 --> 00:21:35,320 nor am I trying to talk down at anyone. 269 00:21:35,320 --> 00:21:38,320 It's kind of a complicated issue. 270 00:21:38,320 --> 00:21:42,320 No, we do not have the software presently to poll one box. 271 00:21:42,320 --> 00:21:47,320 There could be in the future a way to do it, I suppose, as technology goes on. 272 00:21:47,320 --> 00:21:52,320 We all see this in almost everything we use and buy as technology goes on. 273 00:21:52,320 --> 00:21:56,320 Well, you see, what struck me was the fact that it's a violation, 274 00:21:56,320 --> 00:21:59,320 monitoring an individual's television set without permission 275 00:21:59,320 --> 00:22:02,320 is a violation of state cable commission regulations. 276 00:22:02,320 --> 00:22:06,320 Now, for it to be a violation, it tells me that it must be possible. 277 00:22:06,320 --> 00:22:08,320 Otherwise, how could it be a violation? 278 00:22:08,320 --> 00:22:17,320 This two-way converter type unit that we're talking about in this particular discussion 279 00:22:17,320 --> 00:22:21,320 is new to us in this system. 280 00:22:21,320 --> 00:22:27,320 We have tried working with it a number of times over a number of years. 281 00:22:27,320 --> 00:22:32,320 I know a lot of people have heard and read and actually read very good press 282 00:22:32,320 --> 00:22:39,320 about an experimental system that was run by, I believe, Warner Cable in Ohio a number of years ago. 283 00:22:39,320 --> 00:22:42,320 Matter of fact, they made it on national television, I believe. 284 00:22:42,320 --> 00:22:44,320 The Cube system, right? 285 00:22:44,320 --> 00:22:47,320 Right. On the Donahue show, the Cube system. 286 00:22:47,320 --> 00:22:54,320 That system actually could, I believe, interact real live, real time, 287 00:22:54,320 --> 00:23:01,320 tell you what a subscriber was watching and what the box was tuned to at that point in time. 288 00:23:01,320 --> 00:23:06,320 I believe that those earlier systems had that capability. 289 00:23:06,320 --> 00:23:13,320 The legislators being smart, the operators and the public being concerned about privacy, 290 00:23:13,320 --> 00:23:16,320 I mean, privacy is not a new issue to anybody. 291 00:23:16,320 --> 00:23:20,320 I think the rules came from that emerging technology. 292 00:23:20,320 --> 00:23:24,320 They certainly weren't written because of what we're launching in Honington. 293 00:23:24,320 --> 00:23:29,320 I think there's a big gap of time in between there. 294 00:23:29,320 --> 00:23:36,320 There's a lot of protection type rules on the books that even cover things that don't exist anymore today. 295 00:23:36,320 --> 00:23:42,320 So in this particular case, these two ways, things have been going on for quite some time 296 00:23:42,320 --> 00:23:47,320 and this isn't the only system in the country or in New York State where they are going on. 297 00:23:47,320 --> 00:23:48,320 That leads to my next question. 298 00:23:48,320 --> 00:23:53,320 Do you think all cable companies agree with what you're saying? 299 00:23:53,320 --> 00:23:58,320 Do you think there might be some cable companies out there that would perhaps violate that trust? 300 00:23:58,320 --> 00:24:04,320 I can only guarantee you, as far as our company goes, 301 00:24:04,320 --> 00:24:13,320 what any other company would or would not do is, like with any other business, pretty much up to themselves. 302 00:24:13,320 --> 00:24:19,320 The good thing about having a law there like that is you do put a pretty severe penalty on it 303 00:24:19,320 --> 00:24:26,320 and it looks to me like whether we do it or not, and I know we wouldn't and haven't, 304 00:24:26,320 --> 00:24:29,320 it doesn't look like it's worth playing around with. 305 00:24:29,320 --> 00:24:37,320 At this time, let me just say our telephone lines are open and we're taking phone calls at 212-279-3400. 306 00:24:37,320 --> 00:24:43,320 We're speaking with Wilt Hildebrand, who is Vice President for Engineering, correct? 307 00:24:43,320 --> 00:24:44,320 Got it. 308 00:24:44,320 --> 00:24:45,320 Got it right that time. 309 00:24:45,320 --> 00:24:52,320 Okay, now maybe you could just tell us what you think happened with these people that claim that... 310 00:24:53,320 --> 00:24:56,320 The important thing here is what I think happened. 311 00:24:56,320 --> 00:25:01,320 I mean, I know what the system is capable and incapable of doing. 312 00:25:01,320 --> 00:25:07,320 It's incapable of, and I hope this makes Mr. and Mrs. Brenner feel better, 313 00:25:07,320 --> 00:25:14,320 it's incapable of knowing what they were doing. 314 00:25:14,320 --> 00:25:19,320 Let me just back up a minute and say that one of the things I do in my job, 315 00:25:19,320 --> 00:25:22,320 and in fact have done the whole time I've been in cable, 316 00:25:22,320 --> 00:25:26,320 is since I'm involved in the technical and engineering side, 317 00:25:26,320 --> 00:25:32,320 one of the things you learn how to do is how to troubleshoot, okay? 318 00:25:32,320 --> 00:25:39,320 If someone has a problem, you either can go to the location and fix it, 319 00:25:39,320 --> 00:25:42,320 or in many instances, like in the job I have today, 320 00:25:42,320 --> 00:25:47,320 you have to work your way through the problem over the phone. 321 00:25:47,320 --> 00:25:53,320 I've been doing this since sometime in 1972, 1973, 322 00:25:53,320 --> 00:25:58,320 so I've got a little bit of experience under my belt when it comes to certain problems, 323 00:25:58,320 --> 00:26:03,320 and there's things people can call me with that I don't have to see what they're doing 324 00:26:03,320 --> 00:26:09,320 to have a fairly good idea of how to get, you know, from their description, 325 00:26:09,320 --> 00:26:12,320 exactly what in the world happened. 326 00:26:12,320 --> 00:26:17,320 Now, any of us in any of the experiences we have, whether it be working on cars 327 00:26:17,320 --> 00:26:21,320 or fixing lawnmowers or refrigerators, air conditioners, 328 00:26:21,320 --> 00:26:26,320 you know that when you can call a company for service 329 00:26:26,320 --> 00:26:28,320 and they can ask you a couple questions and tell you, 330 00:26:28,320 --> 00:26:32,320 well, go over to the unit, do this, do that, and do the other thing, 331 00:26:32,320 --> 00:26:36,320 we all feel very good that we didn't have to hang around at home, 332 00:26:36,320 --> 00:26:40,320 we didn't have to wait that this person knew what they were talking about. 333 00:26:40,320 --> 00:26:44,320 Most customer service representatives, with the use of converters 334 00:26:44,320 --> 00:26:48,320 and with the use of TV and videotape recorders, 335 00:26:48,320 --> 00:26:54,320 get the very same kind of experience after answering a number of these calls 336 00:26:54,320 --> 00:27:00,320 and understanding how the box works and something of how VCRs and TVs work. 337 00:27:00,320 --> 00:27:06,320 There's a set of typical things that it's very easy for someone who has, say, 338 00:27:06,320 --> 00:27:10,320 a box for the first time to make a mistake with. 339 00:27:10,320 --> 00:27:15,320 I don't have any idea what questions were asked back and forth, asked and answered. 340 00:27:15,320 --> 00:27:17,320 I know what's in the article. 341 00:27:17,320 --> 00:27:22,320 I also know what the customer service rep was capable of pulling up on their screen. 342 00:27:22,320 --> 00:27:27,320 The person asked for the phone number because by putting the person's phone number 343 00:27:27,320 --> 00:27:33,320 into the system we can pull up their account on the subscriber, 344 00:27:33,320 --> 00:27:38,320 in this case the Brenner's account, was what level of service they had 345 00:27:38,320 --> 00:27:43,320 and what services were contained within that, 346 00:27:43,320 --> 00:27:48,320 whether they had the new box in the Huntington system 347 00:27:48,320 --> 00:27:52,320 or had not been upgraded yet to the new system. 348 00:27:52,320 --> 00:27:56,320 The CSR, from looking at that map, if you will, 349 00:27:56,320 --> 00:28:01,320 could work off a set of possible solutions to the problem 350 00:28:01,320 --> 00:28:04,320 that Mrs. Brenner described to her. 351 00:28:04,320 --> 00:28:08,320 I know reading it the way it reads it sounds very different than that, 352 00:28:08,320 --> 00:28:14,320 but believe me, that information is not available at the customer. 353 00:28:14,320 --> 00:28:19,320 The information of what anybody's watching is not available at the customer service rep. 354 00:28:19,320 --> 00:28:23,320 And these people are trained and spent a lot of time learning how to handle 355 00:28:23,320 --> 00:28:26,320 many problems that people call up with. 356 00:28:26,320 --> 00:28:29,320 It's not a very exciting explanation, 357 00:28:29,320 --> 00:28:34,320 but unfortunately exciting isn't always the way these things work. 358 00:28:34,320 --> 00:28:36,320 It's the true explanation. 359 00:28:36,320 --> 00:28:38,320 Okay. Well, let's take some phone calls. 360 00:28:38,320 --> 00:28:44,320 212-279-3400 if anyone out there has questions about this kind of thing, 361 00:28:44,320 --> 00:28:47,320 perhaps also about the future of cable. 362 00:28:47,320 --> 00:28:52,320 But the main question is do you think it's possible for your cable company, 363 00:28:52,320 --> 00:28:55,320 and of course a lot of listeners out there will have different cable companies, 364 00:28:55,320 --> 00:28:59,320 do you think it's possible for your cable company to actually, if not do this now, 365 00:28:59,320 --> 00:29:01,320 do this in the future, 366 00:29:01,320 --> 00:29:06,320 or do you think this is something that is even worth spending time debating? 367 00:29:06,320 --> 00:29:09,320 212-279-3400. 368 00:29:09,320 --> 00:29:10,320 Good evening. 369 00:29:10,320 --> 00:29:12,320 Hello. Good evening. 370 00:29:12,320 --> 00:29:15,320 Can they tell what you do with the signal after it enters your home, 371 00:29:15,320 --> 00:29:18,320 before it hits the box, if you split it and stuff? 372 00:29:18,320 --> 00:29:20,320 Good question. 373 00:29:20,320 --> 00:29:22,320 I didn't quite understand. 374 00:29:22,320 --> 00:29:27,320 The question was can they tell what you do with the signal after it enters your home? 375 00:29:27,320 --> 00:29:31,320 In other words, if you run it to, say, two TV sets or a TV set in the VCR, 376 00:29:31,320 --> 00:29:40,320 is there some kind of way of telling that and, in effect, charging you for two connections? 377 00:29:40,320 --> 00:29:43,320 Interesting question. 378 00:29:43,320 --> 00:29:48,320 There is, in certain circumstances, ways of finding that out. 379 00:29:48,320 --> 00:29:57,320 One way, for example, that happens a lot is we work, and every business does, 380 00:29:57,320 --> 00:30:03,320 but we work under a set of fairly stringent rules put out by the Federal Communications Commission, 381 00:30:03,320 --> 00:30:07,320 and one of them is a thing called signal leakage, 382 00:30:07,320 --> 00:30:13,320 where our signals are not allowed to leak out 383 00:30:13,320 --> 00:30:21,320 or radiate out from the cable wire we use any more than a certain very small amount of signal level 384 00:30:21,320 --> 00:30:24,320 over a certain very short amount of distance. 385 00:30:24,320 --> 00:30:30,320 We're required constantly to monitor the cable system, 386 00:30:30,320 --> 00:30:38,320 and that includes every wire in the system, even the wires going down to a house, for signal leakage. 387 00:30:38,320 --> 00:30:42,320 The reason for that is fairly important. 388 00:30:42,320 --> 00:30:50,320 We use frequencies that are also used by the aeronautical band or the airplane traffic, 389 00:30:50,320 --> 00:30:55,320 and the FCC wants to make sure that any of the frequencies we use 390 00:30:55,320 --> 00:30:59,320 that are similar to the frequencies that the aircraft use 391 00:30:59,320 --> 00:31:04,320 do not cause any problems for the aircraft, say, guidance systems or anything else. 392 00:31:04,320 --> 00:31:09,320 We regularly monitor or sweep the system with gear 393 00:31:09,320 --> 00:31:16,320 that allows us to measure the amount of signal leaking from the cable now. 394 00:31:16,320 --> 00:31:22,320 Our people are trained and retrained and work with very carefully to make sure 395 00:31:22,320 --> 00:31:28,320 that when they run an additional set or even run the first set wire in the house 396 00:31:28,320 --> 00:31:33,320 that all of these conditions in order to make the FCC were met. 397 00:31:33,320 --> 00:31:43,320 Many times we will find that if a subscriber or a consumer buys wire at, say, Radio Shack 398 00:31:43,320 --> 00:31:47,320 or, not to pick on Radio Shack, any of the electronic stores, 399 00:31:47,320 --> 00:31:51,320 a splitter to split off another set at any one of the electronic stores, 400 00:31:52,320 --> 00:32:02,320 that those things are not necessarily designed in specification that we specify for our equipment, 401 00:32:02,320 --> 00:32:07,320 and we'll see signals leaking in excess of what we're allowed to, 402 00:32:07,320 --> 00:32:15,320 and we're mandated by the FCC to either solve that condition, 403 00:32:15,320 --> 00:32:19,320 which might mean asking for permission or knocking on the door 404 00:32:19,320 --> 00:32:24,320 to get into the subscriber's house and see if we can isolate the problem that way. 405 00:32:24,320 --> 00:32:32,320 Or if that isn't possible, we are made under FCC rule to disconnect service from that house. 406 00:32:32,320 --> 00:32:36,320 There are ways we find things like that. 407 00:32:36,320 --> 00:32:43,320 If I can just ask, what the policy is with cable vision as far as hooking something up to more than one TV set? 408 00:32:43,320 --> 00:32:47,320 Is your policy to charge more for somebody that does that? 409 00:32:47,320 --> 00:32:54,320 Right now, the only way that you can have more than one set hooked up operating at any time, 410 00:32:54,320 --> 00:32:59,320 each one of the services we sell are part of the services we sell. 411 00:32:59,320 --> 00:33:02,320 There is a charge for additional sets, yes. 412 00:33:02,320 --> 00:33:07,320 Okay. Now, I know one of the – I just want to ask the caller if they have any more questions. 413 00:33:07,320 --> 00:33:08,320 No, thanks a lot. 414 00:33:08,320 --> 00:33:11,320 Okay, thanks for calling. 279-3400, area code 212. 415 00:33:11,320 --> 00:33:18,320 I know one of the things that this new fiber optic system is making very difficult for consumers, 416 00:33:18,320 --> 00:33:22,320 and that's the basis of another article in Newsday, 417 00:33:22,320 --> 00:33:30,320 is the fact that it's, I believe, impossible to hook up another TV set without a special converter. 418 00:33:30,320 --> 00:33:34,320 So there are some people that are saying, yeah, we might be taking a step forward, 419 00:33:34,320 --> 00:33:37,320 but at the same time, we may be taking a step backward 420 00:33:37,320 --> 00:33:42,320 because all of a sudden we can't do things that we once took for granted, 421 00:33:42,320 --> 00:33:46,320 such as watching one channel while you're taping another channel. 422 00:33:46,320 --> 00:33:51,320 Is it true that now you will need to get an additional converter with the new fiber optic system 423 00:33:51,320 --> 00:33:54,320 if you want to watch a channel while you're taping something else? 424 00:33:54,320 --> 00:34:00,320 You said a couple things at the same time, so let me just take them one at a time. 425 00:34:01,320 --> 00:34:10,320 The use of fiber optics in the system and this ability to do this either additional set 426 00:34:10,320 --> 00:34:15,320 or watch and record are not necessarily connected in that way. 427 00:34:15,320 --> 00:34:20,320 The fiber optics isn't typically the thing that's limiting that. 428 00:34:20,320 --> 00:34:23,320 The use of fiber optics, as we talked about earlier, 429 00:34:23,320 --> 00:34:30,320 is a way to offer more channels that are better quality and pick up reliability 430 00:34:30,320 --> 00:34:35,320 or that statement you made about the signal going out when the weather gets bad. 431 00:34:35,320 --> 00:34:40,320 Now, let's take the next one, which I believe was, 432 00:34:40,320 --> 00:34:46,320 it's your word, impossible to hook up another set 433 00:34:47,320 --> 00:34:53,320 without having another box or that. 434 00:34:53,320 --> 00:34:55,320 I believe that was one part of what you said, correct? 435 00:34:55,320 --> 00:34:57,320 Right. Yes, that's correct. 436 00:34:57,320 --> 00:35:01,320 Remember now, going back to our other conversation, 437 00:35:01,320 --> 00:35:06,320 it's right now the way we offer cable service 438 00:35:06,320 --> 00:35:11,320 and the way we feel we have to offer cable service at this time 439 00:35:11,320 --> 00:35:17,320 is we really have to do the install and the connection on the additional sets. 440 00:35:17,320 --> 00:35:21,320 Now, as to whether you have to have a converter box 441 00:35:21,320 --> 00:35:25,320 or whether it's impossible to hook up a second set, 442 00:35:25,320 --> 00:35:32,320 there are channels on the system that do not require the use of a box, 443 00:35:32,320 --> 00:35:37,320 and there are many channels on the system that do require the use of a box. 444 00:35:37,320 --> 00:35:42,320 So, while it is possible to hook up another set, 445 00:35:42,320 --> 00:35:47,320 it is also true that there are a number of channels you will not be able to get 446 00:35:47,320 --> 00:35:50,320 when you hook up that second set without a box. 447 00:35:50,320 --> 00:35:52,320 Okay, but a second set... 448 00:35:52,320 --> 00:35:57,320 Remains, though, that we are, at this time, with the conditions the way they are, 449 00:35:57,320 --> 00:36:01,320 we are supposed to be the people that run and hook up the second set. 450 00:36:01,320 --> 00:36:05,320 Okay, but a second set could also be interpreted as a VCR, right? 451 00:36:05,320 --> 00:36:08,320 Could be. I'll come to the VCR thing in a second. 452 00:36:08,320 --> 00:36:16,320 You have to understand that part of this service that the renters call 453 00:36:16,320 --> 00:36:19,320 is when people call up for service. 454 00:36:19,320 --> 00:36:23,320 There's no question if we can't follow it over the phone, 455 00:36:23,320 --> 00:36:27,320 we do make an appointment and we do come out to their house for service 456 00:36:27,320 --> 00:36:31,320 as many times as it takes, as often as they need it, without charge. 457 00:36:31,320 --> 00:36:36,320 I mean, that's part of the reason for hooking up the additional sets. 458 00:36:36,320 --> 00:36:41,320 Servicing something we didn't hook up is sort of a strange kind of a place to be. 459 00:36:41,320 --> 00:36:45,320 I don't know of any industry out there that hooks up things, 460 00:36:45,320 --> 00:36:49,320 that services things for free, at least, that they didn't install 461 00:36:49,320 --> 00:36:53,320 or that they didn't put into the system, whether it be your heating system, 462 00:36:53,320 --> 00:36:55,320 your plumbing system, or anything else. 463 00:36:55,320 --> 00:36:58,320 So, that's an important concept to grasp. 464 00:36:58,320 --> 00:37:06,320 Now, the VCR is something that takes some explanation. 465 00:37:06,320 --> 00:37:13,320 The use of a converter box with the VCR does mean there is one more step 466 00:37:13,320 --> 00:37:16,320 to be able to tape some of the programs. 467 00:37:16,320 --> 00:37:22,320 We spent a lot of time on trying to make this converter box as simple as possible to use. 468 00:37:22,320 --> 00:37:25,320 But, yes, it's another step. You have to select it. 469 00:37:25,320 --> 00:37:28,320 It by no means makes it impossible to tape another program. 470 00:37:28,320 --> 00:37:31,320 It means there's another step to do it. 471 00:37:31,320 --> 00:37:35,320 It's part of this, and I've listened to some of the discussions you were having 472 00:37:35,320 --> 00:37:40,320 on the radio station tonight about all of the topics that were covered. 473 00:37:40,320 --> 00:37:43,320 It's part of this process of change. 474 00:37:43,320 --> 00:37:50,320 In order to offer more channels and to do some of the fairly creative service offerings 475 00:37:50,320 --> 00:37:52,320 that we're trying to do in Huntington, 476 00:37:52,320 --> 00:37:59,320 which is giving subscribers the choice to buy services as they want 477 00:37:59,320 --> 00:38:02,320 rather than buying whole blocks of services. 478 00:38:02,320 --> 00:38:05,320 If they'd rather buy whole blocks of services, they can. 479 00:38:05,320 --> 00:38:13,320 If they wish to buy a basic service plus some additional service, they can also do that. 480 00:38:13,320 --> 00:38:18,320 If you need to offer services that way or choose to offer services that way, 481 00:38:18,320 --> 00:38:21,320 and we have because of requests from subscribers, 482 00:38:21,320 --> 00:38:26,320 then by definition you need some kind of control mechanism 483 00:38:26,320 --> 00:38:33,320 so that you who might have asked for HBO and say Madison Square Garden can get it, 484 00:38:33,320 --> 00:38:37,320 and your neighbor who doesn't want any of that can, 485 00:38:37,320 --> 00:38:41,320 and just have, say, Showtime or ESPN or something else like that can have that. 486 00:38:41,320 --> 00:38:42,320 Right. 487 00:38:42,320 --> 00:38:44,320 It has to be a way of delineating that. 488 00:38:44,320 --> 00:38:46,320 That's part of the complication. 489 00:38:47,320 --> 00:38:49,320 I understand that. 490 00:38:49,320 --> 00:38:57,320 My main question, though, is is it possible that somebody in the future wanting to just tape a program 491 00:38:57,320 --> 00:39:01,320 won't have the same option that he has today where he's able to watch a particular channel? 492 00:39:01,320 --> 00:39:07,320 Let's say he wants to watch Showtime, which he's paying for, while he's taping HBO. 493 00:39:07,320 --> 00:39:11,320 Yes or no, will he be able to do that at the same time while he's taping it 494 00:39:11,320 --> 00:39:14,320 using the new system without getting another box? 495 00:39:14,320 --> 00:39:16,320 Without getting another box? 496 00:39:16,320 --> 00:39:20,320 Right now, at this point, you need two boxes. 497 00:39:20,320 --> 00:39:26,320 We are, just like we worked on this box, we're continually working on ways to just like, 498 00:39:26,320 --> 00:39:31,320 and that's why I went through the discussion of how we got to the differentiated program services. 499 00:39:31,320 --> 00:39:39,320 That came out of subscriber comments, the surveys Bill Quinn was talking about. 500 00:39:39,320 --> 00:39:41,320 All of these things came out of surveys. 501 00:39:41,320 --> 00:39:45,320 We know, unfortunately, a lot of things just can't happen overnight, 502 00:39:45,320 --> 00:39:49,320 but we're constantly growing and we're constantly changing, and we do listen. 503 00:40:05,320 --> 00:40:08,320 I just had a quick question and a comment. 504 00:40:08,320 --> 00:40:14,320 On Cablevision, it's the only cable company where they'll take the weather channel 505 00:40:14,320 --> 00:40:17,320 and cut it off at 5 o'clock at night. 506 00:40:17,320 --> 00:40:21,320 I've watched about five or six other cable companies around the country, 507 00:40:21,320 --> 00:40:24,320 and they cut off the weather channel to put on a sports channel, 508 00:40:24,320 --> 00:40:27,320 when they could, I guess, easily put it on a different channel. 509 00:40:27,320 --> 00:40:30,320 But I'm wondering, is this because if they had it on another channel, 510 00:40:30,320 --> 00:40:34,320 they'd exceed their limit and they'd have to provide a public access channel? 511 00:40:34,320 --> 00:40:37,320 Okay, listen to the answer on the radio. Thanks for calling. 512 00:40:38,320 --> 00:40:40,320 A very good question, actually. 513 00:40:40,320 --> 00:40:46,320 One of the reasons for expanding channels, I mean, we talked about this change thing. 514 00:40:46,320 --> 00:40:52,320 As we had, I believe it's the number Mr. Quinn said it was 38 channels. 515 00:40:52,320 --> 00:41:06,320 As we had 38 channels and at some point, 516 00:41:06,320 --> 00:41:14,320 one of the options we had before we increased the channel capacity of the system from, say, 38 to 52, 517 00:41:14,320 --> 00:41:17,320 was to share the channels. 518 00:41:17,320 --> 00:41:23,320 It made a lot of people very happy, and it made a lot of people not so happy. 519 00:41:23,320 --> 00:41:26,320 I mean, cutting off the weather channel at 5 o'clock at night 520 00:41:26,320 --> 00:41:33,320 when there's a hurricane approaching to be topical is sort of a hard decision to have to make. 521 00:41:33,320 --> 00:41:37,320 On the other hand, there's people sitting out there waiting to watch the sports program 522 00:41:37,320 --> 00:41:41,320 that's supposed to come up, so not cutting off the weather channel is interesting. 523 00:41:41,320 --> 00:41:44,320 One of the reasons for pushing this channel expansion, 524 00:41:44,320 --> 00:41:51,320 and in fact in the completed portion of the Huntington system where the 52 channels are offered, 525 00:41:51,320 --> 00:41:58,320 the weather channel is on 24 hours a day and not cut off for sports or for anything else. 526 00:41:58,320 --> 00:42:05,320 As far as whether we'd exceed any limit and all of a sudden trigger into an access channel requirement, 527 00:42:05,320 --> 00:42:11,320 I don't believe that ever has or had anything to do with how many channels we run on our system. 528 00:42:11,320 --> 00:42:14,320 Okay, let's take another call. Good evening. 529 00:42:14,320 --> 00:42:16,320 Is this WBAI? 530 00:42:16,320 --> 00:42:17,320 Yes, you're on the air. 531 00:42:17,320 --> 00:42:21,320 My question is, I remember a few years back when you had phones, you had separate phones, 532 00:42:21,320 --> 00:42:24,320 you had to pay a separate bill for each additional hookup. 533 00:42:24,320 --> 00:42:28,320 Why did the cable companies just give you one flat fee? 534 00:42:28,320 --> 00:42:31,320 Because nowadays I can have five phones hooked up to my house, 535 00:42:31,320 --> 00:42:34,320 and I just pay one monthly bill and that's it. 536 00:42:34,320 --> 00:42:36,320 Okay, good question. 537 00:42:36,320 --> 00:42:41,320 Do you think the day will come when cable TV goes the way of the phone company 538 00:42:41,320 --> 00:42:45,320 as far as charging one fee for a hookup? 539 00:42:45,320 --> 00:42:47,320 It's very hard to say. 540 00:42:47,320 --> 00:42:53,320 There's been in the entire industry, and you were right before when you painted it, 541 00:42:53,320 --> 00:42:56,320 that there's lots of different cable systems in the industry. 542 00:42:56,320 --> 00:42:59,320 There have been discussions about that. 543 00:42:59,320 --> 00:43:04,320 What I find kind of ironic about that, especially in tonight's discussion, 544 00:43:04,320 --> 00:43:09,320 is yes, the phone company, after quite some time actually, 545 00:43:09,320 --> 00:43:16,320 allowed you to hook up as many extension phones as you want. 546 00:43:16,320 --> 00:43:19,320 You have to remember, too, that they bill completely differently. 547 00:43:19,320 --> 00:43:22,320 Yes, they send you one monthly bill a month, 548 00:43:22,320 --> 00:43:26,320 and I don't know exactly what the billing structure is, 549 00:43:26,320 --> 00:43:29,320 but the bill runs, say, at least somewhere around $15 550 00:43:29,320 --> 00:43:34,320 for the privilege of having a phone in your house that's without using it to do anything. 551 00:43:34,320 --> 00:43:39,320 Every other usage you make after that is, yes, it was your choice, 552 00:43:39,320 --> 00:43:44,320 but you're billed for every single minute in one way, shape, or form that you use the phone. 553 00:43:44,320 --> 00:43:49,320 If you make long-distance calls, you're billed at a different rate for it. 554 00:43:49,320 --> 00:43:55,320 Now implicit in that is their ability to know what type of call you're making 555 00:43:55,320 --> 00:43:59,320 and what time of night or day you're making it and what number you're dialing. 556 00:43:59,320 --> 00:44:04,320 Otherwise, they can't tell between a local call and a long-distance call. 557 00:44:04,320 --> 00:44:10,320 But what started our conversation tonight is cable right now, like the gentleman said, 558 00:44:10,320 --> 00:44:18,320 bills for whatever services you take, not necessarily which ones you use, watch or anything else. 559 00:44:19,320 --> 00:44:25,320 If we were to look at a structure that was very phone company-like, 560 00:44:25,320 --> 00:44:32,320 it looks like now with what's available and what all the rules that we have to deal with, 561 00:44:32,320 --> 00:44:36,320 both FCC-wise and some of these other rules we've talked about, 562 00:44:36,320 --> 00:44:40,320 that as you know, all the services are somewhat different. 563 00:44:40,320 --> 00:44:44,320 The weather channel costs a certain amount of money. 564 00:44:44,320 --> 00:44:48,320 Something like ESPN, Madison Square Garden, a sports channel costs something else, 565 00:44:48,320 --> 00:44:57,320 all the way up to where you get to the pay-per-view type programming that costs on a usage base almost. 566 00:44:57,320 --> 00:45:05,320 You would then have to know at any moment what any subscriber was watching, was looking at, 567 00:45:05,320 --> 00:45:10,320 and how long they stayed on it because that's the structure of the billing of the phone company now. 568 00:45:10,320 --> 00:45:13,320 I don't know if that's something that everybody wants. 569 00:45:13,320 --> 00:45:20,320 I mean, that's part of one of the things we're talking about tonight is some kind of privacy, what we want. 570 00:45:20,320 --> 00:45:23,320 And right now there are no plans to go that way, 571 00:45:23,320 --> 00:45:29,320 but that certainly is one of the ramifications to going that way where you're on a usage-based 572 00:45:29,320 --> 00:45:33,320 and a service-based type of billing structure. 573 00:45:33,320 --> 00:45:35,320 You, by definition, have to know what everyone's doing. 574 00:45:35,320 --> 00:45:38,320 Otherwise, there's no mechanism to bill them. 575 00:45:38,320 --> 00:45:43,320 One of the people in the studio is curious, and I know this is not your particular area, 576 00:45:43,320 --> 00:45:49,320 but maybe you could theorize a bit as to why Brooklyn and Queens, after all this time, 577 00:45:49,320 --> 00:45:52,320 still don't have a cable system in place. 578 00:45:52,320 --> 00:45:55,320 Brooklyn and Queens don't have a cable system in place? 579 00:45:55,320 --> 00:45:57,320 Actually, I know that's not true. 580 00:45:57,320 --> 00:46:00,320 There are some places in Brooklyn and Queens that do have some cable. 581 00:46:00,320 --> 00:46:02,320 The places that we're putting systems is in Brooklyn. 582 00:46:02,320 --> 00:46:04,320 You're putting systems in now? 583 00:46:04,320 --> 00:46:05,320 Oh, sure. 584 00:46:05,320 --> 00:46:06,320 How come it took so long? 585 00:46:07,320 --> 00:46:11,320 Because I know Manhattan has had cable for, I think, since the 60s. 586 00:46:18,320 --> 00:46:20,320 Okay. Let's take another phone call. 587 00:46:20,320 --> 00:46:23,320 212-279-3400. 588 00:46:23,320 --> 00:46:24,320 Good evening. 589 00:46:32,320 --> 00:46:33,320 Okay, enough of that. 590 00:46:33,320 --> 00:46:34,320 Good evening. 591 00:46:36,320 --> 00:46:37,320 Hello? Is anyone there? 592 00:46:37,320 --> 00:46:39,320 Okay. That line is dead. 593 00:46:39,320 --> 00:46:40,320 Good evening. 594 00:46:40,320 --> 00:46:41,320 Hello. 595 00:46:41,320 --> 00:46:42,320 Yeah, go ahead. 596 00:46:42,320 --> 00:46:44,320 Andy Willis. I enjoy your show. 597 00:46:44,320 --> 00:46:46,320 I'm glad it's not every week now. 598 00:46:46,320 --> 00:46:47,320 Thanks. 599 00:46:47,320 --> 00:46:48,320 Let's see. 600 00:46:48,320 --> 00:46:51,320 I was wondering about radio cable. 601 00:46:51,320 --> 00:46:53,320 Is there a radio cable? 602 00:46:53,320 --> 00:46:59,320 I've heard people hooking up into regular TV cable and getting FM signals. 603 00:46:59,320 --> 00:47:01,320 Do you provide that service? 604 00:47:02,320 --> 00:47:05,320 In some of our systems we do. 605 00:47:05,320 --> 00:47:08,320 In others of our systems we do not. 606 00:47:11,320 --> 00:47:13,320 Yes and no. 607 00:47:13,320 --> 00:47:19,320 Not in the Long Island system that I know of, but in some of the other systems we do. 608 00:47:19,320 --> 00:47:20,320 Does that answer your question? 609 00:47:20,320 --> 00:47:25,320 Yeah. Well, I've heard of people just somehow hooking up their FM receivers to the cable 610 00:47:25,320 --> 00:47:28,320 and getting radio for free. 611 00:47:28,320 --> 00:47:30,320 It's like always on the cable line itself. 612 00:47:30,320 --> 00:47:32,320 Radio for free? But radio is free. 613 00:47:32,320 --> 00:47:34,320 Well, I mean on cable though. 614 00:47:34,320 --> 00:47:37,320 How is it different on cable than it is over the air? 615 00:47:37,320 --> 00:47:39,320 Probably maybe a better signal. 616 00:47:39,320 --> 00:47:41,320 I suppose. 617 00:47:41,320 --> 00:47:46,320 Although, you know, everybody that complains about radio and folks trying to listen to BAI should take note. 618 00:47:46,320 --> 00:47:51,320 You go to Radio Shack, you get one of these little T antenna things that you stick on your wall. 619 00:47:51,320 --> 00:47:55,320 It costs like about $1.98 and you get beautiful reception. 620 00:47:56,320 --> 00:47:57,320 Far, far away. 621 00:47:57,320 --> 00:48:02,320 So I don't think you need to go to all this trouble just to get radio reception. 622 00:48:02,320 --> 00:48:03,320 Okay. All right. Thank you. 623 00:48:03,320 --> 00:48:06,320 Okay. That's just my opinion on that. 624 00:48:06,320 --> 00:48:09,320 212-279-3400. Good evening. 625 00:48:09,320 --> 00:48:10,320 Yeah. Hi. 626 00:48:10,320 --> 00:48:13,320 Here in Queens we have pay-per-view. 627 00:48:13,320 --> 00:48:17,320 And a person can program it right into his cable box. 628 00:48:17,320 --> 00:48:24,320 I believe that the way they bill people for it is that from the office they send a signal to the box 629 00:48:24,320 --> 00:48:30,320 and to each individual box and it actually tells them what you had been watching. 630 00:48:30,320 --> 00:48:35,320 Now I think the gentleman from the cable company was talking around the issue quite a lot, 631 00:48:35,320 --> 00:48:42,320 but could he just categorically flat out state that there's nobody at his company under any circumstances 632 00:48:42,320 --> 00:48:47,320 who can see, who can tell what a person had been watching? 633 00:48:47,320 --> 00:48:49,320 A specific individual person? 634 00:48:49,320 --> 00:48:50,320 Yes. That's right. 635 00:48:51,320 --> 00:48:55,320 Because, I mean, I think that's how they bill people in Queens for the pay-per-view, 636 00:48:55,320 --> 00:48:58,320 by sending a signal to see what they had been watching. 637 00:48:58,320 --> 00:48:59,320 Okay. 638 00:48:59,320 --> 00:49:02,320 I didn't talk around that one at all. 639 00:49:02,320 --> 00:49:05,320 And if I sounded like it, I apologize for doing that. 640 00:49:05,320 --> 00:49:12,320 I believe I did mention specifically that one of the mechanisms that brought this ability to find out 641 00:49:12,320 --> 00:49:19,320 what the box had looked at was the ability to collect for a pay-per-view purchase 642 00:49:19,320 --> 00:49:25,320 that someone was able to do with a box that allowed them not have to get up and call on the telephone, 643 00:49:25,320 --> 00:49:27,320 not have to talk to anybody, just order the movie. 644 00:49:27,320 --> 00:49:29,320 So, yes. 645 00:49:29,320 --> 00:49:33,320 And if there was only one subscriber, and this is why it might have sounded like talking around, 646 00:49:33,320 --> 00:49:38,320 if only one person bought that movie and the computer went out 647 00:49:38,320 --> 00:49:46,320 and polled the universe of boxes for anybody that had bought pay-per-view to let it know, 648 00:49:46,320 --> 00:49:50,320 then, yes, in that circumstance, you would talk to one box. 649 00:49:50,320 --> 00:49:52,320 The intent is not to go out and poll one box. 650 00:49:52,320 --> 00:49:58,320 You're polling, like in the Queens scenario and in the Huntington scenario with pay-per-view, 651 00:49:58,320 --> 00:50:00,320 anybody that purchased pay-per-view. 652 00:50:00,320 --> 00:50:05,320 If only one person answers, then, yes, in that circumstance, you'd be talking to one person. 653 00:50:05,320 --> 00:50:08,320 And, therefore, you can tell what a person had been watching. 654 00:50:08,320 --> 00:50:10,320 Well, you do not. 655 00:50:10,320 --> 00:50:14,320 And what I said, we do not have the capability to do is just go and say, 656 00:50:14,320 --> 00:50:19,320 let's take your box, sir, and just call your box and say, what have you got? 657 00:50:19,320 --> 00:50:20,320 I mean, I understand that. 658 00:50:20,320 --> 00:50:23,320 Well, how do they bill an individual? 659 00:50:23,320 --> 00:50:26,320 How would they bill an individual then? 660 00:50:27,320 --> 00:50:33,320 You have to take that information back from that poll you do 661 00:50:33,320 --> 00:50:39,320 and sit down and reference it to the subscriber account at some point. 662 00:50:39,320 --> 00:50:40,320 Right. 663 00:50:40,320 --> 00:50:42,320 So then that means they can tell what a person had been watching. 664 00:50:42,320 --> 00:50:44,320 We're talking about two different things, though. 665 00:50:44,320 --> 00:50:51,320 The question I was asking is could we go pick on one converter and ask it, what are you doing? 666 00:50:51,320 --> 00:50:53,320 That's not what we're doing. 667 00:50:53,320 --> 00:50:55,320 We're asking a general question to all converters. 668 00:50:55,320 --> 00:50:59,320 If one box responds, then one box responds. 669 00:50:59,320 --> 00:51:01,320 Well, now, can you say— 670 00:51:01,320 --> 00:51:08,320 There's a big difference, and the question here was what we or any cable company intend or can do. 671 00:51:08,320 --> 00:51:15,320 We are not capable of just selecting your box from the universe and saying, did you do this? 672 00:51:15,320 --> 00:51:19,320 If your box is the only one that responds, then, of course, by definition, 673 00:51:19,320 --> 00:51:22,320 I'll know that you ordered a pay-per-view event. 674 00:51:22,320 --> 00:51:23,320 Okay. 675 00:51:23,320 --> 00:51:24,320 Let's go on to— 676 00:51:24,320 --> 00:51:25,320 I'm sorry. 677 00:51:25,320 --> 00:51:26,320 You have one more question? 678 00:51:26,320 --> 00:51:28,320 Well, they're sending the bill to the one person. 679 00:51:28,320 --> 00:51:30,320 They knew what each individual watched. 680 00:51:30,320 --> 00:51:31,320 It's as simple as that. 681 00:51:31,320 --> 00:51:33,320 That's right, but we don't poll. 682 00:51:33,320 --> 00:51:35,320 We don't go ask. 683 00:51:35,320 --> 00:51:41,320 I think what he's saying is that it's the policy of the company not to look at this information. 684 00:51:41,320 --> 00:51:46,320 They get information as to who to bill, but they don't go out and seek the information. 685 00:51:46,320 --> 00:51:47,320 Is that correct? 686 00:51:47,320 --> 00:51:48,320 Right. 687 00:51:48,320 --> 00:51:49,320 I'll go along with that. 688 00:51:49,320 --> 00:51:53,320 I believe that—well, that may be true. 689 00:51:54,320 --> 00:51:57,320 Thanks for calling. 690 00:51:57,320 --> 00:51:59,320 Did you want to finish what you were saying? 691 00:51:59,320 --> 00:52:01,320 No, I just said that is true. 692 00:52:01,320 --> 00:52:04,320 I mean, we don't go out to ask any individual box. 693 00:52:04,320 --> 00:52:07,320 And this was the number thing we were going through before. 694 00:52:07,320 --> 00:52:13,320 If there's 10,000 people that buy, we get back 10,000 responses. 695 00:52:13,320 --> 00:52:17,320 If, in fact, there's one, yes, by definition, you'll get one. 696 00:52:17,320 --> 00:52:24,320 The difference is in the question that was asked is can we select or would we select one box and target it. 697 00:52:24,320 --> 00:52:29,320 The answer to that is right now we cannot, and secondarily, we're not interested in doing that. 698 00:52:29,320 --> 00:52:30,320 Right. 699 00:52:30,320 --> 00:52:34,320 Now, I think there's a difference between the two questions you just asked, can we or would we. 700 00:52:34,320 --> 00:52:37,320 And I believe you when you say we would not, but— 701 00:52:37,320 --> 00:52:40,320 And I also said right now we cannot. 702 00:52:40,320 --> 00:52:45,320 Okay, but I find it hard to believe that it's not possible to alter the software. 703 00:52:45,320 --> 00:52:47,320 I mean, I'm not saying that you will do this. 704 00:52:47,320 --> 00:52:49,320 There's all kinds of things. 705 00:52:49,320 --> 00:52:59,320 You know, when we start delving into the realm of possibilities and what it's conceivable for anybody to do, of course, anything is possible in any business. 706 00:52:59,320 --> 00:53:02,320 I mean, we do control our business and we do not. 707 00:53:02,320 --> 00:53:08,320 You know, there's been, like I went back to the simplest thing without even dealing with technology, 708 00:53:09,320 --> 00:53:17,320 when a subscriber calls up for GetPayPerView, when you call up and tell me you want to subscribe to cable and you want HBO, 709 00:53:17,320 --> 00:53:24,320 Showtime, or whatever list of services you want, I've had that information for a hell of a lot of years. 710 00:53:24,320 --> 00:53:33,320 And I guess if we're going to include can, would, should, we've had requests, we've had people talk to us, 711 00:53:33,320 --> 00:53:39,320 we've had lots of questions about selling our subscriber list, and we do not. 712 00:53:39,320 --> 00:53:46,320 There's no reason that because we've got a capability now, A, to make it easier for people to order PayPerView, 713 00:53:46,320 --> 00:53:52,320 they don't have to get up and call on the phone, that we're going to change a policy that we've had for 20, 30 years now in the industry. 714 00:53:52,320 --> 00:53:54,320 We don't sell our list. 715 00:53:54,320 --> 00:53:55,320 Right, and I— 716 00:53:55,320 --> 00:53:59,320 That's the problem with getting into can and woulds and what are the probabilities that someone— 717 00:53:59,320 --> 00:54:06,320 What I'm trying to establish here, now, I believe that you will not sell your list to anybody or even let anybody look at your list, 718 00:54:06,320 --> 00:54:13,320 but we both know that it is possible for such a list, whether it be from your company or from any other company, to be looked at by other people. 719 00:54:13,320 --> 00:54:19,320 What I'm trying to determine here is, is it possible, you know, for some evil company somewhere that's doing this, 720 00:54:19,320 --> 00:54:26,320 say in, you know, Alaska or something, for them to allow the system to be abused like that? 721 00:54:26,320 --> 00:54:30,320 I'd love to be able to answer that, but I don't know how to answer a hypothetical like that. 722 00:54:30,320 --> 00:54:36,320 You know, what some company might do in Alaska, given the right opportunity and the right box, who knows? 723 00:54:56,320 --> 00:55:02,320 As to what people have watched, specifically what films they've watched, I went into a video store the other day, 724 00:55:02,320 --> 00:55:06,320 and I gave the name that I use to get videos. 725 00:55:06,320 --> 00:55:10,320 I always try to use a different name just to keep them on their toes. 726 00:55:10,320 --> 00:55:16,320 And the printout printed out the film that I took out last time that I had taken a film out, which was about a month ago. 727 00:55:16,320 --> 00:55:19,320 And so I realized, to my horror, they keep records. 728 00:55:19,320 --> 00:55:23,320 Maybe they don't do anything with the records, but they do keep records as to what it is you're taking out. 729 00:55:23,320 --> 00:55:26,320 Not that there's anything wrong with my viewing habits, of course. 730 00:55:26,320 --> 00:55:30,320 212-279-3400, you're on the air. 731 00:55:30,320 --> 00:55:31,320 Hello? 732 00:55:31,320 --> 00:55:32,320 Go ahead. 733 00:55:32,320 --> 00:55:34,320 Hold on a second. Let me turn down the radio. 734 00:55:34,320 --> 00:55:37,320 Okay, and speak up, too, when you get back. 735 00:55:37,320 --> 00:55:39,320 I'd like to know about these antennas. 736 00:55:39,320 --> 00:55:42,320 They're supposed to steal those signals. 737 00:55:42,320 --> 00:55:44,320 They advertise them in these magazines. 738 00:55:44,320 --> 00:55:48,320 I think what you're trying to ask is antennas that allow you to steal the signals, is that it? 739 00:55:48,320 --> 00:55:49,320 That's right. 740 00:55:49,320 --> 00:55:52,320 I'd like to know about them, because are they a fraud or what? 741 00:55:53,320 --> 00:55:59,320 Well, if they go around saying that they're to steal the signal, I would bet that they are a fraud. 742 00:55:59,320 --> 00:56:01,320 Is that the word they use or the word you use? 743 00:56:01,320 --> 00:56:11,320 They say that the HBO signals and all the other signals are right in the air, and all they do is just pull them in or something like that. 744 00:56:11,320 --> 00:56:13,320 Okay, I'll let our expert try to answer that. 745 00:56:13,320 --> 00:56:15,320 Thanks for calling. 746 00:56:15,320 --> 00:56:18,320 Tough one to answer without seeing the actual ad. 747 00:56:18,320 --> 00:56:20,320 I've seen a number of them, obviously. 748 00:56:20,320 --> 00:56:25,320 There are legitimate services, though, that allow you to receive things if your area, say, doesn't have cable, correct? 749 00:56:25,320 --> 00:56:36,320 There's satellites that transmit a lot of similar programming to us on cable, and there's, I believe, in New York City and a number of other cities, 750 00:56:36,320 --> 00:56:44,320 there's services known as MDS services that require a small antenna to be able to receive their services. 751 00:56:44,320 --> 00:56:51,320 A lot of these ads, and I won't say they're all wrong, but a number of them are, 752 00:56:51,320 --> 00:56:57,320 a lot of these ads talk about selling you the antenna to receive the service. 753 00:56:57,320 --> 00:57:02,320 You'll get the antenna, and in some cases, you'll receive the service. 754 00:57:02,320 --> 00:57:07,320 Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on which side of the fence you happen to be sitting on, 755 00:57:08,320 --> 00:57:15,320 protect their signals or encode their signals or scramble their signals, much for the same reasons we do. 756 00:57:15,320 --> 00:57:23,320 And so without the unit from the company to be able to decode, de-scramble those signals, 757 00:57:23,320 --> 00:57:26,320 yes, you'll buy an antenna that'll receive the services. 758 00:57:26,320 --> 00:57:30,320 So if you're after the scrambled signal of HBO, then this is just what you want? 759 00:57:30,320 --> 00:57:34,320 If you wanted to watch the scrambled signal of HBO, then I guess you could. 760 00:57:35,320 --> 00:57:38,320 Okay, let's try to fit in a couple more phone calls real quick now. 761 00:57:38,320 --> 00:57:40,320 Good evening, you're on the air. 762 00:57:40,320 --> 00:57:42,320 Yes, it's a very, very good show. 763 00:57:42,320 --> 00:57:44,320 I have two questions. 764 00:57:44,320 --> 00:57:47,320 One is very quick about what topic you were discussing before. 765 00:57:47,320 --> 00:57:55,320 Is there any legal basis for a cable company to actually tell a homeowner what to do with a cable once it enters this home? 766 00:57:55,320 --> 00:57:59,320 And the second question is a little more elaborate. 767 00:57:59,320 --> 00:58:06,320 I happen to know of, there are de-scramblers, black market de-scramblers that will de-scramble every single 768 00:58:06,320 --> 00:58:09,320 and give you pay-per-view 24 hours a day. 769 00:58:09,320 --> 00:58:11,320 You will not have to call pay-per-view. 770 00:58:11,320 --> 00:58:15,320 It will just appear on your screen. 771 00:58:15,320 --> 00:58:20,320 Is there any way for the cable company to detect these type of boxes? 772 00:58:20,320 --> 00:58:21,320 I'll hang up and listen. 773 00:58:21,320 --> 00:58:23,320 Okay, thanks for calling. 774 00:58:23,320 --> 00:58:26,320 Let's do the complicated one first. 775 00:58:26,320 --> 00:58:29,320 Okay, we only have about two minutes, so you're going to have to make it fast. 776 00:58:29,320 --> 00:58:38,320 The complicated one is, yeah, I know of black boxes that will defeat everything we do at the present time. 777 00:58:38,320 --> 00:58:39,320 That's correct. 778 00:58:39,320 --> 00:58:41,320 Can we detect that the box is there? 779 00:58:41,320 --> 00:58:42,320 No. 780 00:58:42,320 --> 00:58:44,320 Can we do things to make the box no longer effective? 781 00:58:44,320 --> 00:58:45,320 Yes. 782 00:58:45,320 --> 00:58:48,320 The first question you might want to repeat for me. 783 00:58:48,320 --> 00:58:50,320 Oh, the wire inside the house? 784 00:58:50,320 --> 00:58:53,320 Right, what legally can the cable company do? 785 00:58:53,320 --> 00:58:59,320 One of the more compelling things, I mean, we've spent some time talking about what rules may govern us, 786 00:58:59,320 --> 00:59:03,320 is that FCC rule that we went through at some length before. 787 00:59:03,320 --> 00:59:10,320 I am absolutely mandated not to leak signals out into the airwaves, 788 00:59:10,320 --> 00:59:16,320 and I am absolutely also mandated to take whatever step I need to stop that. 789 00:59:16,320 --> 00:59:18,320 Now, I cannot go into the house. 790 00:59:18,320 --> 00:59:22,320 If I'm not allowed access into the house, you know, we're not a government agency. 791 00:59:22,320 --> 00:59:25,320 We are not allowed in the house. 792 00:59:25,320 --> 00:59:28,320 But our solution to that is to disconnect service to that house, 793 00:59:28,320 --> 00:59:34,320 and we have to, under law by the FCC, disconnect service to that house so we can get access. 794 00:59:34,320 --> 00:59:37,320 And if I understand your statement correctly, 795 00:59:37,320 --> 00:59:40,320 you're saying that by splitting the signal within the house, 796 00:59:40,320 --> 00:59:46,320 the homeowner would be contributing to leakage of the signal, which is something that you want to stop. 797 00:59:46,320 --> 00:59:47,320 That could happen. 798 00:59:47,320 --> 00:59:48,320 Okay. 799 00:59:48,320 --> 00:59:51,320 If it were possible, and this is just a hypothetical question, 800 00:59:51,320 --> 00:59:55,320 if it were possible to split the signal without leaking the signal at all, 801 00:59:55,320 --> 00:59:58,320 would the cable company not worry anymore? 802 00:59:58,320 --> 01:00:00,320 No, I think we'd still worry. 803 01:00:00,320 --> 01:00:01,320 Okay. 804 01:00:01,320 --> 01:00:02,320 All right. 805 01:00:02,320 --> 01:00:05,320 We've been speaking to Vice President for Engineering of Cablevision, 806 01:00:05,320 --> 01:00:07,320 Wilt Hildebrandt, 807 01:00:07,320 --> 01:00:12,320 and we want to thank you very much for taking time to speak to us about these various cable issues. 808 01:00:12,320 --> 01:00:19,320 And hopefully we'll be hearing more about what Cablevision is up to in the next few months. 809 01:00:19,320 --> 01:00:20,320 Thank you. 810 01:00:20,320 --> 01:00:21,320 I enjoyed it. 811 01:00:21,320 --> 01:00:22,320 Okay. 812 01:00:22,320 --> 01:00:23,320 And the program is off the hook. 813 01:00:23,320 --> 01:00:25,320 We are off the air now for another week. 814 01:00:25,320 --> 01:00:27,320 Stay tuned for the Personal Computer Show. 815 01:00:27,320 --> 01:00:30,320 Emanuel Goldstein, have yourselves a nice night. 816 01:00:30,320 --> 01:00:31,320 Good night. 817 01:00:31,320 --> 01:01:01,320 Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, 818 01:01:01,320 --> 01:01:31,320 beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep 819 01:01:31,320 --> 01:02:01,320 beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep 820 01:02:01,320 --> 01:02:05,320 A brief message and then we'll get to a personal computer show. 821 01:02:05,320 --> 01:02:16,120 ♪♪ 822 01:02:16,120 --> 01:02:21,220 The night time blares down Broadway and the street gathers it up like a passion 823 01:02:21,220 --> 01:02:30,320 and threaded against the dark, the million fragments, neon and roar and melting shapes and shock and clots of crowd. 824 01:02:30,320 --> 01:02:36,320 The fury that sweeps you up and holds you close and throws you into the gutter of your choice.