mahzeltoffee you have it right. KWVT & KSLM have talked to Comcast till they are blue in the face. Other local broadcast stations get paid to allow Comcast to add them yes they get paid! KWVT and KSLM-TV have said they will supply it free. KSLM-TV 17.2 is equal or better than Nostalgic channel and Comcast pays for the Nostalgic channel and it is not chicken feed, cost for KSLM-TV and Retro TV NOTHING, Who pays for Nostalgic channel and other local TV cable subscribers pay for this in their bill.

MI-net, Country Cable, parts of Wave broadband among others cable systems all carry both Salem’s only TV stations and even requested to add the channels, more local content at no cost this is a no brainer.

Now these stations currently server 213,000 households that is 4 times the number of Salem Comcast so these stations server the same households as the Eugene market nothing to sneeze at but the problem is when they cover a local Keizer or Salem High School football game 50% of Salem and Keizer cannot see the game (only 50% are on cable).

People have tied contacting Comcast and been told all kinds of things like KWVT & KSLM-TV does not want to be on Comcast - to they are not a broadcast station in the area to – we (Comcast) simply do not know why. The main point is that no matter what, you cannot get to someone in Comcast main office in Beaverton by phone they cannot give out that number. UGG!

What is not suggested is DUMP Comcast like so many now have put up an antenna and get 25 plus channels FREE all digital quality many HD.\

Antenna from D&D sat is only $99 and no MONTHLY cost. With “Clear” coming to Salem you can get higher speed internet as well.

Is Salem's only local TV stations frustrated yes but only customers can make this change by attacking Comcast’s pocketbook I guess since they will not talk to us, I did.

I just received this from Theressa Davis, Comcast's vice president of communications:

As you know, KWVT is a low power station and under the FCC provisions, low power stations are not covered by must-carry rules. We have had friendly discussions with KWVT about carriage on Comcast, including technical requirements needed to deliver the station to our customers. As of now, we will evaluate it alongside other priorities and will continue to have a dialogue with their station management.

We continuously evaluate what our customers are asking for in terms of channel additions to our lineup. We have been working hard at delivering more channels to our customers since we completed our digital upgrade, and recently launched 32 new HD channels and 23 Spanish language channels along with a number of standard definition channels.

why would Comcast give me more channels of stuff I already have (and charge me more for it)... when KWVT carries local shows like high school football and the local home and garden shows. I still don't see the downside for Comcast.

The reason comcast won't put 0n kwvt & kslm is simple. Moneeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Comcast wants to flood the channels you watch on cable with their own commercials. They can't do this with channel 17. According to what I was told by a very blunt comcast employee this is the real reason. It has nothing to do with space availibility or anything else. If 10,000 people all called up those ly*** bast**** at comcast they would all be told the same thing. Your the first person who,s mentioned these channels. It's their standard line.

As a Comcast Customer, I emailed them about this channel a few weeks ago, after I stumbled across it on the web.. Got the same "no answer" as everyone else.. Frist reply from them said basically nothing..so I sent a second email... got much the same reply.. they basically don't want to give a straight answer...

One of the small cable operators recently told us they get more calls about KSLM than any other channel on their system!

Michael Mattson
KWVT / KSLM