Steelers' fan wants more TV

Like most Pittsburgh Steelers fans in Mahoning County, David Mullane of Boardman gets frustrated when his favorite NFL team plays at the same time as the Cleveland Browns.
That's because the local CBS affiliate, WKBN-TV 27, is a Browns station, and with good reason. Not even the most diehard Black-and-Gold backer would argue that Browns fans in Mahoning County outnumber Steelers supporters by at least a 2-to-1 margin.
But what ticks off Mullane is that his cable company, Armstrong, doesn't pick up Pittsburgh's CBS affiliate, KDKA-TV 2, when Channel 27 is showing alternate programming.
With Armstrong offering more than 100 channels to digital subscribers, Mullane wonders why KDKA can't be one them.
"We are always stuck with the Browns game because we only have the local CBS affiliate," Mullane said of Mahoning cable subscribers. "This to me is ridiculous, especially those of us that have digital cable.
"Time Warner [in Akron] offers a local affiliate as well as a Cleveland-based affiliate," Mullane said. "Youngstown, midway between Cleveland and Pittsburgh, should have both."
"There are people that work in Pittsburgh, travel to the Pittsburgh airport, and have children that are in college in Pittsburgh," Mullane said. "Having a Pittsburgh affiliate seems like a natural choice, even without factoring in the thousands of Steelers fans in the [Mahoning] Valley."
Good points raisedby subscriber
Mullane raises good points; unfortunately, the rules created by the Federal Communications Commission supersede the Steelers' first Super Bowl championship.
Paul Wachtel, Armstrong general manager for Mahoning County, says there's a good reason for the absence of Cleveland and Pittsburgh network affiliates.
Wachtel says FCC rules established in the early '70s limit cable companies to two over-the-air signals that aren't local stations the cable companies are required to carry.
If a cable company goes over that two signal limit, the cost is extremely steep -- 3.7 percent of the company's gross income.
"Cable companies are limited to the out-of-town channels they can bring in due to FCC rules in order to protect the smaller market stations in their home county," Wachtel said.
"If we were to show even 10 minutes [of a third station], we'd have to pay for six months," Wachtel said.
Armstrong, which services Austintown, Boardman, Canfield and Poland, carries Cleveland's WUAB-TV 43 and Akron's WBNX-TV 55 (WB) as its out-of-town over-the-air channels.
As a result, there are four Steelers games that CBS has the rights to that Armstrong can't show during this year's 16-game season because the Browns play at the same time.
The first was the Sept. 12 Raiders-Steelers opener. The other dates are Nov. 21 at Cincinnati, Dec. 12 at home against the Jets and Jan. 2 against the Bills in Buffalo.
There would have been a fifth game but CBS and ESPN worked out a deal on Sunday that permitted Channel 27 to pick up the Steelers/Dolphins game in Miami.
When the NFL first considered moving the Steelers/Dolphins game to another kickoff time because of the threat of Hurricane Jeanne, Channel 27 officials were told they still couldn't carry the game.
Stations, leaguereached an agreement
But on Sunday when the NFL pushed back the kickoff to 8:30 p.m., Channel 27 officials were told that ESPN and CBS had reached an agreement that allowed 27 to show the game and tape-delay CBS' prime-time lineup.
On behalf of Steelers fans, thanks to the Channel 27 staff for showing the game even though they were at risk of hearing complaints from non-NFL fans. Those pictures of the Steelers and Dolphins wallowing in the mud and pouring rain in the second quarter were priceless.
Because of occasional ESPN and FOX coverage, open weeks and starting time differences, the Steelers' other remaining games will be shown to Armstrong subscribers. Sunday, the Bengals/Steelers game at 1 p.m. will be on Channel 27 while the Redskins/Browns game will be carried by FOX WYFX Channel 17/62.
XTom Williams is a sportswriter for The Vindicator. Write to him at williams@vindy.com.