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Cable operator to stay
hooked up
by Bret Bradigan
Adelphia Communications Corp., the sixth largest cable operator
in the nation, and the only operator in Ojai, filed for Chapter
11 bankruptcy protection last week.
The filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District
of New York on June 25 "will enable us to fully evaluate
our enterprise without the immediate pressure to sell valuable
assets that may well benefit the company in the future,"
said Adelphia's interim chief executive, Erland E. Kailbourne,
in a press release Monday.
The company has defaulted on $7 billion in debt, and has seen
its share price on NASDAQ drop from a high of $42.97 a share
in June 2001 to $1.16 a share before the stock was delisted this
June, when Adelphia failed to make deadlines on its corporate
filings.
The company, based in Coudersport, Pa., has been under fire for
several months, since it was revealed that it guaranteed $3.1
billion in loans to founder and former CEO Leonard Rigas and
his family. Among the family projects financed without shareholder
consent was a private golf course.
Adelphia Communications, which has owned the Ojai cable system
for about two years, has 6 million subscribers nationwide.
There are no plans to sell off any local systems, said Kailbourne
in a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times.
Adelphia's public service broadcast on Channel 8 will continue
for the time being, said Carole McCartney, production coordinator
for public access. At present, Channel 8 broadcasts a range of
local programming, including city council meetings and this year's
Fourth of July parade. Public access currently runs on Mondays,
Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
"Channel 8 continues to offer workshops in TV production,
presents programs produced by residents, will air the Fourth
of July parade, provides a bulletin board with messages for residents
of the valley, airs public meetings - is, in general, conducting
business as usual," she said.
McCartney felt confident that Ojai's strong interest in public
access will work to assure Channel 8's survival. "Historically,
the cable company has known ups and downs, and different owners.
The people behind the scenes remain the same, and we are working
as hard as ever to provide good service to the customers, and
to improve Channel 8."
According to Associated Press reports, bankruptcy attorney Ivan
Kallick, with the firm of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips in Los
Angeles, said that subscribers will notice little change for
some time.
"At the 60- to 90-day mark we will get a better sense of
whether they become a downsized operation that continues on,
or sell off their assets and merely become a liquidating trust
for their creditors," Kallick said.
© 2002 The Ojai Valley News
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