Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 5, 1995                   TAG: 9504050069
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: STEPHEN FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

TOWN'S CABLE VIEWERS SHOW STRONG INTEREST IN HISTORY|

Blacksburg Cable TV announced this week that it will add The History Channel to its programming May 1.

The addition of the 24-hour service, which features historical documentaries, movies and miniseries, comes after cable subscribers ranked it as the channel they most wished to have added in a customer preference survey, said Jim Corrin, general manager of the cable company.

Except for a strong second preference for Turner Classic Movies, Corrin said, "everything else was strictly also-ran."

"I can assure you that it will be well-received," he said.

The addition of the channel, which will become a part of the company's expanded basic service and won't cost customers any extra money, also comes after Town Council passed a resolution in February supporting the addition of the channel to cable TV service.

Tom Hunt, a member of the Blacksburg Federation of Neighborhoods, spoke before council at least twice in recent months advising them of residents' hopes to have the channel added. Hunt's support was echoed by communications to the town's telecommunications advisory committee from the social studies departments at Blacksburg's high school and middle school; Virginia Tech's history department, black studies program, YMCA and Women's Research Institute, and the local Phi Delta Kappa chapter, according to the resolution.

"I'm glad to see that they [the cable company] are responsive to the poll," said Councilman Lewis Barnett, who expressed some cynicism at the meetings that the citizens' and town's desire would fall on deaf ears. "The last time they did a poll, there was no response to that."

A new cable franchise agreement signed by the company and the town in February calls for the company to conduct preference surveys at least once every three years, but Corrin said, "I certainly plan on doing [surveys] a heckuva lot more frequently."