In a city where the most exciting Friday night activity is watching a dust cloud swallow a Taco Villa, Lubbockites are now being deprived of the one thing that keeps them tethered to reality: local news. It’s been over a month since DISH Network yanked KCBD and its sister stations off the air, leaving satellite subscribers in a dark, news-less void. Gray Media, the corporate overlords of KCBD, are currently clutching their pearls and claiming they were “generous” enough to give DISH extensions for the Super Bowl and the Olympics before the satellite giant turned into a pumpkin.
Of course, DISH Network isn’t exactly playing the silent victim. Their side of the story is the classic corporate “it’s not us, it’s them” defense. DISH claims Gray Media is demanding “unreasonable” price hikes—rumored to be double-digit increases—that would force DISH to jack up your monthly bill even higher than it already is. DISH is essentially painting Gray as a greedy highwayman holding your local weather report for ransom, while Gray paints DISH as a serial channel-killer with a history of pulling the plug on over 1,000 stations.
So, while Gray Media CEO Hilton Howell complains about “outrageous terms” and DISH issues press releases about “protecting consumers,” the residents of the Hub City are stuck in the middle. We’re being forced to choose between two multi-billion dollar conglomerates arguing over who gets a larger slice of our paycheck. Gray wants us to “demand” DISH bring them back, which is a lot like a kidnapper asking you to tell your family to pay the ransom faster.
It’s a match made in corporate heaven: a broadcaster that thinks its 6:00 p.m. fluff pieces are worth a king’s ransom, and a satellite provider that would probably charge you for the oxygen in your living room if they could figure out the logistics. Meanwhile, if you want to know if a haboob is about to ruin your car’s paint job, you’re stuck looking out the window like a peasant from the 1800s.
But hey, maybe this is a blessing in disguise—if we can’t watch the local news, does the crime rate in Lubbock even actually exist, or is everyone just behaving themselves for once?
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