Maybe it's just a York County thing, I don't know. But people from this community take it personally any time something they've been getting free for 40 years is suddenly taken away.
Or maybe it's just that newspaper people in this town have short memories.
I chuckle at the very thought of it.
Because my memory is longer than most. This is not the first time the newspapers in this town -- The York Sunday News/York Dispatch under new ownership right after the merger in 1988 -- decided to eliminate the TV guide.
And it was a deadly disaster then, too.
A few of us worked for that newspaper 21 years ago, but because we were "locals," our newspaper instincts didn't carry much weight with the new management team. Since we hadn't worked in New York or Chicago or San Francisco or Denver, we couldn't possibly know anything about the newspaper business.
But as it turned out, we knew one thing they didn't know -- York County and the people who live here.
A different breed? Perhaps we are.
But don't take us for stupid. And don't even try to tell us you know better than we do what's important to us and what's not, what we want or what we need. Not when we're paying the bill.
So when a company charges X amount of dollars a week for a newspaper that includes a weekly TV guide, then it kills the TV guide without reducing
Worse, since the primary cable TV provider in York County -- Comcast -- doesn't feel a need to provide a 24-hour viewing schedule on one of its gazillion primary channels, either, it means Yorkers have no idea what's on TV from one minute to the next.
In my case, it means even more channel surfing than usual. And more complaining about it, of course.
But I'm a mild-mannered guy compared to a lot of York countians. You take away a free TV guide in this market and they're going to scream bloody murder.
I'm not joking. Ask Dean Singleton, the owner of Media News Group, about this, and I guarantee you he hasn't forgotten his early attempts to cancel the TV guide and The York Dispatch calendar as cost-cutting measures in his first year in the York market.
That's what happened in 1988, when, against the advice of the "locals" on staff, the new management team decided to save a bundle of money by no longer providing a TV guide that had been offered to readers for decades.
Before the last newspaper was delivered that Sunday morning, the phones started ringing. And they didn't stop ringing, day and night, for six months or more. York countians raising hell. York countians canceling their subscriptions, some held for 40 years.
Thousands upon thousands of subscribers were lost. You don't kill their TV guide and get away with it. And make no mistake about it, it was "their" TV guide.
Eventually management got the message, and they started publishing a TV guide again. But it was a painful time. Some readers returned to the fold. Some didn't. A subscriber scorned and all that.
Then, a few weeks ago, it happened again. Newspaper management -- but not at The York Dispatch -- once again decided to eliminate the weekly TV guide provided to Sunday readers.
As I understand it, the phones started ringing again in the offices of our cross-town competition. Lots of ringing. Lots of angry readers and threats of canceled subscriptions.
It wasn't even our doing here at The York Dispatch, but our phones started ringing, too. What to do? What to do? Well, I'm pleased to advise York Dispatch readers of our response to their TV viewing angst.
As you already know, The York Dispatch has for years provided a daily TV log that listed shows on about 60 different channels available to York County TV watchers -- starting at 7 p.m. and going to 11 p.m. It isn't the whole shebang, but at least it contains basic viewing information for folks who watch TV at night.
But The York Dispatch figured it had to do better for its readers, so it's going to expand on its TV offerings -- hopefully as early as next week. The night TV listing, for example, will start at 6 p.m. and run until midnight -- an hour earlier and an hour later than present listings. And it's going to add the afternoon listings -- 12:30 p.m. through 5 p.m. -- for the next day, since delivery of our product might be mid-afternoon or later in some areas.
So, as an example, the Tuesday York Dispatch will have Tuesday night TV listings and, on the same page, Wednesday afternoon TV listings, as well. Our Friday paper will have Friday night and Saturday afternoon listings.
Hey, we're trying. We think (and hope) it's something our readers will appreciate ... and use.
And it's free.
In these times, that counts for something. At least in York County.
Columns by Larry A. Hicks, Dispatch columnist, run Mon days, Wednesdays and Fri days. E-mail: lhicks@yorkdispatch.com.
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