Problems still persist between Metrocast and Red Bay

By Staff
Nathan Strickland
Red Bay city leaders met with representatives from the town’s cable television provider Thursday.
An abundance of complaint calls and letters have been flooding city hall since Red Bay’s newest cable provider, Metrocast, hit the airways. Metrocast representatives met with council members to see if the problem could be resolved.
Metrocast’s southern regional manager Rick Ferrall pleaded his case before the council.
Ferrall said the company had been in conversations with Comcast, another major cable provider, to see if they could feed off their signals providing Metrocast customers with Comcast quality channels.
Ferrall said he last spoke with representatives Friday and the deal had fallen through because Comcast made budget cuts due to the slumping economy.
Mayor Bobby Forsythe estimated that 95 percent of Red Bay citizens would like to have Alabama stations and recommended that Metrocast make a deal with Russellville’s cable provider, which is Charter Communications.
Councilman Mike Stockton said the bottom line is that residents need to know Metrocast is commited to the community.
Stockton said there needs to be a commitment and a deadline set by Metrocast in the immediate future. Ferrall apologized for not having a deadline date, but states that Metrocast is committed to fixing all existing problems with their equipment. Ferrall is scheduled to be back to give a deadline and provide details to what needs to be done to fix the problems at the Jan. 18 city council meeting.