PORT TOWNSEND — Like the character in the movie “Network,” they’re mad as hell and they can’t take it anymore.
That’s the response Millennium Digital Media got from subscribers when the company pulled the plug on the Turner Classic Movies channel.
The channel’s movies are hosted by Robert Osborne, the Eastern Washington native who played a vital role in founding the Port Townsend Film Festival.
“People are really incensed,” said Jan Dennler, a Millennium subscriber.
“Everyone is asking, ‘How could they do this to us?”‘
“The day they dropped the channel, my tenant came upstairs and was very upset it was gone,” said Valerie Brewster, another resident.
On May 16, Millennium, which holds the cable TV franchise for Port Townsend, replaced the Turner Classic Movies channel with Tech TV.
Since then, the company’s Bellevue office has received several hundred letters and e-mails in protest from the Puget Sound area, said Mike O’Herron, president of Millennium’s Northwest region.
“I understand people are frustrated,” he said. “If it’s your favorite channel, it’s your favorite channel. You’re going to be upset.”
O’Herron said he expected the complaints and was aware of the personal connection Port Townsend has with Osborne.
It was through Osborne, who also is a columnist for the Hollywood Reporter newspaper, that TCM sponsored the town’s fledgling film festival in 2000 and paid for the festival’s guest star, Tony Curtis.
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The rest of the story appears in the Monday Peninsula Daily News. Click on SUBSCRIBE, above, to get the PDN delivered to your home or office.
