Are you buying what Sunflower is selling?
Sunflower Broadband COO Patrick Knorr is appearing in a commercial that is running in heavy rotation on Sunflower cable systems (which serve Lawrence and outlying areas in northeastern Kansas), explaining why Sunflower dropped two Kansas City stations last week. Take a look, and then I have a comment, and then a poll for my readers who are Sunflower customers.
Knorr's self-serving commentary conveniently omits some facts, namely: Sunflower's parent company owns KTKA -- and Dish Network just dropped KTKA because station management was asking for too much money for the privilege of carrying KTKA!
So. The same company that is bewailing the fact that TV stations used to be offered for free to cable systems is also complaining -- elsewhere in their vast, labyrinthine bureaucracy -- that TV stations should be allowed to charge cable systems money!
Wait, it gets better. Dana Knorr, the wife of Patrick Knorr, is currently running KTKA -- while espousing a diametrically opposed viewpoint from her husband! How do they sleep at night?
Here is how the station's web site puts it: "KTKA has worked with area satellite and cable providers to establish fair and reasonable compensation for their use of its broadcast signal as part of retransmission consent negotiations."
What's this "fair and reasonable compensation" crap? Hasn't KTKA always BEEN FREE IN THE PAST?????
I like Sunflower, a lot, as a company. But I can smell this B.S. from Kansas City, 40 miles away.
Anyway, here is my poll question for Sunflower subscribers. You've now gone a few days without KMBC. The restaurant has replaced the fine coffee it normally serves with KTKA crystals. Let's assume Hearst is asking for $100 thou over the course of the deal, which means, worst case, your cable bill might go up a few pennies a month.
