10-6-06

Hi friends, this is Harry Blalock; General Manager for radio stations KZMI & KCNM. It's that time once again to take a look at the issues of the week, and to offer some Food For Thought.

Finally on Friday afternoon just as I was about to record Food For Thought, I got the fax I had been waiting on from the Department of Finance concerning Senator Luis Crisostomo. I was a bit curious just who was working on an austerity Friday, but that's not really the point here. When I reported that Senator Crisostomo had been receiving the $5,000 monthly subsistence allowance several weeks ago, I had been told by the Secretary of Finance, Eloy Inos that he checked it out for me, and that Senator Crisostomo had been receiving it every month. After Maryanne Demapan Calvo, Crisostomo's Chief of Staff, denied that he's been taking the subsistence allowance, I asked Eloy to verify it for me and to show me the dates and amounts. That is when I had to invoke the Open Government Act to get the information. And according to the information now provided to me by the Department of Finance, Senator Crisostomo has not received the $5,000 subsistence allowance during 2006. So why Mr. Inos would tell me he had, I don't know. I don't know if he just saw that he had been taking it previously and didn't check the dates or what, but I was given erroneous information from none other than the Secretary of Finance.

I also promised to make the information on his office staff public, and that I can do. Maryanne Calvo is his chief of staff and makes $50,000 a year, $10,000 a year more than the Senator himself makes. Ramona Rebuenog is his office manager and makes $30,000 a year. Then he has 2 Committee Workers, Kenneth Aldan and Daniel Castro, both of whom make $10,400 a year.

It could be that Senator Crisostomo saw the writing on the wall when former Senator Thomas Villagomez lost his senate seat last year because he had been receiving a subsistence allowance. But up to that point, he had received $4,000 a month from October 2004 through September of 2005, for a total of $48,000 for the year. Then in October of 2005, he took $5,000 in 2 installments, he took $5,000 in 1 installment for November of 2005, and he took another $5,000 in 2 installments in December of 2005. So any claims that Senator Crisostomo has never taken any subsistence allowance are false as he did take a total of $63,000 in subsistence allowance. But in all fairness, he did stop taking it at the beginning of 2006. So there you have it. If you want to know why he took it in the first place and took that much, but then abruptly stopped taking it in 2006, you'll have to ask Senator Crisostomo. But the facts are that he got an extra $63,000 tax-free when he had very little additional expenses of traveling to other islands in the Commonwealth to substantiate it. You be the judge whether he abused the system or not, and you can render your verdict at the polls in November of 2007.

I need to give some explanation also as to why you no longer hear KCNM, 101.1 FM on channel 42, or channel 7 of your cable tv. It seems that MCV wasn't very happy about my commentary the last couple of weeks criticizing the quality of product that they are delivering to all their Saipan subscribers, so they pulled our signal off their channel. I did finally hear back from the Saipan General Manager of MCV last Friday after I had already written and recorded my commentary. But it's not like he said anything that would have changed what I had to say. He continued to blame most of the problems on Guam, which may be factual, but it doesn't change the lousy quality of service we're getting. He did assure me that they were working out most of the bugs and the service should be much better very quickly. Sadly, that still isn't the case. On Sunday this week, I was watching Saturday programming. On Monday I was watching Sunday programming. Then on Wednesday I was watching Thursday programming, and on Thursday I was watching Thursday programming. It's to the point that you have no clue what day you have to watch to find your favorite programs. They may be shown on one day this week, but it will most likely be a totally different day next week. They tell us they are having to use filler, but after you've watched the same program for the 5th time in a week, you start experiencing something closely akin to road rage, only we'll call this MCV rage. Especially since they have offered no discount on their pricing for their substandard service. They are still charging as if they are delivering a quality product, but their product is anything but quality.

I do have a theory as to why they pulled our broadcast off their channel though. We actually know what day it is here at the radio station, and announce that it is Friday on Friday. You know that you can tune in Food For Thought at a certain time on Friday, and it will actually be there on Friday. It could be they didn't like the fact that we might be causing a certain amount of confusion by saying it was Friday on Friday. Since on the network TV channels, they would be announcing that it was Thursday on Friday, or Saturday, or any day but Friday really. So I can see how it would be very confusing to have someone who doesn't understand your programming schedule talking on the radio and telling people that it's not the same day you are trying to claim it is. They were probably just looking out for you by removing our station from their channel, trying to help you avoid confusion. And I can totally respect that; after all, I certainly wouldn't want to be guilty of causing any confusion. I'm fairly certain MCV doesn't want to do anything that might cause anyone any confusion either. Although it might be helpful if they'd start providing a psychic for all of us to consult to find out what days programming we could expect that evening. And it might also be helpful if they'd tell us how to set our clocks so we'd know when we should look for the beginning of a program. I always used to operate under the assumption that I could turn on the TV at the beginning of an hour and be able to catch the beginning of the show. However, this past week, I found several times that the programs were beginning about 20 minutes before the top of the hour. Now it's entirely possible that some glitch in the universe affected all my watches and clocks at precisely the same time causing them all to be off by 20 minutes. I'm fairly open minded, and am leaving room for that possibility, even though I have to admit to being slightly skeptical about it. So if the fine folks at MCV would just tell us how we should set our watches as well, that would probably help immensely.

Yes, I'll admit I'm not very happy with MCV these days. I do enjoy watching my favorite TV programs in the evening as I relax and unwind, and when I can't find them, or have to watch them over and over and over, I get a little testy. But I have to say; I'm not the only one who is not happy about these latest "improvements". I've talked to at least a half a dozen people who have cancelled their cable TV subscription in the last few weeks because they are so disgusted. Many more have been asking what we should do next. Should we all boycott them to send them a strong message? Should we demand that they be put under the oversight of a public utilities commission who can tell them that if they can't deliver what they are supposed to, then they have to lower our rates accordingly? Or should we all invest in a time machine that would take us back to the good old days when we could actually watch the programming on the day it was supposed to air, just a week later? Hey, I don't happen to have the answer for this one, but I do know I'm not very happy about what's been going on, and if those of you who have talked to me about it are any indication, there are an awful lot of us who feel the same way.

But I guess I should apologize to those of you who might have used your television to listen to 101.1 FM. Because if I had just been quiet about this whole thing and not mentioned any of my frustrations with MCV, you could probably still be listening to us on channel 42 or channel 7, even that was confusing, but because I'm such a stickler for saying it's Friday on Friday, and for starting programming at the proper time, I guess I became a thorn in MCV's side. So if you're upset that you can't listen to us on channel 42 anymore, don't blame the management at MCV. After all, it's their cable TV system and if they want to say it's Saturday on Sunday, who am I to stop them? And I can definitely see how it might be confusing to have us saying one thing on one channel, and have all the other channels saying something else. Of course it would be nice if all the other channels could at least be saying the same thing, but that's another topic. So here's a little tip for you, if you want to know what day it is or what time it is, you might want to listen to the radio. I make sure we have calendars and clocks in all the studios, and for the most part, we manage to keep up with them. And when you want to watch the game repeatedly so that you can impress your friends by knowing what's going to happen ahead of time as you watch it for the 5th time, then MCV is the place for you. Unfortunately I can't really tell you how to figure out which days or times to watch so that you can pull that trick off, but that could be something else we could use that psychic for. Now we just have to convince MCV to hire them for us, after all, it does seem like the very least they could do at this point.

And you might want to try looking at it as a new version of reality TV. Consider it a treasure hunt of sorts. You want to watch Desperate Housewives, and you know it airs on ABC, which is channel 14. So that is your starting point, but you really have no clue what day or what time it might come on, so that is where the hunt comes in. And when and if you finally find it, you feel like you've actually accomplished something and that you got the treasure. Of course once you do finally find it, it's probably all you will find for the next 3 days, but let's not look at the negative side right now, we're trying to put a positive spin on this. You know you've always wondered what it would be like to be on one of those reality shows, well thanks to MCV you're finally getting a chance to find out right in the comfort of your own living room. And I'm guessing that the customer service representatives at MCV feel like they're in the middle of a reality TV show as well, Fear Factor specifically. Having to go to work every day facing irate customers is probably very scary, and just blaming it all on Guam gets old after a while, especially when the customers don't seem to care whose fault it is, and are perturbed that they're still being charged the same amount for service that, well let's be honest, it sucks. Maybe we should start some groups for people who all want to watch Grey's Anatomy or Law & Order. When one of us finds it, we start a chain calling everybody else to let them know that's it on. I'm thinking that might be the only reliable way to know when to tune in for your favorite shows.

By the way, just one more piece of advice, you might want to get a punching bag installed in your house. I've found out that using your TV for one in the middle of your MCV rage isn't good for you, or the TV. Punching bags are designed for that kind of abuse, and they are much easier on your hands and feet.

I really didn't plan on talking about MCV again this week, but then felt I owed you all an explanation as to why you can't listen to KCNM on your TV anymore. And well, you know how it is, one thing leads to another, and before you know it, all that MCV rage just comes pouring out again. I feel it's more therapeutic to deal with it this way than punching my poor TV; after all, it is just the innocent messenger in the whole thing. But MCV keeps promising big improvements soon, and who knows, if all wish really, really hard and look to the north star as we do, it could actually happen.

I'm Harry Blalock, thanking you once again for giving me a generous slice of your valuable time, and allowing me to share my Food For Thought.