TCI to add Rangers to its lineup

By AL PICKETT
Sports Editor

Texas Rangers' baseball fans in Abilene may not have hit a home run, but they haven't struck out, either.

TCI Cablevision officials confirmed Thursday that the Abilene cable company will carry the Texas Rangers' television network this season. Games will be aired on channel 5, which serves as the preview channel for TCI.

Diane Brown, administrative assistant to TCI area manager Raymond Greenwood, said Thursday an exact date that TCI will begin airing Rangers' games isn't known yet because the cable company is waiting on the arrival of a satellite dish and decoder to be able to pick up the telecasts. She said that will hopefully happen some time next week.

Rangers' fans in Abilene have been extremely vocal in their demand for the telecasts, ever since the Rangers awarded their TV network to LIN Broadcasting last fall. The change meant the games are no longer on KTVT and Prime Sports, which have been the home for Rangers' telecasts in Abilene in recent years.

KXAS and KXTX, the flagship stations of the Rangers' network in Dallas, are airing 138 games this year, but neither station would give TCI Cablevision permission for retransmission of its signals. So TCI, in an effort to appease public pressure, entered into a contract with Raycom, the company which is packaging the Rangers' television network for LIN Broadcasting.

TCI's contract calls for it to air 92 games on channel 5 this season, although it will miss several of those in the early going while it awaits its new equipment. KIDY/KDT, the Fox affiliate in San Angelo which is on channel 6 on TCI and channel 54 as a UHF station, is also carrying 12 weekend games from the Rangers' network during the season, beginning with a game on Saturday, April 13.

Other Texas games are expected to be aired on ESPN or Fox during the season, meaning Rangers' fans in Abilene should see more than 100 games this season. The Reporter-News will run a complete list of games which will be televised as soon TCI provides that list.