March 24, 2017

Bishop Rozanski responds to Charter plan to drop WWLP from Berkshires lineup

REGIONAL
By Rebecca Drake

SPRINGFIELD – Springfield Bishop Mitchell T. Rozanski has expressed concerns about Charter Communications’ plan to drop WWLP-22News, Springfield’s NBC affiliate from several Berkshire County cable systems.

A March 21 report in The Berkshire Eagle noted that Charter Spectrum plans to drop WWLP from the systems that serve Adams, Cheshire, Clarksburg, North Adams, Williamstown, Dalton, Great Barrington, Lee Lenox, Pittsfield, Richmond, Sheffield and Stockbridge on Monday, April 17; and from the system that serves Hinsdale, Lanesborough and West Stockbridge on Monday, April 24.

Two weekly diocesan television programs, the “Chalice of Salvation” Sunday Mass broadcast and the Saturday evening newsmagazine “Real to Reel,” will be unavailable to viewers in the Berkshires if WWLP is removed from their lineups and Bishop Rozanski said this would be a disservice to many viewers, especially the homebound.

“The Diocese of Springfield encompasses all four counties of western Massachusetts and the Berkshires are a crucial part of our diocese,” the bishop told iObserve. “So, to have the ‘Chalice of Salvation’ and ‘Real to Reel’ be broadcast there, first of all, reaches so many people who are homebound and who look to the ‘Chalice of Salvation’ to be their experience of church each week on a Sunday morning.

“And, also, the news that is given on ‘Real to Reel’ about our diocese encompasses all of the Berkshires. So they would be missing out on news, particularly about their own area and the wider church of Springfield,” Bishop Rozanski said.

“That would be a great, great loss for the Berkshires and a loss for us (the diocese) that we could not reach the people in the Berkshires as we do now through Channel 22,” he continued.

Asked how concerned Catholics, and others should respond to the cable company’s plan to drop the Springfield affiliate, Bishop Rozanski said, “I think that we should write or call Spectrum and also our Congress people and let them know how this would adversely affect the Berkshires and really rob them of news and important events that are happening throughout western Massachusetts.

“So, if we speak up with one voice and speak for the people of the Berkshires, we will do so, hopefully, with a voice that will be heard,” he said.

The bishop also commented on the quality and value of the diocesan television programs for, not only Catholics, but many other viewers.

“As a diocese, we are very blessed to have the ‘Chalice of Salvation’ for over 50 years that has been broadcast every Sunday morning, bringing the Good News of the Lord Jesus – the Mass, the Eucharist – into homes throughout the area, and also ‘Real to Reel,’ a wonderful, wonderful way that we have to keep our people informed as to what is going on in our church,” said Bishop Rozanski.

“I also would like to comment that many people whom I meet who are not Catholic talk to me about watching ‘Real to Reel’ and even ‘Chalice of Salvation’ very frequently and how much they get out of it,” he added. “So, it’s not just the Catholic community but it’s the wider community also that likes to hear the news of what’s going on in our Catholic community.”

Diocesan spokesman Mark E. Dupont decried the decision to eliminate the local NBC affiliate station from the Berkshire lineups.

“This is terrible news for our Catholic community as it divides off the Berkshire faithful of our diocese from enjoying the weekly programming we broadcast on WWLP,” said Dupont, who has been the producer of the “Chalice of Salvation” broadcast for the last 32 years and has produced “Real to Reel” for the last 30 years. He has been director of the diocese’s Catholic Communications ministry since 2004.

“There is no simply reason with current technology and the expanse of cable channel capacity that this has to be an either/or situation,” Dupont said. “The people of the Berkshires deserve to stay connected to the rest of the state, especially the rest of western Massachusetts.

“I urge our Berkshire parishioners to lobby their complaint with Charter and hopefully Charter will listen and enter into meaningful discussions with WWLP to avoid this cut-off,” said Dupont.

Congressman Richard Neal (D-Springfield), on his Facebook page, also urged the cable company and the local affiliate to negotiate a plan to keep WWLP in the Berkshires.

“I joined my colleagues U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren and Senator Edward J. Markey in urging WWLP and Charter Communications to pursue good faith negotiations in this matter so that Berkshire County residents continue to receive Massachusetts information, including emergency alerts, weather closings, and daily news. Consumers should not be caught in the middle,” Neal wrote in a March 23 post.