CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - WCSC viewers who watch on Frontier Cable in the Lowcountry will no longer be able to watch Live 5 for local news, local weather or CBS programming, including college and NFL football.
Frontier Communications abruptly notified the station Friday that they opted to remove “The Lowcountry’s News Leader” from its lineup after the cable provider walked away from retransmission consent negotiations.
WCSC and other stations owned by our parent company Gray Television, Inc., regularly negotiate terms of service with cable providers. Discussions with Frontier were cordial, and an open-ended extension was assured so Charleston-area viewers wouldn’t miss news and entertainment programming. That offer was not accepted, and our signal is now blocked for Frontier customers.
“The service interruption came with zero warning to our viewers. I am stunned” WCSC Vice-President & General Manager Dan Cates said. “In my almost 40 years working in local television, I have never experienced a cable operator just dropping a station when it was offered a no-strings attached extension to work things out. Frontier had nothing to lose, but instead indicated it preferred to drop Live 5 without further discussion or any warning whatsoever to its viewers. At this point, any Frontier customers should switch to another cable provider if they want to continue watching WCSC.”