For Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans, it's a battle for truth, justice and the American way of life with cable TV.

        They can't comprehend why Time Warner Cable doesn't carry UPN, which will announce Thursday where Buffy fits into its fall lineup. The show switches to UPN after four years on WB (Channel 64).

        “It's absurd that on cable I have access to four PBS stations and no UPN,” says Ken Macke of West Chester.

        UPN's Cincinnati affiliate is WBQC-TV (Channel 25), a low-power station based in Golf Manor. The federal government does not require cable companies to carry a low-power station like Channel 25, which barely reaches all of Hamilton County. (Channels 5, 9, 12, 19 and 48 reach two dozen counties in Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky.)

        “The resistance Time Warner has shown locally to adding WBQC-TV, with its unique UPN programming and other syndicated series, is impossible to understand,” says Richard Emery of Hamilton. He suggests that Time Warner add WBQC-TV to its digital service, instead of the basic cable level that Channel 25 wants.
       

"Will go insane'

        When Turpin High School student Katie Wagner read in the Enquirer that Buffy won't be carried by Time Warner,she was “so enraged (that) I woke up my entire house at 6 in the morning,” she says.

        “I am completely and positively obsessed with this show,” says Ms. Wagner, 16. “I know that this is going to sound stupid, but that show is seriously my life, and I will really go insane if I can't watch my favorite show.”

        Buffy fan Elizabeth Gannon says she canceled her satellite TV service and ordered Time Warner because the dish didn't provide Channel 64, which airs her favorite show through May. (Note to Buffy fans: WB will air a Tuesday movie starting June 5, not Buffy and Angel reruns.)

        In a letter to Virgil Reed, Cincinnati Time Warner president and general manager, she says: “If I cannot watch the only show I signed up with your company to watch, then your cable no longer suits my needs and I will cancel my service.”
       

Flood with letters

        Several Buffy fans say they may drop Time Warner and subscribe to a satellite TV service, if they can get Buffy on the dish.

        But John Eichler of Ross would rather fight than switch. He encourages fans of UPN's program, including WWF Smackdown, to flood Mr. Reed with letters at his office, 11252 Cornell Park Drive, Cincinnati 45242.

        “We need wrestling fans and Star Trek fans and Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans all to write,” he says.

        “Even people who are not interested in those programs should write. If you, through the paper, can get everyone to write Time Warner, we hopefully can persuade them to pick up UPN.”

        Mr. Macke says Buffy and UPN fans should petition the Federal Communications Commission for a change in rules. The FCC should order cable systems to carry “all national network feeds, even if only carried by a low-power station such as WBQC-TV.” (Not a bad idea!)

        Mark Robinson, a Buffy fan in Liberty Township, asks if his Adelphia Cable also has any plans to pick up Channel 25. “After giving up UPN's Star Trek: Voyager when I moved to Greater Cincinnati, I'd hate to give up Buffy, too!” he says.

        Here's the good news: Channel 25 owner Elliot Block says Adelphia will soon add his channel to systems in Amelia, Liberty Township and Morrow.Channel 25 already airs on the Adelphia (formerly FrontierVision) system in Delhi Township, plus Insight Cable in Northern Kentucky and the Lebanon city cable system.

        Imagine that: All networks on one cable system. Isn't that the American way?
       Contact John Kiesewetter at 768-8519; fax: 768-8330; E- mail: jkiesewetter@enquirer.com; Cincinnati.com keyword: Kiesewetter

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