Woe is Adelphia

The lede of a front-pager in this week's L.A. Business Journal calls Adelphia "the cable company that can do no right." The Deborah Crowe story was inspired by the much-chronicled snafus that dropped popular shows or delivered them in Spanish only and by L.A. councilmember Wendy Greuel's call for the city to inquire about compensation for viewers.

The repeated losses of service and language mix-ups has made Adelphia the butt of jokes from local talk radio and Internet blogs to the editorial pages of the city’s daily newspapers. The Los Angeles Times dryly speculated that Adelphia was helping Angelenos practice their Spanish.

Much of the sniping might become moot when Time Warner Cable takes over the Adelphia and Comcast franchises in Los Angeles as part of a $17.7 billion deal. But the unit of Time Warner Inc., which is promising improved service and new features, comes into a market where perceptions about cable operators often run next to dog catcher.

Adelphia explains in the story that the recent problems occurred when the company switched to a new, untested signal system to avoid having service cut off during the Topanga fire. Judging by the regular complaints I receive from Adelphia customers about erratic service and brusque employees, I doubt any will be mollified. I'm not in Adelphialand by the way; my cable service is from Comcast.

Also in the LABJ (but not free): Jason Calacanis talks about AOL's purchase of his Weblogs Inc., reportedly for $25 million...In a Q-and-A, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez quips that "things have gotten worse in Sacramento just as my relationship with the governor has gotten better"...Development around the VA property in Brentwood is the focus of several stories.