Station's Cable Debut Delayed in 2 Counties

The Federal Communications Commission has required since March that all new televisions sold have digital tuners. The rule is part of a national transition from analog to all-digital broadcasting scheduled for completion in early 2009.

V-Me is already on the air in 23 other markets nationally, according to the station. It has not arrived in the District or Virginia.

Carmen DiRienzo, president of V-Me, said the station's daily programming starts with a yoga show and ends with a movie. In between are educational shows aimed at children, public affairs programming and Latino-focused features about food, travel, parenting and other lifestyle issues.

MPT is airing the programming on one of three digital channels it is allotted, a decision that Brown said reflected "a renewed commitment to the diversity that has shaped the American landscape for generations."

Others, including several conservative lawmakers and former governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R), who now co-hosts a radio show, have offered less favorable assessments.

In May, Del. Patrick L. McDonough (R-Baltimore County) called the decision "reckless" and "arrogant" and asked why Maryland would turn over one of its three digital stations to a Spanish-language channel, given that Hispanics are still a small, albeit growing, minority of the statewide population. Census Bureau estimates from last year put that figure at about 6 percent.

Robert Shurman, president and chief executive of MPT, said Comcast had offered assurances that V-Me would be available in the two counties by February 2009, when the nation is scheduled to complete the transition to all-digital television broadcasting.

But Shurman said MPT was hopeful that V-Me would arrive on Comcast "closer to today than 2009."

"We have met with them numerous times," Shurman said of Comcast officials. "They have not given us a date yet."

Staff researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report.