Basic Service

DIEPSLOOT, South Africa --At dusk, Joshua Masekoameng burrows into his history books as an escape from the shantytown that is his home, but it is hard to ignore the setting. The high school senior does his schoolwork by candlelight. The 10-by-20-foot shack that he shares with his mother, two sisters and a nephew lacks electricity and running water. There are four corrugated metal walls, a metal roof, a concrete floor, a faded shag carpet, a single bed and an old stereo on a battered shelf - but that is all. "I love history very much," Masekoameng said, reading a textbook last updated in 1988.

Who says the musical variety show is extinct on television? Certainly not Harold and Don Reid, Phil Balsley or Jimmy Fortune.Who?You're no fan of cable TV's "The Statler Brothers Show" if you cannot identify those four singer/musicians, whose variety show begins a second season tonight on the Nashville Network. Randy Travis appears as the guest star.The basic-service network says the hourlong program, at 9 p.m. Saturdays, is the most popular on TNN (carried by most cable systems in this area)

Make no mistake, Baltimore's new Basics supermarket on Fort Avenue in Locust Point is aiming itself at the young, urban, professional shopper.Tucked into a working-class neighborhood but close enough to gentrified rowhouses and waterfront condominiums, Basics has taken up residency in the new Southside Market Place -- an $11 million, 128,000-square-foot shopping plaza.The supermarket opened Sunday, but a grand opening is scheduled for the entire plaza Oct. 9.Combining an emphasis on low prices with such services as express home delivery and shopping by fax, Basics officials say they hope to go beyond the working-class neighborhood the store is centered in to attract upscale buyers as well.

Howard Community College officials held a series of meetings last week to discuss management of the school's athletic program following the departure of Athletic Director Tom Carbotti.Carbotti's $40,900-a-year job was one of five eliminated last month to tighten the school's budget."We are trying to make sure the basic services are maintained," said acting vice president and Dean of Students Maureen Kelly."Butare we going to feel the loss of the position? Yes. Everybody is hoping this is the worst and that it's going to get better."

Comcast Corp. cable TV subscribers might have noticed a small new charge in their bills recently. After years of giving customers with "standard/expanded" basic cable service up to two digital TV adapters for free as part of the upgrade to all-digital broadcasting, the cable provider now is charging $1.99 a month per digital adapter. The new fees, being rolled out in each of Comcast's markets, took effect in March in the Baltimore area. The company, which declined to provide the number of subscribers affected, said it notified customers ahead of time of the decision and that pricing always has been subject to change.

Because of erroneous information provided by TCI Communications of Baltimore, an article in yesterday's editions of The Sun reported an incorrect figure for the city cable system's June 1 rate increase. In fact, the typical TCI customer will pay an additional $2.32 for a package of basic and expanded basic service. The increase will bring the total rate to $24.39.The Sun regrets the error.Pub Date: 3/13/96

Wielding only coaxial cable, screwdrivers and pliers, they steal millions of dollars worth of cable TV signals.These cable pirates illegally link to the service at cable boxes, telephone polls or in apartment complex equipment rooms.Thieves get into the cable boxes by cutting locks with a hacksaw, hitting them with a sledgehammer, even driving vehicles into them.Comcast Cable, Harford County's largest cable provider with 40,000 customers, reports losing about $2 million a year in revenue to thieves.

I don't spend all my free time at home watching television. It just seems that way to my wife and kids. Never pass up the chance to see a classic movie for the 23rd time, or Monster Truck Crunchers, or a documentary on African wildebeest or reruns of "The Dick Van Dyke Show." Captain Couch Potato at the duty station.All of which is to say that I have a strongly vested interest in what happens to cable TV rates, which are going up again.For the majority of households today, television means cable TV. Not as a luxury, but as a basic service.

Comcast is raising cable television rates -- 10.4 percent, or an extra $3.10 per month, in some cases -- for most of its nearly 300,000 customers in Baltimore, Harford and Howard counties.The new rates, which take effect Nov. 1, are 37 percent higher than cable charges five years ago. Full standard service, which includes all but premium movie channels, will cost from $30.79 to $33.49 per month in the three counties.But Jaye S. Gamble, Comcast Corp. area vice president, said comparisons with 1992 are misleading because the company now offers double the number of channels in the full standard service package and also includes Home Team Sports, for which it once charged separately.

The town that straddles the boundary between Carroll and Frederick counties may soon become the site of dueling cable TV companies.OnMonday, the Town Council called for a study of whether Frederick Cablevision Inc. should be invited to town to compete with Prestige Cable TV Inc.The council ran a notice in local publications last month asking citizens for opinions of Prestige's service. The town got about 30 letters, including many that complained about the cost of Prestige service, said Mayor Gerald R. Johnson Jr."