United Artists

Cable subscribers in Baltimore will receive one-time rebates or credits of at least $13 each under a proposal by the Mayor's Office of Cable & Communications.The proposal, to be submitted before the Board of Estimates Wednesday, would compensate subscribers for overcharges by United Artists Cable from Sept. 1, 1993, through July 14, officials said.The total amount of money refunded or credited to subscribers could be more than $1.3 million, they said, based on approximately 97,000 city cable subscribers.

New positions* Allegheny Power System Inc., the parent of Potomac Edison, announced that Alan J. Noia has been elected president and chief operating officer for it and Allegheny Power Service Corp.Cochran, Stephenson & Donkervoet, Baltimore architects and interior designers, appointed Timothy S. Elliott as a vice president and Douglas J. Strout as an associate of the firm.* United Artists Cable of Baltimore named Coles B. Ruff general manager.* Comcast Cablevision named Bill Sievers director of customer service for Maryland and Delaware and Paul Chiamulera director of marketing.

A 1993 incident in which more than 20 black employees of Baltimore's cable television system were herded into a room for interrogation by white investigators in the presence of armed guards is at the center of a series of lawsuits filed yesterday against Tele-Communications Inc., the nation's largest cable operator.The incident took place on the same day the black president of United Artists Cable of Baltimore was at TCI's office in Bethesda being fired by his white supervisor.These two incidents, coupled with other recent dismissals or demotions of blacks at other TCI properties, led to the filing yesterday of three lawsuits against the giant cable television operator seeking damages estimated at more than $1 billion.

The president of United Artists Cable apologized yesterday to subscribers who'd tuned in Channel 13 Monday night hoping to see ABC's coverage of big men in football gear but instead saw local access cable coverage of large women in bathing suits."

A former employee of Baltimore's cable television franchise i entitled to six years of lost wages because the firm maintained a racially hostile work environment, a city Community Relations Commission hearing examiner has ruled.In a three-page ruling released yesterday, Hearing Examiner M. Bernardine Myles found that United Artists Cable of Baltimore "maintained a racially tense and hostile environmental" through the former employee's immediate supervisor, who often made racially offensive comments to other employees.

Have you checked out the new Cartoon Network on cable television, which on Oct. 1 began screening a collection of old series such as "Yogi Bear," "The Jetsons" and "The Flintstones"?How about the Sci-Fi Channel, which launched a week earlier with such oldies as "Lost in Space," "Battlestar Galactica" and "The Twilight Zone," as well as original new programming?Of course you haven't, because no Baltimore region cable systems yet carry the two newest national cable networks. And for viewers in some areas, including Baltimore, Howard and Harford counties, it will be a long time before these services are available.

Lights! Camera! Action!The new production facilities of United Artists in Baltimore opens for business today, more than a year and $2.5 million after the project was begun by the city's sole cable operator.The state-of-the-art facility at the company's Kirk Avenue headquarters features a soundproof, full-service television production studio, post-production and editing rooms and a 16-channel audio system.And, oh yes, there's also a dressing room for stars and would-be stars of the home-grown productions that will be filmed there, known within the cable industry as "local origination programming."

Tired of incessant radio commercials and talkative disc jockeys? Take heart, music lovers. Cable radio is here.In two weeks, United Artists Cable of Baltimore will launch Digital Music Express (DMX), allowing subscribers to select from 30 channels covering the musical spectrum. As with cable television's movie channels, DMX's music programming will be free of interruption.The Los Angeles-based DMX, which was launched in its first cable market last year, is available to more than 5.5 million cable subscribers across the country, and is expected to reach 9 million subscribers by year's end, the company says.

Denver -- Cable television was a little-known luxury in 1952, when part-time cattle rancher Bob Magness sold part of his herd to raise money to build a community system in Memphis, Texas.The service quickly became a hit in the farm town by relaying broadcast signals that were too weak to be picked up by conventional antennas. But, more important, it marked the birth of an enterprise that over the next four decades has become one of the biggest -- and some say most feared -- media powers in the United States.