Because of federal legislation passed in 2004, DirecTV is switching local channels from Madison to Wausau/Rhinelander for residents in Adams County Dec. 16.

Congress passed the Satellite Home Viewer Extension and Reauthorization Act, which required Nielsen Media Research to define television markets for each county in the United States. Per Federal Communications Commission guidelines, satellite companies must use the information provided by Nielsen to determine which local channels a customer receives.

According to Nielsen’s research, residents of Adams County would be better served with local channels from Wausau/Rhinelander than with channels from Madison.

Local residents, who had to fight against such a switch about two years ago, are once again opposing the change.

The southern part of Adams County is about 60 miles from Madison, but 110 miles from Wausau and 170 miles from Rhinelander.

DirecTV Director of Public Relations Robert Mercer said in an e-mail response to the Events, "The switch is being made by county as part of our DMA (designated market areas) to more closely mirror Nielsen DMA boundaries."

Local residents fail to see the benefit in a switch.

Dell Prairie resident Donna Greiff has been back and forth with DirecTV desperately trying to keep her Madison channels.

"I will never get news from the area I live in," she said of the proposed change. "Nobody ever physically looked at a map to see what this would do, and that’s not right."

Greiff said she has talked with about 25 friends and co-workers, and none of them were contacted by Nielsen during their survey of Adams County.

"I would bet my annual salary that they never went south of Adams with this survey," Greiff said. "I’m very insecure. I’m distraught. I couldn’t sleep Monday night ... I was so irritated by the response I got from DirecTV that I couldn’t sleep."

Karen Gyimesi, senior director of media relations for Nielsen, said the designated market areas are based on population estimates. Every year, Nielsen reviews the 210 markets country-wide to see where a majority of television viewing is going for those markets.

"I know this was something that satellite users, when they are on the edge of markets, that they are getting stations that they don’t want, and it’s because the FCC is using the Nielsen market listing," she said. "Our television markets weren’t really meant to be used that way [to determine designated market areas]. They were meant for advertising markets."

Gyimesi said Nielsen does sometimes split counties between markets, but didn’t in this case.

Knowing the local weather and news, which is what Madison channels provide, is important to Greiff, because she doesn’t have cell phone reception where she lives, she can’t receive high-speed Internet service and she is too far from the city to have access to cable TV.

"I’m not really blowing it out of proportion," she said, "because I’m living out here with no family and no friends, and they are taking the one thing I have."

If the letter local DirecTV customers received in the mail notifying them of the switch didn’t test their patience, waiting on hold listening to "Thank you for your patience, your call is important to us, a representative will be with you shortly," every 15 seconds, might.

Marie Einsla, a representative for TeleServices Direct, the third-party company fielding questions for DirecTV about the switch, said many unhappy customers have called her in the past month.

"A lot of people are very upset about it. The only thing I can do is apologize," Einsla said. "Because it is government mandated, we are required to give (people) the new channels.

"They re-evaluated based on what they thought the customer would like, which is funny because a lot of them don’t (like the change)," she said.

Einsla said she has recommended people contact their congressmen with their concerns. And some have.

Greiff sent a letter to state Sen. Dale Schultz, but has yet to hear a reply.

U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin’s press secretary, Jerilyn Goodman, said in an e-mailed response that Baldwin’s office has contacted DirecTV to investigate the situation, and is expecting a response Monday.

Part-time Dell Prairie resident Dick Reiter, who is currently at his home in Tucson, Ariz., called state Sen. Luther Olsen. Reiter received a call back saying no one in the office was aware of the pending change.

Reiter, a DirecTV customer for more than 15 years, called customer service three times, and three times was told he could not keep his Madison channels, even though he lives a half mile from Columbia County. Columbia County residents aren’t being switched.

"Madison is 50 miles from our market, Milwaukee is 100 miles from our market, and they want to put us in channels in Wausau/Rhinelander?" he said. "What do we care about the news or the weather in Rhinelander?"

Reiter said he threatened to switch to Dish Network, but was told Dish Network would be making this change, too.

New Haven resident Bill Genszler, a Dish Network subscriber, said Dish Network tried to change his local channels from Madison to Wausau awhile back. To keep his Madison channels, he used his wife’s business address as his billing address.

Dell Prairie resident Karen Wahl, who lives a mile from the Columbia County line, said she was with Dish Network, but changed to DirecTV in 2005 because Dish Network was changing its local channels to Wausau/Rhinelander.

After talking with DirecTV for three hours, Wahl called Dish Network to see if she could get Madison channels from them. A representative told her she could if she used an over-air module.

Mixed up in the whole switch is Dells resident Earl Laske. Laske lives in Columbia County, but was sent a letter saying he lives in Adams County and his channels were going to change.

Mercer wrote that DirecTV uses a "highly accurate address verification database" to put customers in the right county, and is looking into Laske’s situation. If other Columbia County residents received a letter, Mercer said they should call 1-800-DirecTV to have their address changed to Columbia County.

Laske did just that and was able to keep his Madison channels.

"The man changed me from Adams to Columbia," Laske said. "I said, ‘Now what about the rest of the people here?’ and he said, ‘I can’t do anything for them,’ he said, ‘They have to call and change.’ "

Mercer wrote the only way for an entire zip code, like 53965, to be changed, is for Nielsen to change its definition of a designated market area.

The FCC requires satellite providers to update their markets within three years of Nielsen changing market areas, Mercer wrote. The next change in markets would depend on when Nielsen redefines them.