TRIO Cable Channel may be off air soon

Thanks to my brother, Lee, a cable channel I don't even receive, TRIO, is high on my list of favorites. I suspect if I got TRIO directly my TiVo would be getting a regular work-out, but Lee has been good enough to provide me with tapes of such oddities as the Johnny Staccato series and Peckinpah's warped movie, "Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia" and in return I burn him a DVD of whatever he's sent when I make myself a copy.

Unfortunately, TRIO is probably not much longer for this world, according to Mark Evanier. The channel's primary outlet, DirecTV, is dropping it at the end of December, and the oft-cited "industry sources" say that TRIO will probably not survive into 2005.

As much as cable was supposed to broaden our choices -- and I suppose it has to some extent when you look at the days of three dominant channels and local UHF programming -- it's sad that no one still seems able to come up with a viable strategy to serve fringe markets. For example, any fan worth the name could come up with a schedule that would be better than what the SF Channel currently offers. The SF Channel had much more diversity in its in its early days and should be so much better than it is now , but programs unwatchable junk at least 60 percent of its air time, and re-runs the same series ad infinitum.

I had never even heard of Johnny Staccato prior to TRIO, yet John Cassavettes over-the-top series turned into one of Peg's and my favorites. I suspect there are many things floating out in the TV wasteland that would only appeal to a very small audience. With TRIO going, the chances of finding those things becomes a little harder.