New commercial TV station coming to San Antonio this fall By DWIGHT SILVERMAN Staff writer San Antonio gets a fifth commercial television station this fall, but the new kid on the biock may have a tough time getting on the city's cable systems. KRRT-TV (Channel 35) will be based in Kerr- ville, but its UHF signal will extend well past the Southeast Side of San Antonio, General Manager Richard B. Lowe said Wednesday. “We don’t have a firm date yet, but we ex pect to be on the air in the late fall," Lowe said. KRRT plans to air what Lowe called “tradi tional independent programming.” “We’ll try to offer counter-programming to what the network affiliates are offering at vari ous times during the day,” he said. Lowe said KRRT probably will adopt the fol lowing format: ■ 7-9 a.m. — first-run cartoons and children’s shows. ■ 9 a.m. to noon — situation comedies and oth er syndicated programs. ■ Noon to 12:30 p.m. — national news. S 12:30-3 p.m. — 2 ! /£-hour block of talk and variety shows known as “Inday." ■ 5-7 p.m. — More sitcoms and action/adven ture shows. S 7-10 p.m. — Action programs and a feature film. ■ jO.p.m. to 1 a.m. sign-off — Sitcoms and ac- ticnr shows. - The only local cutlet-.with^similar program ming is KENS II-TV (Rogers Cable 24). ‘ KRRT’s local news will come in the form of occasional “headline servi ce" interruptions of enter tainment shows. The station will not have a full-fledged news department, Lowe said. The flve-miliion-watt transmitter and antenna for the $12 million sta tion will be 25 miles from downtown San Anto nio near Medina Lake, Lowe said. It will have technical and office facilities both in San Antonio and Kerrville, he added. KRRT officials have yet to approach either Bexar County Cablevision or Rogers Cablesys- tems about securing a channel on those services. A recent U.S. Court of Appeals decision over turned the Federal Communications Commis sion’s long-standing rule requiring cable com panies to carry local broadcast stations free of charge. Local operators may now have the option of charging any local station for a channel, and may not have to carry them at all. Cipriano Guerra, consultant to the president for Rogers, said his company’s cable space is limited. “We’re very tight right now,” Guerra said. “At this point I would not have a basis for comment.” Mike Scott, general manager for Bexar Coun ty Cable, said his system has plenty of cable space, but he would study what KRRT has to offer. “His channel would be exposed to the same scrutiny as everyone else," Scott said.