Local programming on cable doesn't get much more local than the Bridge Channel.

It was launched on Cable Communications of Willsboro, N.Y., by Herb Longware almost eight years ago, when construction on the town's new sewer system snarled summer traffic. A picturesque town at the foot of the Adirondack Mountains on Lake Champlain, Willsboro's population of 1,768 year-round residents swells to more than 5,500 each summer.

?Traffic was a real mess, so a temporary traffic light ? Willsboro's first ? was installed on the bridge,? says Longware, president of Cable Communications. ?We had some extra equipment, so we set up a camera in the window of the library attic and trained it on the bridge. We put it on channel 32 [so] people that had to cross the bridge could tune in before they left home to see what traffic was like.?

Longware planned to remove the camera when construction was completed, ?but people begged us to leave it on,? he says. ?They watch the bridge to see when invited company is coming for dinner, when the school ski bus is back at the school to go pick up the kids, and ? of course ? to watch Bernice walk her dog on the right side of the bridge and Helen to walk her dog on the left side. One lady told me that she waited until she saw her husband crossing the bridge and would then sneak a cigarette!?

It's all in a day's work for the independent cable provider, who finds that such initiatives combat the bane of the rural operator's existence: competition from direct broadcast satellite services.

Longware, 43, also tapes and shows local school events, church dinners and other area highlights. ?Herb has been delivering more than cable TV service,? says Teresa Sayward, the Willsboro town supervisor. ?He sits on many of our committees, including the development committee. He's not only a business leader, but a member of our community in every sense.?

Longware had moved back to his hometown of Willsboro to launch its only cable service after having earned a B.S. in electrical technology from Alfred State College in western New York and later working as a cable technical training supervisor for Magnavox/Philips.

With the backing of his father, a retired elementary school principal, and his mother, a retired teacher, Longware launched Cablecom, as his company is known, in 1989 with 14 channels of service. ?With the help of my parents, I was able to come back to the North country, to this area that I grew up in,? he says. ?The only thing that was available at that time were the large C-band dishes, which cost several thousand dollars, four off-air channels and local video stores.?

Winning the cable franchise for the town of Willsboro was relatively easy compared with what came next. ?We had to build our own head-end, put up the tower and dishes, put in the cable equipment and do the installations,? he says. ?Dad and I literally strung wire from pole to pole.?

His father still pitches in and his mom kept the books and ran the office until Longware's wife, Eileen, took over. These days Eileen works part-time while caring for the couple's adopted twin sons. Longware, meanwhile, looks after customers and spreads the word about his recently launched cable modem Internet service, Willex.com.

?Herb is like me ? he pretty much works by himself, does all the installs and has no full-time technical help,? says Lee Haefele, who runs a 5,000-subscriber system in Spencer, N.Y. ?He also comes from a technical background, so we're always calling each other for opinions and advice.?

With fewer than 500 year-round subscribers, Longware knows his customers' needs. ?He asks people what they want to see, which is how he launched CNN,? says Sayward.

Longware's next step: ?I hope to add HITS [AT&T Broadband's Headend in the Sky] to round out our programming and make us more competitive. I'm weighing up the cost of the head-end and the cost of the [set-top] box, but I'm hoping the cost of the boxes will come down.?

He's also keeping an eye on the bigger MSOs and consolidation ? Charter owns the cable franchise adjacent to his. ?The bigger these media companies become, the more clout they have with programmers,? he says. ?They can go to ESPN and negotiate very good prices, but somebody has to make up the difference. Historically, that's been the smaller cable operator?. Everybody's talking about the digital divide, but it's the smaller companies like us that are helping to bridge the technology gap in rural areas.?

Sayward says that Longware brings the Adirondacks into the modern world. ?Local businesspeople in small communities is what America was built on, and Herb epitomizes the heart and soul of the American businessman,? she says.

CABLE COMMUNICATIONS OF WILLSBORO WILLSBORO, WILLSBORO POINT AND ESSEX, NY

OWNERSHIP: Herb, John and Shirley Longware
MILES OF PLANT: 32.5
UPGRADED: 100% of system upgraded to 450 MHz
HOMES PASSED: 1,000
BASIC SUBSCRIBERS: 453
HIGH-SPEED SUBS: 30
BASIC CABLE RATE: $29.65/month, 41 channels
HIGH-SPEED RATE: $39.95/month without modem, $5 for modem rental; 59.95/month without basic cable service
ADVERTISING ON LOCAL INFORMATION CHANNEL: $5/day commercial, $3/day personal

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