Earlier this month in Sanford, a talk on Franco-American heritage and culture drew a crowd of more than 50 people to Goodall Memorial Library. The language and traditions that came to this area from French Canada may be slipping away, but many are determined to hold on to the words and memories they got from their families.

Sanford’s Rusty French Club dedicates its efforts to preserving the French-Canadian dialect and at the library meeting this effort was carried along with conversation and music. As teachers have long known, there is nothing like French songs and conversation to help you brush up on your vocabulary and syntax.

Such grassroots efforts are important, but fluency in French is being lost in Franco-American communities because it is seldom heard on the street or in the media. Recently a cable television provider aggravated the problem by dropping French-Canadian television from its offerings.

When cable TV first arrived, French-language broadcasts suddenly became available in many New England towns, providing a window to the language and culture of Quebec. Unfortunately, such links can easily be severed, and Metrocast, the cable television provider serving Sanford, Springvale and some neighboring towns, has now dropped the only French language station in its line-up. For those who are more comfortable with French than English, the decision abruptly disconnected them from an important source of news and entertainment.

CKSH-TV of Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada provides news, entertainment and sports programming in French, and it is carried on cable systems throughout the region. It is still available in Biddeford and other communities served by the TimeWarner cable system, but Metrocast decided it could no longer afford to provide the station to its customers.

When Gilles and Claire Auger of Sanford pressed Metrocast for an explanation, a company official was sympathetic, but offered no hope that the  channel would be brought back. “(U)nfortunately your favorite channel is gone and will remain that way,” he told them.

Fortunately, CKSH-TV and its programming is still available to anyone with a good Internet connection. That means that some Metrocast customers are likely to reconsider how they will spend their budget for telecommunication services.

Cable television firms face an uncertain future as consumers find new avenues for tapping into information and entertainment. Yet these companies continue to act as though they hold a monopoly on delivering television programming. It’s an attitude they may come to regret.

With cable executives showing a waning interest in cultivating niche markets, audiences that want something other than the usual fare will increasingly seek it elsewhere.

— Questions? Comments? Contact Kristen Schulze Muszynski or Nick Cowenhoven at 282-1535 or kristenm@journaltribune.com or nickc@journaltribune.com.