Everyday Low Cable Bills II

We whispered in our March 5 issue that Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has — for years — been paying $30 per month for cable television service, then routing the cable to about 200 TV sets in and around the company’s headquarters building in Bentonville.

Well, we found somebody who could talk to us about that.

Terry Hurley, former chief engineer with Wal-Mart television, was recently fired from Wal-Mart for driving a company vehicle without a valid driver’s license.

Hurley, who admits he’s a disgruntled former Wal-Mart employee, said his firing probably had more to do with the fact that he had referred to his boss as an “idiot” to another employee and it got back to the supervisor.

In any event, Hurley said he mentioned the potential ethics violation concerning the cable service to his higher-ups a year ago, but nothing was done about it.

Hurley said TCA Cable told Wal-Mart then that it would cost $2,000 per month for two channels to the number of television sets the company had hooked up to the cable. But TCA didn’t know Wal-Mart was already doing this, Hurley said. And Wal-Mart wanted at least five stations, not two.

Wal-Mart began installing antennas on the roof and using direct TV to bypass the potential problem, but Hurley said the world’s largest retailer is still using the cable service, now run by Cox Communications, because it will cost $2,000 to totally switch over to direct TV.

“This has gone on for years,” Hurley said. “I was the first one to address this and say ‘This is illegal.’ I guarantee you your local hotel doesn’t pay $30 per month for one cable hookup.

“Here they’ve been robbing cable for years and they fire me for driving a vehicle with no license.”

Hurley said Wal-Mart has between 170 and 200 television sets on the cable system. Most of those sets are in the headquarters building, but some are in the Sam Walton Development Center, a training center, a half mile away, routed there via a fiber optics cable installed by Wal-Mart employees.