Although some residents in and around the Twin Cities will have some of their television channels switched in the coming weeks, residents in and around Austin and Albert Lea will largely be unaffected.

Carol Rueppel, general manager and vice president of KMSP and WFTC-TV, said the changes will take affect Sunday, Sept. 8. The change coincides with the start of football season, with the Minnesota Vikings playing the Chicago Bears that day.

Rueppel said the change was intended to take place on that day so more viewers were aware of the switch.

"Fox viewers will understand where Fox programming goes because of the Vikings," Rueppel said. "Viewers will look for the Vikings playing the Bears on that day.

There will be some initial confusion on the first couple of days. That being said, we still intend to have a phone bank set up so viewers can call anytime during the broadcast day throughout the week."

However, Page Cain, the marketing manager for Charter Communications, said the changes essentially won't affect viewers in Albert Lea, Austin and Rochester.

"We carry the local Fox affiliate in Rochester. We will continue to carry UPN programming. When UPN and Fox do the switch, we will continue to carry the UPN affiliate," Cain said.

The changes may affect some news programming in the Twin Cities area, Cain said. However, the channels will remain the same.

"That won't affect the Vikings games at all. So they'll continue to be on KXLT, which is where they've been seeing them. This was, truthfully, the least disruptive choice. We chose to keep the UPN affiliate for our customers who have been used to watching it," she said.

"If you're used to watching a KMSP program, you'll have to switch to a WFTC, or something else. It will look different, but it will be in the same spot. It shouldn't be too much of a problem. Some of the programming is going to change, but that was all planned."

Dan Fields can be reached at 434-2230 or by e-mail at dan.fields@austindailyherald.com