The 90's Channel, the public-access cable TV network that's available much of the week in seven markets around the country--reaching 600,000 subscribers--prides itself on carrying programming no other coast-to-coast cable station will touch. Viewers of the Boulder, Colorado--based 90's Channel and its just-launched offshoot, Free Speech TV (available for at least four hours weekly in 45 markets nationwide, reaching more than four million households), can watch documentaries sympathetic to hemp legalization, death-row prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal, and the '92 Los Angeles rioters; beyond-indie, no-budget fictional short films; and such popular 90's Channel series as America's Defense Monitoror Dyke TV. But this bastion of low-budget, left-leaning television may soon be forced to pull its plug. The corporation that has leased air time to the 90's Channel since 1989 has raised its rates "astronomically," according to Free Speech TV program director Jon Stout, in an effort to force the channel off the air when its contract expires October 31. Tele-Communications, Inc. (TCI), the country's largest cable television operator (providing roughly a quarter of all U.S. cable television conduits), "will do everything in its power to get us off the air," says Stout. Nonsense, says TCI spokesperson LaRae Schlichting. "We have offered to carry the 90's Channel under the same leasing agreement we offer other such programming." The problem, she says, is that the 90's Channel wants to sign an affiliate agreement with TCI, an arrangement reserved for what Schlichting describes as "24-hour, satellite-delivered, network-quality channels," like HBO or ESPN. The dispute between the 90's Channel (which is owned by a group called the Denver Area Educational Telecommunications Consortium) and TCI, is, according to Stout, grounded in both commerce and politics. TCI, he says, would like to use cable outlets that now carry 90's Channel programming for more lucrative purposes. Currently, the 90's Channel repeats its noncommercial programming throughout the week. Since July, Free Speech TV has supplied its member stations (all local public-access and educational channels) with a weekly four-hour loop of shows; some stations, like one in Philadelphia, air the loops continuously all weekend. TCI also objects to the 90's Channel's liberal slant, according to Stout. The cable operator has announced plans to carry the right-leaning National Empowerment Television network and the American Conservative Network, along with the nonpartisan C-SPAN2 and American Political Network. TCI has no bias toward right-wing programming, according to Schlichting. "TCI is interested in carrying the broadest possible range of programming," she says. As proof of TCI's commitment to diversity, she notes that the company is the only cable operator in the country to lease space to the 90's Channel. The 90's Channel's real problem, Schlichting says, is that it's not competitive in an increasingly crowded cable field. "It has not been successful in the marketplace in total in gaining other carriers," she says. The current dispute is merely the latest development in tensions between the 90's Channel and its carrier. In 1992, TCI informed the 90's Channel of its intention to drop the channel from its systems; a court action filed by the channel resulted in the current leasing agreement, which expires October 31. In the meantime, the 90's Channel's staff is not sitting still. In July, the channel launched its Free Speech TV project--partly to spread the word and rally support for its ongoing battle with TCI, and also, says Stout, as a proactive step toward growth; the 90's Channel wants to eventually have its own permanent, satellite-linked spot on America's cable boxes. "This is a way of building u p to a full-time channel," he says. "It's us getting progressive programming across." To register an opinion on the TCI/90's Channel dispute, write: Dr. John Malone, President, Telecommunications, Inc., Terrace Tower II, 5619 DTC Parkway, Englewood, CO 80111-3000. Send a copy of any correspondence to the 90's Channel, P.O. Box 6060, Boulder, CO 80306. To submit programming or comments to the 90's Channel, call 303-442-8445.