By Jeremy Fugleberg

Here are the top 10 results for a survey of customers of chain restaurants. The eateries are rated in overall customer satisfaction:

1. In-N-Out Burger, Irvine, Calif., 60%

2. Raising Cane’s, Baton Rouge, La., 59%

3. Giordano’s Pizza, Chicago, 56%

4. Chick-fil-A, Atlanta, 55%

5. Panera Bread, St. Louis, 54%

6. Chipotle, Denver, 52%

7. Pei Wei, Scottsdale, Ariz., 51%

8. Firehouse Subs, Jacksonville, Fla., 51%

9. Taco Tote, El Paso, Texas, 50%

10. Qdoba, Wheat Ridge, Colo., 49%

It got me thinking, what local restaurant (chain or not) would win top honors for overall customer satisfaction?

Try not to get to deep into bashing one place or the other. I’m interested in the creme de la creme of the local restaurant scene, regardless of price.

Apparently there’s a new over-the-air HDTV channel, says commenter Lisa ….

From commenter KAW:

I have the same setup and it showed up on mine as well. For those of you that don’t get it, here are some of the shows that I have seen on this channel: A-Team, Magnum PI, That’s Incredible!, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Battlestar Gallactica (the first one), Leave it to Beaver, and Retro music videos (Friday night I caught Duran Duran, The Ramones and Queen!). The also show retro-tv commercials that are hilarious! I am reliving my junior high/high school years through this channel!

I just have Knology cable, so I don’t know anything about it. I’ve got to say, though, that’s a pretty cool line-up of shows.

What does anyone know about this? Who runs it?

Hello, folks. I’m Jeremy Fugleberg — I’m the new business reporter at the Journal. I just started Monday, so I’m still getting up to speed on a lot of things, but I wanted to get blogging before the week was out. As always, feel free to get in touch with me via e-mail or phone if you’ve got any business tips or story suggestions.

E-mail: jeremy.fugleberg@gmail.com

Phone: 394-8421

I’m excited to be here. Fast facts about me: My previous job was East River — at the newspaper in Watertown. I’m originally from Michigan, via Washington and North Dakota. I’ve lived in South Dakota since 1999 (I met a girl…) and am a graduate of South Dakota State University.

I’m working my way through the lunch-time culinary delights of the downtown area, and I was hoping you could give me some pointers on where to eat next.

What’s good? What’s interesting? What would surprise me?

Come the first of next month, the government promises to send or place a check in the accounts of its taxpayers.

Here at rapidcityjournal.com we have asked visitors in our poll question how they will spend the stimulus money, but here on the business blog I’m asking for specifics. Will you pay down your credit card, buy the big screen TV, put the money in savings for the next time the car breaks down, or a million other things I haven’t even thought of?

By Deb

 This seems like it warrants a thread of its own. Three people on an other thread have reported that Knonology Internet service in Rapid Valley has been bad. And it sounds like it has been that way for some time.

As Doug Hanson pointed out,  ”Knology would be better off spending less time and money in advertising (those commercials are on every 5 minutes telling me there is a drill bit stuck in Mt. Rushmore) and a little more time and money fixing their services!”

I also thought their ad blitz was a bit over the top.

Last week I was kind of bogged down trying to finish up all the stories I’ve started, but Monday I will try to call Knology and see if they’ll tell me what the problem is.

Meanwhile, what’s been your experience with Knology? Or for that matter, Midcontinent?

Here are the posts from the other thread:

Comment on RCJ coverage Says:
March 28th, 2008 at 6:03 am   edit

One of the area’s largest internet providers, Knology, has been failing to provide internet service to hundreds of their customers for over a week and I’ve seen nothing about this in the RCJ. Was this a story that only appeared in the “dead tree” version? They have provided their customers with no estimate of when, or IF the problem will be fixed. Knology has also billed these customers for service that was not provided. I would think this would be of interest to RCJ readers.

If I could find a “tip line” function on the RCJ web site, I would have submitted this question there.

What area is affected?

1. ragu Says:
   March 28th, 2008 at 6:38 pm   editWhen you call the Knology help line they say the problem affects “east rapid city”. That area includes me and is very frustating after a week. However (so far) today the service seems to be back to normal.
2. Doug Hansen Says:
   March 29th, 2008 at 2:41 pm   editThe quality of the service by Knology, Prarire wave, Black Hills Fibercom who ever they are is at mininum HORRIBLE. My internet has been going off and on for the last 2 weeks. I work evening shifts, so I make a phone call to the 721-2000 number and it goes directly to Georgia. The not so friendly individual in Georgia tells me that there is “nothing” he can do because they are in the process of merging all of their data bases. So on Wednesday of last week, I bit my tounge and switched to the company that I said I would never go back to, Midcontinent. From what I have heard from co-workers, it sounds like a majority of the area affected is from the Airport west. Knology would be better off spending less time and money in advertising (those commercials are on every 5 minutes telling me there is a drill bit stuck in Mt. Rushmore) and a little more time and money fixing their services!

This was posted by ProudVet in the You Name It category:

“What is up with the TV here? I used to be a Black Hills Fibercom/Prairiewave/Knology customer because of their package deals. I bought an HD TV and upgraded my cable package and was sorely disappointed - only 15 channels of outdated HD content and no option to get NHL Center Ice or NBA Full Court access. MidCo had NBA but their cable internet speed was slower then what I already had. I researched other HD options and chose DirecTV since they had up to 92 channels of HD content and Knology sold their highspeed internet ala cart. All was well…until I tried to watch the Super Bowl and realized DirecTV had no local access. I asked DirecTV about the issue…they suggested submitting for a FCC-required Waiver (that had to be approved by local TV stations) to get national-level TV access (eg ABC/CBS/NBC/Fox) from a station in N.Y. City or L.A. Not exactly what I wanted, but better than nothing. In the meantime I bought a portable antenna and watched 4 channels of snowy local content. We waited 6 weeks for waiver request…it was denied by KOTA (ABC affiliate) but approved by CBS and Fox affiliates…still waiting for response from NBC. When I called KOTA and the person in charge of disapproving the waiver request said he NEVER approve them because of legal issues. When I asked to talk with the owner of KOTA literally laughed and said the owner, “Will tell you the same thing.” He added, “Get an antenna if you want to watch our channel.” Why is it the other affiliates approved but KOTA will not? Money? Politics? Spite? I wonder what would ABC stockholders think about this. I also wonder what is the sense of buying an HD TV and having all these other otions but having to buy an antenna for one channel. Must be nice to have a monopoly on what goes on in this beautiful little area of America. My wife and I can’t wait for warmer weather so we can ride our motorcycle. I’ll never watch KOTA in light of all this crap.”

I did a story on this a long time ago. I didn’t realize it was still an issue.

Backed by the Satellite Home Viewer Act and a couple of court decisions, KOTA started pulling the plug on satellite viewers in 1999. It claims that the law gives local broadcasters the exclusive right to carry network programming in their markets.

KOTA used some kind of computer program that they said proves you can get their signal. So no waiver. To anybody. A lot of Hills residents, especially in Custer and other towns, said they simply can’t get KOTA.

KNBN was pretty good about giving them, because their UHF signal was so weak. I think KEVN was OK, too.

At the time, the fight was about signal quality, and frankly people wanted to watch Denver news and sports.

Now that the FCC is requiring broadcasters to invest in digital equipment, and the fact that more people that ever are turning to satellite HDTV, I’m sure the fight is going to heat up.

JNNelsen filed this in the ‘You Name It’ Category:

“Question: What is the status of BH Speedway? The auction date continues to move out, engineering is blamed. Have the current owners platted the frontage? Are the Darrows going to operate the speedway this summer? Will the speedway be sold with or without the auction. That is quite a bit of uncertainty for the local racers. March is upon us and the traditional practice day is 2 months away. Any news?”

Jim Holland, who covers racing, might be a better one to answer this, but I’ll tell you what I know.

We’ve both been chasing this story for weeks. The Realtor, Stan Hauk, checks in with me from time to time to tell me the deal is still in play — but the buyers aren’t ready to talk.

Like you said, the frontage auction has been postponed, to March 11, I think. The property has not been platted. The process has been started, Hauk said, and whoever buys it will have to finish it.

From what I understand, the closing of the Speedway sale and the frontage sale must happen simultaneously. Which means the new Speedway operators will probably have to step from behind the veil and start planning for the new season before they close the sale. Jim tells me that to launch a good season, they should have let drivers know back in January.

And I’m told the Darrows are definitely not in for the 2008 season. Rumors have been flying around about who is stepping in. But I don’t know who it is.

The last time I talked to Stan, he thought he might have something on Monday morning — yes, yesterday.

As soon as I hear, I’ll post something here.

Here’s another good question from Michelle:

“I would be curious to see a list of all businesses in the downtown Rapid area that offer free WiFi. I have been spending a lot of time at Dunn Bros more out of habit than anything else although I do like their fireplace and chicken chili. It would be nice to know where to go for WiFi for lunch and maybe a beer after work. ”

Does anyone know of such a list?

This one is from Michelle:

<> “I’d like to see a discussion on the new hockey team coming — Rapid City Rush. What do businesses think about it? What about sponsorship opportunities / thoughts on season tickets / will people attend etc.?

“Our firm is thinking about both sponsorship and season tickets so I am curious to hear other opinions. Do you think the Rush is here to stay?”

Here’s my take, for what it’s worth:

<>Over the years I’ve seen professional sports teams come and go. The biggest success — although Pat Hall might not completely agree — was the Rapid City Thrillers CBA basketball team in the 1990s. At the other end of the scale, the far end, was the Flying Aces indoor football team of 2006. (The owner skipped town.)But the owners of the Rapid City Rush seem to be doing things right. They are local, willing to spend money, promoting an emerging, popular sport. And they’re selling tons of season tickets without even putting a team on the ice. Heck, they don’t even have ice, yet.

What do you all think?

This comment, from Joe Shmoe, was in the “you name it category.”

“How about a thread on “what downtown needs”. I’m not talking about branding the area and macro issues. Downtown seems to be a marketplace of niches. So what niche is not being filled downtown? Besides the dining niches that your readers always seem to be obsessing about, let’s talk retail.”

So what do you think downtown needs?