Mediacom subscribers in 15 cities lost 16 Media General-owned over the air stations from the cable lineup in a retransmission consent dispute just as a Major League Baseball All-Star Game to be shown on some of them was about to get underway.

Most of the stations are in smaller cities served by Mediacom and include:

• Alabama: WIAT (CBS) Birmingham, WFNA (CW) Mobile
• California: KRON (CW) San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose
• Indiana: WANE (CBS) Fort Wayne, WTHI (CBS) Terre Haute
• Kansas: KSNT (NBC) Topeka, KTMJ Topeka, KSNW (NBC) Wichita-Hutchison
• Iowa: KWQC (NBC) Davenport,  KIMT (CBS/My Network TV) Mason City
• Michigan: WOTV (ABC) Grand Rapids-Kalamazoo-Battle Creek, WOOD (NBC) Grand Rapids-Kalamazoo-Battle Creek
• South Dakota: KELO (CBS/My Network TV) Sioux Falls
• Tennessee: WKRN (ABC) Nashville
• Virginia: WAVY (NBC) Norfolk-Portsmouth-Newport News, WVBT Norfolk
• Wisconsin: WBAY (ABC) Green Bay-Appleton

Mediacom claims Media General was seeking excessive compensation to renew its carriage agreement with the television stations. Customers were told in a letter signed by Tom Curtis that some stations were demanding more than double the old rate to renew the contract.

“Not only was Media General demanding more than double the money, the price they set for KWQC [in Davenport, Iowa] was significantly more than any other broadcast station we carry,” Curtis wrote. “If we agreed to Media General’s demands, KWQC would have become the most expensive broadcast channel in all of the 1,500 communities that Mediacom serves across 22 states. Further, other broadcasters would follow and begin demanding to be paid the same as Media General, driving up costs for other channels on your lineup.”

This is the second time in four years customers have lost the stations. When LIN Media owned several of the outlets in 2011, it refused cable carriage for more than a month over a similar dispute.