SATELLITE TROUBLE CUTS OUT PAGERS; MILLIONS LOSE REMOTE CONTACT.

Byline: Matthew Fordahl Associated Press 

A communications satellite spun out of control Tuesday afternoon, interrupting service to millions of pager users and disrupting behind-the-scenes television transmissions across the country.

Galaxy 4, which is operated by PanAmSat, started having problems about 3:30 p.m., said a company technician who asked not to be named. The company still was able to communicate with the satellite, and technicians hoped to restore its correct orbit.

Scott Baradell, a spokesman for PageNet, one of several paging companies where services were interrupted, estimated that 80 percent to 90 percent of the 40 million to 45 million U.S. pager users lost service.

The only customers not affected were those whose connections operate through ground-based radio transmitters, he said.

Baradell said it would take about a day for his company to switch service to another satellite. ``You have to make adjustments to your system,'' he said. ``If it's at all possible to get Galaxy 4 back in service, that's much preferred.''

The outage affected about 20,000 customers of Rampage Paging in Van Nuys, with phones ringing off the hook, said Jim Murphy, company president.

``We were just flooded with at least 600 calls,'' Murphy said, adding that his company has a back-up system through which its customers can retrieve messages through the phone lines.

Other than it being an inconvenience, local fire and police departments said their communication systems do not rely on pagers and that calls have not been affected by the outage.

A woman who answered the phone at Greenwich, Conn.-based PanAmSat refused to comment.

If Galaxy 4 can't be fixed, traffic would have to be redirected to other satellites, said Russ Colby, a vice president at Digicom Services, a Los Angeles-based pager company that has 40,000 subscribers. He estimated up to 20,000 of its customers were out of service.

``It's important that word gets out. People don't know it's not working,'' Colby said.

The pager problem was of particular concern to physicians. Dr. Steve Dickens, a cardiologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, said he was spending the night at the hospital because of the problem.

``I have to tell (the hospital) what to do and how to respond,'' he said. ``Protocol says they can't make a decision without first calling the doctor.''

Television stations use Galaxy 4 to transmit feeds of advance shows, said Marguerite Sullivan, satellite coordinator for KCAL-TV (Channel 9).

It was not clear what television programming might be affected.

``Hopefully, TV stations will be able to work around it,'' she said. ``It's just satellite space is going to be very tight. It's going to be a problem for syndication. . . . Thank God most stuff is done two days in advance. We're not too bad off.''

In addition to the syndicated programs, CBS radio and television, the Chinese Television Network and the CNN Airport Network send feeds through Galaxy 4.

CBS relied most heavily on Galaxy 4 but had a backup plan and has not been affected by the outage, said spokeswoman Amy Malone. ABC and NBC also said their operations have not been affected.

Galaxy 4 was launched in June 1993 aboard an Ariane rocket. Its coverage area is primarily the United States and Caribbean, according to PanAmSat's Web sites.

PanAmSat is 81 percent owned by Los Angeles-based Hughes Communications Inc.