Encryption rollout lost local stations via CableCard

I finally decided to join the cable TV universe a couple weeks ago.  After a lot of headache (mostly DRM-related on the Windows Media Center side), I finally got everything working nicely.  Unfortunately, I woke up today to find that none of the local stations worked anymore; all I get is a black screen and the CableCard / tuning adapter don't show anything tuned.  I have to imagine this has something to do Cox's decision not to broadcast local stations unencrypted anymore, even though I was able to tune the uencrypted version (via TV) as well as the encrypted version (via CableCard).  A call to tech support didn't help; in fact, it almost caused more problems, as the CableCard didn't validate immediately.

So far, I'm very disappointed in my decision to go with Cox (instead of satellite or Verizon) for my TV service.  I didn't realize that paying for cable service meant I'd lose my local channels.