DBS providers can't legally talk about specifics of ongoing contract discussions nor would they do so with a subscriber anyway.
99 times out of 100, if your affiliate is running that message it is because they, or their parent company, (which may have many affiliates nationally) is in contract negotiations with your provider and for whatever reason the two sides are not in agreement on a new contract and the current deadline is close to expiration. You guys seem to assume the biz of affiliate retransmission is easy when its not. Call your affiliate or their parent company and complain to them, it is just as much their issue as it is of the DBS provider anyway.
As far as Trio goes, NBC Universal (right after their merger) said they were going to eliminate Trio or reconfigure it with another concept and one can assume that the providers are just dropping it now as opposed to waiting. Maybe you should call NBC Universal and ask them.