On Galaxy 19 at 97w there is Al Jazeera English language news, SOAC (Smile of a Child) christian religious kids programming, EBRU English NatGeo type programming, several Kuwait and Saudi Arabia stations that show American TV shows and movies with English audio and Arabic subtitles. The Kuwait stations show some American cartoons with Arabic subtitles or dubbed Arabic audio on weekends.
You can also catch some soccer games and nature programs on the Kuwait channels.
Abu Dhabi Sport used to have soccer, camel racing, cricket, and other sports, but they seem to be off the air right now.
There are a bunch of radio channels on 97w too.
Not as good as 123w was "back in the day" but probably the most useful mix of programming from one Ku satellite for your purposes.
I would vote for 125w with all the PBS channels instead, if the AC-3 sound issue could be solved.
I think you can use a cheap set of digital input amplified computer speakers with the AC-3 digital output from the CS6000. I recently got a CS6000 in a trade, and I have a set of digital input computer speakers. The CS6000 has an RCA plug AC-3 audio out plug in addition to the fiber-optic TOSLINK cable port, so it will connect to the speakers I have.
I will test it later today with the AC-3 channels on AMC4, and post my results here.
9-4-09
I tried the CS6000 with my Boston Acoustics digital input amplified computer speakers on the AC-3 channels on AMC4. Results were negative. The speakers worked fine with the digital sound output from the CS6000 on channels with normal sound, but AC-3 channels were just static. It seems that digital input does not mean AC-3 compatible.