I just had a Hampton Bay ceiling fan installed. I have the remote control (It works) but I would prefer to use a wall switch to turn on/off the two lighted portions (St. Regis 60" fan, model #138498). The installer told me that "could not be done" because there is only one wire feeding power to both the lights and the fan... and that I can ONLY use the remote.
I would prefer to use the wall switch to turn the power on and off.. and use the remote to select between options... upper/lower lights and/or fan speed).
Is this possible?

The switch with only two wires at the fan will turn on and off the power to the entire fan/light unit. There is no way around this with out another separate wire at the fan/light.

If you want to turn the lights off with the switch, the fan will not work also, so you cannot have the fan on and the lights off.

Easiest thing to do, is to see if you can get a "remote control" wall switch that will interact with the receiver in your fan.

Some remote fans, you can control the entire unit with the wall switch. I.e, you set the fan and lights with the remote, turn off the wall switch, and when you turn it back on it will remember your setting. Others have no memory and will need to be controlled exclusively with the remote.