Cable TV was around in 1973???

[TVFactFan]

Fred was telling Lamont he wants Cable TV and I was shocked because I never heard of cable until 1988.

Couldn't have been that many people who had cable in 1973 right?

[omg65]

Originally Posted by TVFactFan

Fred was telling Lamont he wants Cable TV and I was shocked because I never heard of cable until 1988.

Couldn't have been that many people who had cable in 1973 right?

I lived in a small town and cable came around to us in the mid 70's so I'm thinking a big city like like Los Angeles where this show was based,cable in 1973 would have been very probable.Back then cable was a bunch of regional ABC,NBC,CBS channels and maybe a PBS channel.Basically cable back then eliminated the pain in the butt of the Antenna.

[TVFactFan]

Originally Posted by omg65

I lived in a small town and cable came around to us in the mid 70's so I'm thinking a big city like like Los Angeles where this show was based,cable in 1973 would have been very probable.Back then cable was a bunch of regional ABC,NBC,CBS channels and maybe a PBS channel.Basically cable back then eliminated the pain in the butt of the Antenna.

My grandmom said she always left the TV on CBS back in the 60's and 70's because it came in the best

ABC was so/so and NBC was awful

[installLSC]

Actually there were lots of people with cable in 1973; some estimates ran as much as one out of six back then. Since there weren't any cable networks back then, cable either gave you better reception or brought you out-of-area stations to areas with just a channel or two.

[quincywagstaff]

There was a cable TV system in the early 70's where I lived called Valley Cable. It had all of the Pittsburgh stations, plus stations from nearby Steubenville, Ohio and Johnstown, Pa. It had one community channel which would broadcast occasional locally produced programming, although most of the time, it provided time and weather info. Very low tech, as it had a camera in the studio pan back and forth over a series of weather dials and a clock.

[TVFactFan]

Wish Fred had stated why he wanted cable in 1973

[GARFIELDKOOL]

Originally Posted by TVFactFan

Fred was telling Lamont he wants Cable TV and I was shocked because I never heard of cable until 1988.

Couldn't have been that many people who had cable in 1973 right?

You've never heard of cable until 1988? Boy, were you late! My oldest brother got us cable in 1980-81. We had those zip across boxes to change the channels.

My guess is that cable was regional in 1973 and it was probably available in certain areas.

[Mr. Television]

Originally Posted by GARFIELDKOOL

You've never heard of cable until 1988? Boy, were you late! My oldest brother got us cable in 1980-81. We had those zip across boxes to change the channels.

My guess is that cable was regional in 1973 and it was probably available in certain areas.

I remember in the early 80's our cable company expanded the channels and the reception was awful. We had a box with different tiers of channels. The first tier was pretty good but the higher you went the worse the reception was. That's when we got ESPN and WGN and USA. I think we actually had USA before that though although it was called MSG then. The reception on that channel was awful too. Our local channel was channel 12 but it was on cable 2 but when you put MSG on, you could see channel 2 coming through.

[GARFIELDKOOL]

Originally Posted by Mr. Television

I remember in the early 80's our cable company expanded the channels and the reception was awful. We had a box with different tiers of channels. The first tier was pretty good but the higher you went the worse the reception was. That's when we got ESPN and WGN and USA. I think we actually had USA before that though although it was called MSG then. The reception on that channel was awful too. Our local channel was channel 12 but it was on cable 2 but when you put MSG on, you could see channel 2 coming through.

Interesting. I remember the channels we had had great reception. And since I was like 6 or 7 in 1980 81, only two cable channels that really stood out to me, WPIX channel 11, "11 Alive" and HBO! HBO was the network that defined cable!

[TVFactFan]

Originally Posted by GARFIELDKOOL

You've never heard of cable until 1988? Boy, were you late! My oldest brother got us cable in 1980-81. We had those zip across boxes to change the channels.

My guess is that cable was regional in 1973 and it was probably available in certain areas.

It wasn't available in the hood until 1988

[TVFactFan]

Originally Posted by Mr. Television

I remember in the early 80's our cable company expanded the channels and the reception was awful. We had a box with different tiers of channels. The first tier was pretty good but the higher you went the worse the reception was. That's when we got ESPN and WGN and USA. I think we actually had USA before that though although it was called MSG then. The reception on that channel was awful too. Our local channel was channel 12 but it was on cable 2 but when you put MSG on, you could see channel 2 coming through.

In 1987 I saw ESN in the TV guide and was like......"what's that? LOL


I was crushed when I found out I could not watch the Sunday Night game between Cleveland and San Francisco

[gopyle]

I remember hearing about cable in the early 70s. Was not the plethora of channels, but filled out all of channels 2-13.

[Sonny Carson]

Originally Posted by TVFactFan

It wasn't available in the hood until 1988

Yeah they say HBO's been around since 1972 but I don't think most people got it until the 80s.

[TVFactFan]

Originally Posted by Sonny Carson

Yeah they say HBO's been around since 1972 but I don't think most people got it until the 80s.

HBO was available in the hood before 1988 and you had to get an Antenna on your roof. I know only one person in the neighborhood who had it during the 80's

[treky]

Originally Posted by TVFactFan

Fred was telling Lamont he wants Cable TV and I was shocked because I never heard of cable until 1988.

Couldn't have been that many people who had cable in 1973 right?

it was around but on a very limited basis.