Anyone Remember a Pay Channel Called Selec TV?

[Jack1000]

Guys,

This was one of the first types of "cable service" that used a decoder box. If you lived in the Los Angeles or Milwaukee areas from 1980-1984, you may remember it. In the Milwaukee area, you would call up Selec TV and they would give you a decoder box. When they came to your house to install it, you payed a security deposit for the box plus money to rent the box. (I think it was like $50 for the security deposit and another $50 for box rental. Select TV charged you $20 a month and you could watch uncut commercial free movies. They ran about 60 movies a month.) Unlike today's cable, Selec TV used your areial antenna as part of the hook-up to recieve its signal. Although we didn't have the service, I was a good friend of a guy that new the manager of the company at that time. At 7:00 pm for 4 years, our local channel 24 would begin broadcasting the Selec TV signal. Each month though, along with getting your printed program guide, you would have to punch in your new "code" on your box. The thing was that the company also had a special code for special events (like championship boxing or concerts) and subscribers would have a seperate code for that. The thing was, you could decide not to get the event, but call someone who was getting the event legit and they could give you the code and you could punch it into your box and get the event without paying for it. (or so I was told) As a boxing fan, I remember playing around with the fine tuning trying to "unscramble the signal" as best I could! Of course, some of use around that time (7th-9th grade) would try to tune in at 11:00 pm for the optional Adult films you could get for an additional $5.00 more per month. (Selec TV gave you this little lock-out key that you could use to block out this content if you subscribed to it.) As a non-subscriber, it was really hard to "Unscramble the signal to see anything" LOL! But in school Selec TV was a big thing, and we were envious of anyone who had it because we thought it was so cool! Nevertheless, due to signal piracy problems and competition from cable, Selec TV went out of business in the summer of 1984 after a 4-year run. Sure it was only one channel, and it was competition for HBO, which was also entering the home market on a regular basis, which you could get on a competing service called "TVQ" This WAS an actual beginning cable service with something a whopping 15 other channels! hahaha) But, it set the stage for the cable industry of today.

Jack