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Amarillo, TX (July 8, 1977)
- Thread starter Bluenoser
- Start date
What was then Total Television of Amarillo only had a 12 channel system at the time.
Cable channel 2 was split between Amarillo College programming and a shot of a flip-through Rolodex with classified ads.
Cable channel 4 was a community bulletin board, white text over black background.
Cable channel 7 was program listings.
Cable channel 12 was a news scroll over a green background with a stock market ticker over blue background at the bottom.
No video on cable channel 10, though there was audio from one of the local FM stations. The other three ”text” channels also had FM audio.
There was also a cable FM service with seven stations imported from DFW.
Extremely primitive system by today’s standards, but it was 1977 after all.
Cable channel 2 was split between Amarillo College programming and a shot of a flip-through Rolodex with classified ads.
Cable channel 4 was a community bulletin board, white text over black background.
Cable channel 7 was program listings.
Cable channel 12 was a news scroll over a green background with a stock market ticker over blue background at the bottom.
No video on cable channel 10, though there was audio from one of the local FM stations. The other three ”text” channels also had FM audio.
There was also a cable FM service with seven stations imported from DFW.
Extremely primitive system by today’s standards, but it was 1977 after all.
What was then Total Television of Amarillo only had a 12 channel system at the time.
Cable channel 2 was split between Amarillo College programming and a shot of a flip-through Rolodex with classified ads.
Cable channel 4 was a community bulletin board, white text over black background.
Cable channel 7 was program listings.
Cable channel 12 was a news scroll over a green background with a stock market ticker over blue background at the bottom.
No video on cable channel 10, though there was audio from one of the local FM stations. The other three ”text” channels also had FM audio.
There was also a cable FM service with seven stations imported from DFW.
Extremely primitive system by today’s standards, but it was 1977 after all.
How did that channel 2 Rolodex work? I would certainly hope they had some mechanized way to flip the cards every few seconds.
I'm reminded of our cable system when I was a kid, they had various dials (time, temperature, barometric pressure, I don't recall what else) in a semi-circle, with a rotating camera (black and white, gotta love it!) that would show each dial individually. I don't recall if the camera stopped at each dial, or if it just kept going back and forth slowly. That's been almost 50 years ago 💀
Necessity is, indeed, the mother of invention.
It was a black and white camera focused on a rotary Rolodex-like file card system. It verrrry slowly rotated forward so a new card was revealed every 10-15 seconds. It was essentially newspaper classified ads on TV. This was all filler when the Amarillo College programming wasn’t airing.How did that channel 2 Rolodex work? I would certainly hope they had some mechanized way to flip the cards every few seconds.
BTW on my earlier post I forgot to include cable channel 6 which was weather info, white text on a black background. In the early 80’s that was replaced by The Weather Channel.
Come to think of it, I think I've seen something like that before, on a cable system, don't remember where, it was probably while traveling. Pretty primitive by today's standards, but it served its purpose.It was a black and white camera focused on a rotary Rolodex-like file card system. It verrrry slowly rotated forward so a new card was revealed every 10-15 seconds. It was essentially newspaper classified ads on TV. This was all filler when the Amarillo College programming wasn’t airing.
BTW on my earlier post I forgot to include cable channel 6 which was weather info, white text on a black background. In the early 80’s that was replaced by The Weather Channel.
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