Cable channels that are no longer with us

[kc0ltv]

...that aren't listed here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...able_and_satellite_television_networks#Gender

I can think of a few:

- UonTV - Very short-lived "pay for airtime" network, launched on Telstar 5 as a free-to-air (view) channel
- America's Health Network (AHN): This predated Discovery Health (don't know if there's a relation) and was on the air some time around 1997
- Kaleidoscope - A network for the disabled.
- Mind Extension University (MEU), later The Knowledge Channel: A channel with telecourses. You could even get credit from them. They were on Bresnan Cable in Duluth, and in-the-clear on C-Band.
- Shopping channels: Valuevision, Home Shopping Spree, Home Shopping Club (maybe renamed HSN?), etc. A lot of shopping channels just didn't make it.
- Las Vegas Television Network - started up and failed several times
- Main Street TV
- The Americana Channel (or something like that...) - existed around 1993
- Syndicated Entertainment Television (The SET) - Snappy name, didn't last.
- TV Asia
- The Box's digital channels
- Channel Earth - Rural-oriented network carried on DirecTV around 1997.
- Mas Musica - don't think they're around any more

Anybody remember these? Have more to add?

 

[Ultimajock]

*CBS Eye on People/Discovery People
*PTL
*FNN (bought out and absorbed into CNBC)
*Satellite News Network (bought out and absorbed into CNN2/Headline News)
*Z Channel

 

[Yeziknoradio]

I'm not sure what the American version of this station is/was, but here in Canada, Cool tv vanished forever on July 21, 2008.

It was an all Jazz music & movies channel.
(the movies found on that station always had something to do with jazz)
The demand just wasn't there.

 

[stationi]

-Newsworld International - Network shutdown, Current TV took its place.
-Trio - Network shutdown, Sleuth took its place.
-Shop At Home - Unprofitable and shutdown, later saved by Jewelry Television only to shutdown soon after.
-The Tube - Subchannel music network, unprofitable and shutdown.

 

[Robnoxious]

One could argue that pretty much every channel on cable is no longer with us in it's original form minus a few exceptions like ESPN, HBO, CNN and USA and even these channels are somewhat debatable in how they've changed through the years.

Examples include:

* Lifetime: At it's inception, Lifetime was a channel for doctors and health-care professionals. Often called The Surgery Channel by the public due to it showing actual surgeries like heart bypasses and the like. Made me squeamish as a kid seeing all that blood and steel instruments poking and cutting veins and body parts. Now, it's the Estrogen and A-Hole Boyfriend/Husband Channel.

* Superstation WTBS: Ted Turner's Empire started as just a local Atlanta independent located on UHF-17 in the greater Atlanta area but also uplinked to a sat. Much of it's programming consisted of retro sitcom fare that the likes of TV Land and Nick-At-Night now dominate. I remember the early days when ad breaks were for local Atlanta car dealers and not nationalized. My dad loved WTBS for the old movies they would show (at :05 or :35 after of course) Now TBS is the Friends/Everybody Love Raymond/Back To The Future Trilogy Weekend Channel.

* MTV/MTV2: No need to go into where this channel has gone as we all know this network's story. It's now absolute rubbish and barely touches upon it's fortuitous roots anymore. VH1 has joined it's sister station in this decline.

* Nickelodeon: What was once educational and commercial-free is now just another ad marketer's wet dream to bombard the younger demographic with peddling their wares. Little substance is left from a cable net that explored science with "Mr. Wizard's World", "What Will They Think Of Next?" and touched upon teen-issues with it's talkshow "Livewire". I grew up with Nickelodeon in it's original form and enjoyed it immensely. And if you bring up original Nickelodeon you have to include...

* ARTS: Before Nick-At-Night came to be and signed on with "Andy Griffith" and "Car 54, Where Are You?" reruns, when Nickelodeon's silver ball signed off (at 6pm Pacific for me), ARTS signed on with culturally significant music and dance programs. ARTS later became A&E but even though the "A" in A&E stands for Arts it's a far far cry from it's once humble beginnings. I challenge anyone to distinguish the difference between A&E, TBS, FX, and Discovery in their present forms.

* The Nashville Network: While I'm not a fan of country music, The Nashville Network was a niche market for fans of the Grand Ol Opry and guitar twang. After spinning off into The National Network to broaden their viewership by airing a lot of James Bond movies it morphed into Spike, which targeted the male demographic... by airing a lot of Bond movies. :

* ZDTV/Tech TV: A once great niche channel about technology and computers in an era when the Internet was beginning to gain critical mass. The Screen Savers was techie heaven. Once Leo Leporte was let go the channel became G4 and it has never fully recovered from it's tailspin crash into an ocean of crap.

 

[DToTheJ]

*CBS Eye on People/Discovery People

Didn't CBS also have their own cable channel about 20 years ago? I vaguely recall seeing cable listigns for "CBS" in the TV Guide...

Also, Discovery Home Channel is now revamped and known as Planet Green.

 

[only1moore]

*CBS Eye on People/Discovery People

Didn't CBS also have their own cable channel about 20 years ago? I vaguely recall seeing cable listigns for "CBS" in the TV Guide...

Yes, it was called CBS Cable. It was a fine arts channel that ran from 1981 to 1982.

 

[Retro]

I miss the Tube too!

 

[RadioFanBoy]

America's Health Network (AHN): This predated Discovery Health (don't know if there's a relation) and was on the air some time around 1997

This was the genisis for Lifetime.

 

[bk77]

* ARTS: Before Nick-At-Night came to be and signed on with "Andy Griffith" and "Car 54, Where Are You?" reruns, when Nickelodeon's silver ball signed off (at 6pm Pacific for me), ARTS signed on with culturally significant music and dance programs. ARTS later became A&E but even though the "A" in A&E stands for Arts it's a far far cry from it's once humble beginnings. I challenge anyone to distinguish the difference between A&E, TBS, FX, and Discovery in their present forms.

I don't believe Andy Griffith ever made it to Nick@Nite though Car 54 did in the late 80s. Nick@Nite signed on the air in the summer of 85 with Jay North's Dennis The Menace being its first rerun/show. However when Jay North started to bash Dennis the Menace and all of his emotional problems came out in the early 90s, Nick@Nite "adopted" The Donna Reed Show by claiming that show was Nick@Nite's first when actually that was their second show to air on the then-new network.

 

[Corky Marlowe]

I don't believe Andy Griffith ever made it to Nick@Nite though Car 54 did in the late 80s. Nick@Nite signed on the air in the summer of 85 with Jay North's Dennis The Menace being its first rerun/show. However when Jay North started to bash Dennis the Menace and all of his emotional problems came out in the early 90s, Nick@Nite "adopted" The Donna Reed Show by claiming that show was Nick@Nite's first when actually that was their second show to air on the then-new network.
Nick At Nite used to have so many "Wow Factor" shows (I Spy, Route 66, Hitchcock, the B/W My Three Sons with William Frawley)...Now, we can only say, "Wow! I haven't seen this episode of "George Lopez" in two weeks!"

 

[Braves2005]

Nick At Nite used to have so many "Wow Factor" shows (I Spy, Route 66, Hitchcock, the B/W My Three Sons with William Frawley)...Now, we can only say, "Wow! I haven't seen this episode of "George Lopez" in two weeks!"

Since basically you can see George Lopez and probably the same episodes as they air on Nick at Nite on local stations.

And I might as well add CMT to the decline of what MTV/MTV2/VH1 has become. Hardly has anything to do with country music anymore since they are showing Trading Spouses and Nanny 911 and showing movies that have been on other stations and have nothing to do with country music.

I have heard that GAC (Great American Country) is slowly moving away from country music in the same manner of CMT.

 

[Markxxx]

I remember when MTV came on they had all sorts of videos, I used to see Cliff Richard videos. For those who don't know Cliff Richard is a HUGE recording artist everywhere in the world but the United States and Canada. (His few American hits were "Devil Woman," "We Don't Talk Anymore," and "Suddenly [with Olivia Newton-John])

You could see all sorts of vids on MTV.

TechTV problem was it tried to be hip and trendy. When they pushed out Leo Laporte in order to give more time to Kevin "I'm Not Gay" Rose, because he was young and cute, the whole idea fell apart. The best thing about TechTV was Martin Sargent who is for some reason is oddly likeable.

What about the JC Penny Shopping Channel? That was my favourite channel, I think it developed into something else.

 

[kc0ltv]

America's Health Network (AHN): This predated Discovery Health (don't know if there's a relation) and was on the air some time around 1997

This was the genisis for Lifetime.

I believe you're thinking of a different but similarly-named network. Lifetime had already been around for at least 10 years when I saw AHN..

 

[KML0224]

Didn't Lifetime start out as the Cable Health Network?

 

[mrfish67]

Didn't Lifetime start out as the Cable Health Network?

You are partially correct. Lifetime is actually a merger of the old Cable Health Network and the Daytime Network.

 

[kc0ltv]

Didn't Lifetime start out as the Cable Health Network?

The Cable Health Network is a different channel from the American Health Network.

 

[DToTheJ]

I remember when MTV came on they had all sorts of videos, I used to see Cliff Richard videos. For those who don't know Cliff Richard is a HUGE recording artist everywhere in the world but the United States and Canada. (His few American hits were "Devil Woman," "We Don't Talk Anymore," and "Suddenly [with Olivia Newton-John])

Cliff Richard had another hit song, "The Young Ones"; in fact, he was popularized in the British sitcom of the same name - which was also shown, late Sunday nights, on MTV.

 

[bk77]

What about the JC Penny Shopping Channel? That was my favourite channel, I think it developed into something else.

Another retail chain who either had plans to launch their own shoppping channel or if they did it , it must have been very short lived was Kohls.

The WKBW channel: Back around 1980-1981 I remember hearing some jock on Buffalo's WKBW radio, I think it was Chuck Lakefield but I not sure but I do remember whoever it was, was talking about Cap Cities who owned KB at the time was going to launch a cable channel that was going to be a mix of WKBW radio and WKBW-TV to be beamed by satellite to viewers nationwide. The jock made a joke about how the then WKBW-TV Eyewitness News anchor team of Irv Weinstein, Tom Jolls, and Rick Azar would be as well known in Florida as they were in Buffalo !!!. As far as WKBW radio goes I have no idea how they would had been involved unless there were plans to simulcast say Danny Neverath's morning show ( like Don Imus ) on TV, but Danny and WKBW played music then. Wonder whatever became of this "idea" ???? Besides who outside of Buffalo would have been intersted in seeing WKBW anyway?

On a silimar note wasn't there an early cable channel back in the late 70's or early 80's where the bulk if not all of the programs came from various local TV stations around the country? For some reason I remember hearing this but I don't know if this idea ever became a reality or not. Be very difficult to pull it off today since most "local TV" is pretty much limted news but back then there was a much wider variety of local TV. I have to admit that would have been an interesting experiment. Would KTRK's the late Marvin Zindler be just as much loved in Pittsburgh as he was in Houston? Would KPHO's old Wallace & Ladmo have the same number of fans in Atlanta as they did in Phoenix? Could the name "Natalie Jacobson" be as well as known in Boise as she was ( and still is ) in Boston?

SPN...Satellite Programming Network...I still remember them maninly for some of their "grade Z" programs.

 

[PTBoardOp94]

ValueVision is now ShopNBC.

There used to be a competitor to CNBC in the mid-90s that is now defunct. I don't recall the name.