Cable channels that are no longer with us

[Newname]

Don't know if anyone mentioned this, but isn't FSN basically the old SportsChannel system?

Yes...and more recently, in some markets (such as the Bay Area), it has been rebranded as 'Comcast Sports Net'.

 

[jc]

Nickelodeon GAS - Replaced with The N

Except that Dish Network still carries Nick GAS, and The N is still shared time with Noggin. It must be one of those contract issues

It must be. Yeah, I knew Nick Gas and Noggin still share time I just forgot to mention it.

 

[NHRadio]

Does anyone remember CBS Cable? I remember it in roughly 1981 or so.
Our cable system had an interesting channel that showed 5-7 minute "mini-infomercials" but they wwren't the hard-sell crap...more like vignettes. The other channel had the list of advertisers and their 3 digit code numbers. You'd call a local number, enter the code and your selected ad would go into a queue.
I remember a hilarious one done by Monroe shock absorbers..."road gets bumpy, wheels go thumpy, and you get grumpy 'cause you got a sore rumpy".
Anyone have info on this?

 

[EricStein]

Vision Channel

I remember this channel, it was carried nationwide on Dish Network for a few months. The station aired old television shows (public domain) like You Bet Your Life, Dobie Gillis, Ozzie & Harriet, and Love That Bob. The station also aired some music videos from groups I've never heard of.

I actually thought it was a pretty good channel and enjoyed watching it the few months it was on the air.

Old web site...
http://web.archive.org/web/20020118194957/http://www.thevisionchannel.com/

That sounds very similar to the "Educator TV" network that Dish carries these days. A lot of public-domain movies and shows, and a few hours of religious programming each day. http://www.educatortv.com/default.htm

 

[Nate Wesley]

Does anyone know if the Black Family Channel still exists? When we upgraded to digital cable in late 2006 (yes, that was part of our Christmas list), we had that channel, but it was replaced with some gospel music channel.

The Black Family Channel (started as Major Broadcasting Cable Network, or MBC Network, by the same owners) shut down April 30, 2007. Looking to woo BET viewers with family-friendly programming, BFC never could gain serious cable coverage nationwide, despite some success with HBCU football telecasts and programming ideas from Robert Townsend.Wikipedia (where I totally lifted most of these details from) says it plans a broadband video channel using the same content on its website. Its channel space and some of its programming were sold to the appropriately named "Gospel Music Channel".

Now, someone mentioned New Urban Entertainment, aka "NUE-TV", another BET competitor. I think this channel mostly got clearance on Washington, D.C. cable systems in the 1990s, and shut down a few years into business. I couldn't tell you what the programming was like as I never saw it. I can tell you that RadioOne and many former BET producers got involved with this effort on a partial basis. It's safe to say that RadioOne probably got things right the second time around:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1365/is_7_33/ai_96954302

 

[1069_KIFR]

TNN- The Nashville Network.
They tried to revive it as The National Network.
Now it is Spike

 

[1069_KIFR]

Court TV
Now its Tru TV.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

Then, there's "America's Talking", which was supplanted with today's MSNBC.

"AT" didn't last long.

It was run by the one and only Roger Ailes, who after being passed over at MSNBC...well, the rest is cable news history.

 

[Morgan Wick]

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.

And FUSE, a conversion of MuchMusicUSA into an attempt to grab disaffected ex-MTV-ites, has descended into the abyss.

The fates of MTV2, FUSE, and GAC suggest a music video channel has outlived its usefulness in an age of YouTube.

Wasn't FNN merged with CNBC in the 80s, and thus never competed with it in the 90s? I had never heard of it and I have a history of television book from 1991-2 that refers to CNBC as "CNBC/FNN".

Don't know if anyone mentioned this, but isn't FSN basically the old SportsChannel system?

Don't forget the Prime Network.

I can actually think of a few that weren't even listed here.

I think that in the very beginning, when the MTV/Vh-1 suite first began in 2001, Vh-1 Classic was originally called Vh-1 Smooth. From what I understand, I think it may have been Adult Contemporary music videos, which I actually would have liked. But I guess they decided to change it because I don't think the core AC audience usually spends their spare time watching videos. I also remember I think MTV Jams was originally MTV X, which was alternative rock music videos.

I also remember a very short-lived music channel called NUE (New Urban Entertainment). It mostly played Soul, R&B and Hip-Hop, much like Vh-1 Soul, which still exists today.

And about Vh-1 Classic, it has changed quite a bit since it first started. They hardly air any 60s/70s videos at all anymore. For a brief period of time in 2004, they actually started airing 90s videos, but I bet a lot of people complained about that, so now it's mostly 80s. And just like the real Vh-1, they now only play videos in the morning, for the most part. They used to have a different hour be a different block, but now they just have long blocks on one thing, and now all they really have are Totally 80s, Rock Fest, and Metal Mania.

Actually, I think MTVX became MTV Hits (which has itself bastardized into nonstop "playlistism" programming, at least the last time I checked).

 

[MotoMuzak]

kc0ltv--

In the early 1990s (1992-1994, I think.....or somewhere thereabouts) here in the Portland area Main Street TV was actually carried over the air on channel 16.......Gods help me if I can remember the call letters, tho. (Something with a -CA suffix, probably. I could get it very clearly at my Gran'ma's place in N Portland [around I-205] but I could barely get it at home, about six miles north in Vancouver, WA.)

About that same time Network 1 was carried on channel 19. They went off the air and the channel became Telemundo for a while. Then it was Home Shopping Club. Then America's Store. Now it's just static.

Someone mentioned ValueVision. This could be had on channel 43 (ca. 1995-1997 or so.) That, of course, long before KATU started broadcasting its ATSC feed on that channel.........

And my Gods, I miss The Tube!! It did what MTV won't, I think. ;o)

 

[1069_KIFR]

Locally in the Bay Area we had 'Bay TV'
A cable 24 hour news station ran in conjunction with
KRON and The SF Chronicle. But when The Chronicle was
sold, that started the beginning of the end for 'Bay TV'

 

[Stitch]

Am I imagining things, or wasn't there an early '80s cable network called "Tempo"? It may have been something of a competitor to the original version of "Bravo".

"tv!", mostly exclusive to TCI Cable systems, was a mid-'90s sampler that aired a different cable channel every day. Some were 'mainstream', like "Sci-Fi (Channel)", while the rest were obscure channels that have mostly vanished or merged into something else, like "Newsport" and "Celticvision".

The operation later became "Intro Television", and eventually was replaced by "MoviePlex".

 

[LKellerIII]

Locally in the Bay Area we had 'Bay TV'
A cable 24 hour news station ran in conjunction with
KRON and The SF Chronicle. But when The Chronicle was
sold, that started the beginning of the end for 'Bay TV'

A minor correction, KIFR. Not the "beginning of the end," , but a definite sudden death. As lame as the Young Broadcasting ownership of KRON has been, they knew from the get-go that they could not possibly service their huge dept and maintain the money-sucking Bay TV operation. You can only repeat Bay Area Backroads and the Henry Tannenbaum stuff so many times a day without looking foolish.

My memory is - they shut Bay TV down almost immediately.

 

[failsafe]

I used to like The Mystery Channel. Old Black & White film noir movies and such. I recorded my personal library of The Avengers from that channel. From the earliest b & w with Honor Blackman to the color ones with Linda Thornston. And NO COMMERCIALS!

I don't know if Encore's Mystery Channel is what it turned into.

And about Tech TV, I was more entertained watching the Thunderbirds than watching Leo Laporte showing the latest kewl things you can do with e-mail.

 

[EricStein]

kc0ltv--

In the early 1990s (1992-1994, I think.....or somewhere thereabouts) here in the Portland area Main Street TV was actually carried over the air on channel 16.......Gods help me if I can remember the call letters, tho. (Something with a -CA suffix, probably. I could get it very clearly at my Gran'ma's place in N Portland [around I-205] but I could barely get it at home, about six miles north in Vancouver, WA.)

If I remember correctly, Main Street TV was sold and became America One in the mid-'90s. At least that's what I remember reading. I don't think Channel America was the predecessor to America One as their Wikipedia article states. I need some answers here.

 

[ricksegers]

Am I imagining things, or wasn't there an early '80s cable network called "Tempo"? It may have been something of a competitor to the original version of "Bravo".

I think you may be thinkikng og Trio. It was interesting channel. My strongest memory was the ran Rown and Martin's Laugh-in in the morning. It had some other off beat and artsy type programming.

Regarding VH-1, I remember when I first got Direct TV in the late 90's there were a few VH-1 Channels. VH-1 Soul, VH-1 Country, VH-1 Classics and of course just VH-1 that has morphed into a vidoe reality junkyard.

 

[jc]

I can actually think of a few that weren't even listed here.

I think that in the very beginning, when the MTV/Vh-1 suite first began in 2001, Vh-1 Classic was originally called Vh-1 Smooth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VH1_Classic

I've looked there and I'm not finding any info on VH1 Classic originally called VH1 Smooth. And according to there VH1 Classic started in 2000, not in 2001

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

Someone mentioned ValueVision. This could be had on channel 43 (ca. 1995-1997 or so.) That, of course, long before KATU started broadcasting its ATSC feed on that channel.........

ValueVision actually bought our local secondary ABC affiliate, then-WAKC/23 Akron. As I recall, they only programmed off-hours with their own home shopping feed, and kept ABC and the local Akron/Canton newscasts otherwise.

They sold it to Paxson, which wiped out both the affiliation and the local news. The news would return a few years later, in a deal with the city of Akron...sparked by Paxson's need to put in new transmitter space within the city limits.

The station is now ION Network O&O WVPX/23.

Didn't ValueVision get swallowed into ShopNBC or something?

 

[Stitch]

ValueVision is indeed the ShopNBC of today.

Another shop-at-home network that is longer with us: "CVN", which was actually carried on my cable system for a while. QVC bought out the network in 1989.

On the earlier subject of "Tempo", here's an article I found that was dated March of 1987, ironically talking about shop-at-home style programming:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3092/is_v26/ai_4754073

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

ValueVision is indeed the ShopNBC of today.

So it is.

And ShopNBC still airs on a number of LPTVers as their main programming source, though as far as I know, none owned by the network outright.