Defunct Cable TV networks we missed

[hubcity]

"Anyone remember CBS Cable? I remember it in 1981 or so. It was a "fine arts" channel that didn't last long."

CBS poured a lot of cash into trying to push that channel--which was Bill Paley's last brainchild. He hoped it would be a commercial, fulltime cultural alternative to PBS' nighttime cultural programming and present the cream of the classical music, jazz, drama and stage comedy crops. It gobbled a ton of cash at a time when stockholders were screaming about profit margins (remember that the country was just coming out of another bad recession in '81), they had to cut back on ambitious program plans almost immediately, and it reportedly broke Paley's heart when he had to shut it down after trimming programming several times to try to keep it alive through the rough times. It just didn't quite make it. Would it have lasted if they'd given it another six months or a year to get going, at a time when cable penetration was starting to rise nationally? Who knows? Paley reportedly thought to his dying day that a little more time and CBS Cable would have gotten the audience it needed to stay alive, but no one today can say (and probably no one around CBS today even remembers it, or admits to...).

I remember it - started a Wikipedia article about it a few years ago: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CBS_Cable

 

[azumanga]

My cable system carried KSTW out of Tacoma/Seattle until the mid-'90s. The station aired a lot of syndicated fare that the locals in Spokane didn't, as well as the Mariners, the Sonics, original programming, and a 10 pm newscast. After KAYU affiliated with Fox and KSKN went off-the-air, Spokane didn't have any independents, so KSTW was sort of adopted as our own. It was a great station.

When the Syndex laws went into effect, things got complicated. Turning on KSTW, one was often greeted with a dark blue screen with white text that began, "We are required by the FCC..." After a few years of this, Cox (Spokane's cable system at the time) put KSTW on a part-time basis only, splitting its channel space with VH-1 half the day. The station was dropped altogether shortly after it affiliated with CBS.

In 1981, KSTW produced a special which was a travelogue of sorts about Spokane. Here's its promo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oy9QSsrIFr4&feature=g-all-u

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

Also, GSN when it was Game Show Network

And when they actually aired classic game shows including classic Price is Right--before those reruns were ruined by "Win TV" pushing TPIR off the full screen (remember that?).

 

[eddiepritchett]

The family channel was great abc family is crap.

 

[johnnya2k6]

UPDATE: Since my comment about "Joy Junction", Ronald Brown, a puppeteer on that show, was arrested last July for child porn and even intended to eat children!!! http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/florida-church-puppeteer-busted-child-porn-rap-article-1.1125506 Truly, truly SICK!!

 

[davalvideo]

As a news and history junkie, i loved the short lived CBS Eye on People, because it used to air vintage CBS News broadcasts from the 50s and 60s, including documentaries on issues of the time such as civil rights, the vietnam war...etc. Also loved MSNBC when it first started, particularly Jane Pauley's Time and Again.

 

[Cincinnati Kid]

In the early 1980's Time Warner Cable (then called "Warner Amex") in the Greater Cincinnati area used to show an Oakland, California channel - it may have been KTVU - but only after midnight Eastern Time. The channel it came in over showed slides, etc. and then at midnight, it started feeding that channel. Since it became available so late, I don't remember watching too much on it or recall how long the feed lasted. I do remember one Saturday night in the summer when the programming began and they were showing a San Francisco Giants game at Pittsburgh. Due to rain delays, the game was still in progress about the ninth inning.

 

[cool_guy82]

theese are the cable channels i miss :

WGN (The Original network)
FOX REALITY
TRIO
THE FAMILY CHANNEL
FOX FAMILY CHANNEL
TOON DISNEY
ODYSSEY
SCI FI CHANNEL (THE OLD VERSION NOT THE NEW SYFY)

 

[BD Sullivan]

I miss the ESPN that used to acknowledge that other teams outside of the East Coast and major markets existed.

 

[blackgold]

I miss the old Disney Channel as well the original Bravo network. And the old MTV and VH1 no longer exist.

 

[desertv]

I miss the old Disney Channel as well the original Bravo network. And the old MTV and VH1 no longer exist.

You mean when they had "Disney" shows? And "Vault Disney"?, today its Phineas & Ferb and interchangeable teen comedies!

 

[jfrancispastirchak]

Already mentioned in passing (REPLY 44), but I miss the old CBN and their B/W encores of 30-years ago. Among them were Jack Benny, Bob Cummings, Burns & Allen, Wendy & Me, Groucho's game show and Dobie Gillis.

 

[NHRadio]

and interchangeable teen comedies!

Truly...even the teens in them are the same.

 

[blackgold]

I miss the old Disney Channel as well the original Bravo network. And the old MTV and VH1 no longer exist.

You mean when they had "Disney" shows? And "Vault Disney"?, today its Phineas & Ferb and interchangeable teen comedies!

Yes! That's what I mean when I'm talking about the old Disney channel. Their kids and family shows were great! And "Vault Disney" was the tops, especially with their Christmas shows!

 

[danderson6500]

Yes, I also miss Eye on People and remember when they reran Real People and That's incredible.

I also miss soap net when they would rerun old nighttime soaps like Dynasty and Knots Landing.

One net I miss is Nicklodeon Games and Sports and I do wish that nickelodeon game shows would be rerun on Teenick's the 90s are all that.

Also, GSN when it was Game Show Network

Didn't Eye on People morph into Discovery Life, or was that another channel?

 

[danderson6500]

As a news and history junkie, i loved the short lived CBS Eye on People, because it used to air vintage CBS News broadcasts from the 50s and 60s, including documentaries on issues of the time such as civil rights, the vietnam war...etc. Also loved MSNBC when it first started, particularly Jane Pauley's Time and Again.

as someone who liked realty and history shows, I kind of associate CBS Eye on People with my middle school years(96-99). TV Land started around that point of time too. CBS Eye on People had some really good shows. Like reruns of shows like On Scene: Emergency Response, Real People, the vintage CBS News broadcasts from the 50s and 60s, including documentaries on issues of the time such as civil rights, the Vietnam war...etc, Missing Reward, and there was one other show i remember watching on there. That's Incredible?

 

[hamster]

I kinda miss when Denver's KWGN, KCNC ,KRMA, KMGH, KUSA and KDVR were seen on the big dishes to a nationwide following. In those days Denver was IT with top notch news anchors great programing and even the commercials were cool. Today with so many anchors like Bob Palmer, Ernie Bjorkman, Bertha Lynn and others who either passed away, retired or simply they choose to get out of business today's Denver TV market is really no different from anyone else.

 

[b-turner]

There were lots of short lived networks that leased space on a bird and never reached the coverage they needed before going under. I had access to a TV hooked up to a big dish back in the day when everything was unscrambled. There were great little 'networks' like SPN that drew me in because they were so different. I recall a Methodist version of a cable TV network that aired only 2 hours in prime time. I recall every program used the same set. There were a few really low budget shopping channels that made that one out of Knoxville look high budget. The most unusual to me was a station running non-stop self produced informercials. It seems it was a 6 hour VHS recording. While the VHS rewound, a single frame appeared saying the 'tape' was being rewound and programming would resume momentarily. I recall the networks usually had few commercials too, even few of those per inquiry spots. I recall watching a bad movie on one channel and the 'we'll return to the movie' and the 'now back to our movie' in and out were longer than the single frame 10 second spot in the middle.

When the Sci-Fi channel debuted, they ran a 'teaser' in the form of a never ceasing video of the interior of a spacecraft. It implied an alien invasion. Every couple of minutes a mechanized voice announced names and said 'we are coming for you'. The graphics were incredible. I had a place out on a friend's property at the time. Whenever his kids came in the room, we'd hit the Sci-Fi channel and pretend to be in a trance. When they'd speak, we'd tell them it was the best thing on TV and we'd encourage them to watch. We'd ask if they had heard their names called. Then we'd smile and say they called our name. When that night came for the Sci-Fi debut, my friend had one of those big bright lights like the police use (pointed toward the sky) and put a Tomita recording on in the truck playing at full blast as all us adults went outside (it was past sunset). The kids, thinking we were joking were now having seconds thoughts (they were 10 and 12 at the time). It was right at the time the homemade ice cream was finished, so after a good laugh we all had a bowl of ice cream. We figured the bowls and silverware on the table on the deck even gave it a bit more authenticity since everybody in the house knew we were churning ice cream.

The area where the friend lived had a few unexplained events many felt were not of this world. One was tracked by the University of Texas at Austin observatory, a bright light that moved across the sky. In fact, this guy lived in the country and we were taking a narrow county road to the grocery store and there was a cop car lights on, door open and nobody around blocking the road. We thought he might be in trouble. We thought to call in on the radio but decided to yell out for the cop. The guy comes out of the brush and you can tell he's scared to death. He says something landed 'like a UFO' and he was waiting for backup. He asked if we'd stay with him until backup arrived and asked if we had guns in the truck if he needed help. We did stay with him. We didn't see anything but a foggy sort of light obscured by brush but I never saw an officer as scared as he seemed. The Austin, Texas paper carried reports of something in the sky in that area the next morning. All of this happened just before the Sci-Fi channel started up, in fact within weeks.

 

[BD Sullivan]

I presume it's already been mentioned, but CBS Cable always had "classy" programming, like classical music concerts, ballet, etc. In short, anything that they would NEVER think of putting on their money-making OTA channel. Naturally, it tanked pretty quickly.

 

[hamster]

There were lots of short lived networks that leased space on a bird and never reached the coverage they needed before going under. I had access to a TV hooked up to a big dish back in the day when everything was unscrambled. There were great little 'networks' like SPN that drew me in because they were so different. I recall a Methodist version of a cable TV network that aired only 2 hours in prime time. I recall every program used the same set. There were a few really low budget shopping channels that made that one out of Knoxville look high budget. The most unusual to me was a station running non-stop self produced informercials. It seems it was a 6 hour VHS recording. While the VHS rewound, a single frame appeared saying the 'tape' was being rewound and programming would resume momentarily. I recall the networks usually had few commercials too, even few of those per inquiry spots. I recall watching a bad movie on one channel and the 'we'll return to the movie' and the 'now back to our movie' in and out were longer than the single frame 10 second spot in the middle.

I remember SPN !! On Facebook recently this channel was brought up. Apparently many got SPN confused with SMN ( Satellite Music Network ) out of Dallas.

I also remember those shopping channels. QVC and Home Shopping Network everybody remembers but what about LSA-TV ?? That stood for LS Ayres an Indianapolis department store chain who had their own regional shopping channel as did The Jones Store Company out of Kansas City and Lazarus out of Ohio.. Sadly all of these stores are now defunct.

Wasn't there a cable channel that showed hardcore porn ?? I know Playboy had a channel back then but it wasn't it. Was it Hustler ?? Anyway my cousin in West Virginia got it on the big dish.