Has anyone here on this forum own a C-band dish? Tell your memories here!

[azumanga]

The Galaxy 1 in the late 80s had LOTS of cable channels on it, like TNN and CNN. Anyone remeber the Galaxy 1?

I do -- I even recall Radio Shack offering a stationary satellite dish, just for G1 viewers, in its catalog for several years. This could've been a prototype of the modern DBS systems, as it offered mailnly most of the popular cable channels.

 

[mleach]

-crainbebo

Then in about 1986 or so, the Netlink Denver stations began their long reign on Satcom F1R/C1....KUSA, KMGH, KCNC, KRMA, KDVR and KWGN, plus at the time KUBD during KRMA's off hours, and something called KSPN. KSPN and KUBD went away, along with KDVR for a while. Netlink even ran a redundant feed on F1R for a while of WGN Chicago (same stuff that was on United Video's Galaxy 1 TR 3 feed). And who can forget the short move of the Denver stations to F2R?

Exactly why were the Denver stations offered? I guess a better question would be why that market rather than say Kansas City or Cincinatti or really whoever ? Reason I ask some months back I was at a party and met a number of employees from KDVR, KCNC and KRMA and I asked them why were they on nationwide satellite for so many years. Not only did they NOT answer the question but the KDVR and KCNC people at the party told me they NEVER were available on satelliite outside the Denver Neilsen market ever. Interestng how they would deny such a thing plus not too mention the KDVR employee told me that KWGN was yanked off the Dish Network nationwide "superstation" package some years back even though I know people in North Carolina who can get Denver's "Duece" ( KWGN ) today thanks to Dish Network.

 

[landtuna]

Exactly why were the Denver stations offered?

The Denver Six (I believe that was the original marketing nomenclature) were uplinked originally to feed their local market which, due to the mountainous terrain, prevented OTA reception. If you happened to have a dish and could not receive a network feed OTA from your local market you were allowed to subscribe to the Denver Six. You were supposed to present an affidavit to obtain programming but I don't think the programmers checked all that carefully.

 

[Stanislav]

The Denver Six...

Weren't they part of the same trial as the Chicago Seven? ;D

 

[gr8oldies]

In the Eastern time zone, there was an ABC,CBS and NBC affiliate available to Dish/Direct subscribers who couldn't get network affiliates over the air. IIRC these three stations were in different markets. One was Washington DC, pretty sure one was Charlotte and I forget where the third was.

 

[azumanga]

Does anyone remember the "Las Vegas Television Network"? I don't think they ever started programming, but they would intermittently (often on satellites such as F1R/C1) run a teaser channel, in which they would promote the fact that LVTN offered a variety of programming. Highlights included an auction program hosted by Marty Allen and Steve Rossi, documentary programming, children's shows, a news channel featuring local news, and an adult service (in which they actually sold subscriptions). I heard they were around for a long while, yet I think they never actually started regular programming.

 

[mleach]

In the Eastern time zone, there was an ABC,CBS and NBC affiliate available to Dish/Direct subscribers who couldn't get network affiliates over the air. IIRC these three stations were in different markets. One was Washington DC, pretty sure one was Charlotte and I forget where the third was.

I think what you may be talking about was the old Primestar DBS service as they did offered Washington's WUSA to those who couldn't receive CBS. I think WNBC out of NYC was offered too for NBC but not sure who Primestar had picked for ABC or FOX.

When I had Direct TV in 1998 they offered the nets from either New York City and Los Angeles. It was the same with Dish Network as well however Dish Network did offer stations out of Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Atlanta and for a very short time Indianapolis, to those who wanted them ( only a package of two cities were allowed ) and of course for those who were qualified to received them.

 

[crainbebo]

WSB Atlanta for ABC, WTXF Philadephila for Fox.

-crainbebo

 

[Ultimajock]

When I had Direct TV in 1998 they offered the nets from either New York City and Los Angeles. It was the same with Dish Network as well however Dish Network did offer stations out of Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Atlanta and for a very short time Indianapolis, to those who wanted them ( only a package of two cities were allowed ) and of course for those who were qualified to received them.

...I got that Dish Network package when I started up with them in 1999; Salt Lake City was also available with them for a while, but I switched to Dallas after a few weeks. Was supremely bummed out when WFAA/8 stopped their late Saturday night back-to-back runs of Branded and The Guns of Will Sonnett ;-) ...

 

[Tim L]

Off-Topic:WEWS/5 in Cleveland also did late night runs of Branded and Will Sonnett at that time (late 90's),,Also, I seem to remember taping (as part of another VHS tape) an episode of "The Rounders"..A Comedy western from 1966-67 that Channel 5 ran in the 80's early Saturday Mornings at 5:30 AM..Only saw it the one time..Seemed odd that this would be in syndication that late..

 

[azumanga]

Off-Topic:WEWS/5 in Cleveland also did late night runs of Branded and Will Sonnett at that time (late 90's)...

I also recall WFTV Orlando and WTSP Tampa Bay carrying these two shows, back to back in syndication. In WTSP's case, they carried the programs late Friday night, after about an hour of infomercials. Apparently, King World, the shows' syndicator, offered these programs as some sort of bonus for buying other King World series, such as, of course, Wheel and Jeopardy.

 

[crainbebo]

Switching back to C-band...
In the old days, G1 (Galaxy 1) was FULL of stations. G1-4 was Disney, G1-3 WGN, G1-2 TNN, G1-9 ESPN, G1-11 Family Channel, G1-7 CNN, the list goes on and on...

-crainbebo

 

[AlbumOldies]

Ah, great topic. I had a C band dish from around 1987 until 2001. I bought mine mainly to get out of market baseball games. Living in Memphis, it was nearly impossible to get American League games, as Memphis was (and is) Cardinals country. After I got my dish I could pick up Yankees games on WPIX, Rangers games on KTVT, and Angels games (my team) on KTLA. There were also regional SportsChannel networks available. When I moved to Somerset, KY in 1992 C band was even better as I lived out of reach of network stations signals from Lexington and Knoxville, TN, so I could subscribe to all the network packages. The Denver stations were my favorites as I vacation out west each year so I knew a good bit about the area they covered.

Whenever there was a big news story (plane crash, etc) I would start scanning the skies for local on-site uplinks. I also liked looking around for the little things like Dr. Dean Edell's short medical related clips that stations would use with their local news broadcasts.

When I moved to Knoxville in 2001, I had to "retire" the big dish as my lot is too wooded to use it. I've still got it, stored in my basement, and would love to get it back in service some day. However, since Direct TV has the Extra Innings baseball package, I can get my baseball fix. All in all, I think I'd still prefer the C band over the small dish.

I also really liked getting the big formatted "Satellite TV Week" magazine. Fortunately I saved a couple of them for posterity.

 

[stdjsb25]

When I moved to Knoxville in 2001, I had to "retire" the big dish as my lot is too wooded to use it. I've still got it, stored in my basement, and would love to get it back in service some day. However, since Direct TV has the Extra Innings baseball package, I can get my baseball fix. All in all, I think I'd still prefer the C band over the small dish.

You'd probably be spending an arm-and-a-leg to get it up and running again. When 4DTV came in.....C-Band as we knew it began its long decline. That and your Videocipher, if it's still working, is probably a pile of circuits, as what was left of Videocipher programming was finally retired last year.

 

[azumanga]

All in all, I think I'd still prefer the C band over the small dish.

You'd probably be spending an arm-and-a-leg to get it up and running again. When 4DTV came in.....C-Band as we knew it began its long decline. That and your Videocipher, if it's still working, is probably a pile of circuits, as what was left of Videocipher programming was finally retired last year.

I imagine that all that's left in analog are wild feeds -- everything else is in digital, either in the 4DTV of DVB formats. To see it all, you'll need at least both a 4DTV and a DVB FTA receiver.

 

[crainbebo]

All in all, I think I'd still prefer the C band over the small dish.

You'd probably be spending an arm-and-a-leg to get it up and running again. When 4DTV came in.....C-Band as we knew it began its long decline. That and your Videocipher, if it's still working, is probably a pile of circuits, as what was left of Videocipher programming was finally retired last year.

I imagine that all that's left in analog are wild feeds -- everything else is in digital, either in the 4DTV of DVB formats. To see it all, you'll need at least both a 4DTV and a DVB FTA receiver.

Actually in analog there's only C-Span, a couple of religious channels (Shepherd's Chapel is one), and scrambled ESPN/ESPN2. I think all the feeds went to either digital C-Band or KU-Band.

-crainbebo

 

[JimmyJames]

Speaking of big dish applications, are there any channels left on SCPC? I know at one time you could get a decent selection of radio on it.

 

[crainbebo]

Do you mean SCPC Services? I'm not sure.

-crainbebo

 

[crainbebo]

Do you remember the Galaxy 7 satellite? Here was the lineup circa early 1998.


Lineup:
G7-02 Audio feeds??
G7-03 Action Pay Per View
G7-05 FX Network
G7-06 Game Show Network
G7-10 Emirates Dubai TV
G7-11 Encore
G7-12 Love Stories
G7-14 IFC
G7-18 Occasional Feeds
G7-19 CBS feeds
G7-20 Fox News Channel
G7-21 BET on Jazz
G7-23 Fox Movies Channel

A 1998 C-band scan, including feeds

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XK7a5dt0LB0

Just watch out for some adult material..lol

-crainbebo

 

[Scott2011]

I've never owned a C-band satellite dish, but speaking of wildfeeds, I remember just the other day after seeing a rerun of Family Guy on WUAB in Cleveland, seeing a color bars slate acknowledging the start of a Cops episode and featuring the flashing "ROLL TAPES NOW!" message. It took me a while to figure out where that was coming from, but after I looked up more information on C-band satellites and wildfeeds, apparently the C-band receptions are where the local stations get their syndicated programs from, along with the nationally broadcast commercials and program bumpers that come with them.

For the record though, Cops reruns don't air on WUAB, let alone right after Family Guy, so it must have just been bad editing from the raw feed on the station's part.