How many channels did cable TV have in the 1970s?

[cowboybud]

The first time I ever saw cable TV was at my uncle's house in North Little Rock, AR in the late 70s. I don't remember the exact channel lineup, but I do remember these channels:

- The Little Rock locals (at the time, just the Big 3 and PBS)
- HBO
- WTCG Atlanta
- KXTX and KTVT Dallas/Ft. Worth
- A channel with a news ticker

 

[w9wi]

w9wi, I also grew up in Madison in the '70s and '80s, and I think you're pretty much right about the lineup there. In addition to WVTV, Milwaukee's WMVS was carried at some point--meaning that there were two PBS stations. Also, there was New York's WOR for at least a bit.

Interesting. I don't remember WOR or WMVS (or the AP news service on 3) but that may have been at a point when I didn't have cable. I don't think I subscribed immediately after leaving UW, by the time I subscribed again the early 1980s explosion of channels had taken place.

The vague recollections are returning, I'm thinking channel 6 was CNN.

 

[CrummyVision]

If we're talking strictly Seventies, I remember some things about the cable system in Fortuna, CA and I think the company was called Fortuna Cable. The other cities in Humboldt County, I believe, were served by a company called HB Cable TV, and I think what they offered was similar. There was no set-top box, the cable just hooked up to the back of the TV and was received on the twelve VHF channels. At that point, only channels 9, 10, and 13 were empty, and channel 11 for whatever reason was audio only. They later added things to fill up those empty channels, including I think a premium movie channel like HBO or Showtime, but not sure what was done to unscramble the signal if you were a subscriber, as even in that case there was no descrambler box. In Eureka, however, they did use a descrambler box for the premium channel. Just a box with a big knob on it. You'd turn your TV to channel 4 and turn the knob and KRON out of San Francisco would be replaced with HBO or whatever it was,although I could be wrong. Perhaps channel 4 was just static unless you subscribed and turned on your little box.
Now, in the Eighties, I lived in several different places with different cable arrangements. In 1983, Vancouver, WA, ahd what seemed to be fairly sophisticated cable boxes. They seemed digitally controlled, at least, and had remotes. When I moved to Fairfield CA, what we got was a box with one big knob on the front to change channels. I think it could receive 37 channels, and if you wanted to have a subscription channel or two, you had to take the box to the cable company. I guess they had to open it up and do things with it so it could receive those channels. Now, for me as a blind guy, I could actually enjoy any of the three premium channels, even if we didn't subscribe to them, because only the picture was scrambled. The audio was in the clear and my TV had a very tiny screen so nobody cared that I was watching scrambled programming.
In Rio Vista, CA, the cable boxes had pushbuttons on the front, the type where if you selected one it would go in and stay in. When you selected another, the new button would go in whilst the previous one returned to the out position, so strictly mechanical buttons, no digital interface. No idea if we had an A/B/C switch, although we might have had such, and I think they did scramble the audio of the two premium channels you could get on that little system.
The next time I got cable was in the mid-Nineties and at that point TV sets could receive cable channels so no need for a set-top box, and I believe we had up to 98 channels or so that could be filled.

 

[charlestondxman]

Charleston, SC got cable in the late 1970s. It was a slow process, starting out in the North Charleston area than expanding (reading thru newspaper archives). It started in 1977. WTCG was on it from pretty much the beginning. USA was added eventually, and CBN was always on there.

One neighborhood in North Charleston didn't get it until 1988 or 89.

 

[spencerkarter85]

Charleston, SC got cable in the late 1970s. It was a slow process, starting out in the North Charleston area than expanding (reading thru newspaper archives). It started in 1977. WTCG was on it from pretty much the beginning. USA was added eventually, and CBN was always on there.

One neighborhood in North Charleston didn't get it until 1988 or 89.

It was Storer Cable (later Comcast). When I was looking at the Post and Courier (then News and Courier) from 1985 when a new independent station WTAT-24 (now FOX) signed on for the first time and it was added in the lineup, moving Lifetime to another channel, and dropping the SPN channel, what was the SPN channel about? It was at the time that WCIV-4 was NBC, WCBD-2 was ABC, before Bill Walsh, Dean Stephens, Tom Crawford, and Rob Fowler came along. But Warren Petter, Bill Sharpe, Debi Chard, Mike Hiott, Dee Earley Crosby, and Dean Swanson were on and before Hugo changed Chucktown forever. On the latter, what ever happened to Dean Swanson of WCIV-4? And I like the WCIV-4 1978-87 logo (the 4 Leads logo with the 1976-1979 NBC logo on the 4). Had you ever seen station IDs of WCIV-4 using the 1978-87 logo (the 4 Leads) with the 1976-79 NBC logo, later the 1979-86 NBC's Proud N logo (with 11 feathered peacock), and the 1986-current six feathered logo on it (from slogans like "4 Leads" to "On Your Side". From Action News to NewsCenter 4 then News 4) with that logo before the WCIV-4 logo changed in October 1987 for their 25th anniversary (using a logo similar to NBC O&O in Los Angeles KNBC) and the current peacock on TV?

 

[Marckd]

In the early 60's, most cable systems had the local channels with a couple others averaging about 6 stations. By the 1970's most cable systems carrird about 12 channels. They would carry locals which averaged 4 plus locals from a neighboring market plus the nearest independent station. Here are a couple cable system I know of.

Garden State Cable TV Sussex County - 1975
2 - 2 WCBS TV CBS New York City
3 - 3 KYW TV NBC Philadelphia
4 - 4 WNBC TV NBC New York City
5 - 5 WNEW TV ind. New York City
6 - 6 WPVI ABC Philadelphia
7 - 7 WABC TV ABC New York City
8 - Weather Clocks with WRFM playing Easy listening Music until 11 AM
17 WPHL ind. Philadelphia from 11 AM on
9 - 9 WOR TV ind. New York City
10 - 10 WCAU TV CBS Philadelphia
11 - 11 WPIX ind. New York City
12 - Weather Clocks until Noon Mon-Sat - Until 10 AM Sunday
48 WKBS ind. Philadelphia Noon On Mon-Sat - 10 AM on Sunay
13 - 13 WNET PBS New York City

Garden State Cable TV Sussex County - 1978
2 - 2 WCBS TV CBS New York City
3 - 52 WNJT PBS Trenton - New Jersey Public Television - daily sign on to sign off
3 KYW TV NBC Philadelphia (when New Jersey Public TV is not on the air)
4 - 4 WNBC TV NBC New York City
5 - 5 WNEW TV ind. New York City
6 - 6 WPVI ABC Philadelphia
7 - 7 WABC TV ABC New York City
8 - Reuters News with WRFM playing Easy listening Music until 11 AM
17 WPHL ind. Philadelphia from 11 AM on
9 - 9 WOR TV ind. New York City
10 - 29 WTAF ind. Philadelphia
10 WCAU TV CBS Philadelphia - When Channel 29 is off the air
11 - 11 WPIX ind. New York City
12 - Weather Clocks until Noon Mon-Sat - Until 10 AM Sunday
48 WKBS ind. Philadelphia Noon On Mon-Sat - 10 AM on Sunay
13 - 13 WNET PBS New York City
18 - Home Box Office
19 - Weather Clocks
20 - Reuters News with WRFM
21 - 3 KYW TV NBC
22 - 10 WCAU TV CBS
23 - 48 WKBS ind.

Charter Cable - Bogalusa, LA - 1977
2 - 2 WBRZ NBC Baton Rouge
3 - Weather Clocks/Mississippi Public TV
4 - 4 WWL TV CBS New Orleans
5 - 17 WTCG Ind. Atlanta
6 - 6 WDSU NBC - New Orleans
7 - 33 WRBT ABC - Baton Rouge
8 - WVUE ABC/Ind. New Orleans
9 - 9 WAFB CBS Baton Rouge
10 - 26 WGNO Ind. New Orleans
11 - 11 KTVT Ind. Dallas
12 WYES PBS New Orleans
13 - 13 WLOX ABC Hattiesburg

Keene Cable - Keene New Hampshire - 1977
2 - 2 WGBH TV PBS Boston
3 - 3 WFSB CBS Hartford
4 - 4 WBZ TV NBC Boston
5 - 5 WCVB ABC Boston
6 - 41 Vermont Public TV
7 - 7 WNAC CBS Boston
8 - 38 WSBK Boston Ind
9 - 9 WMUR ABC Manchester
10 - 27 WSMW ind. Worcester
11 - 11 WENH PBS Manchester
12 - 56 WLVI ind. Boston
13 - 22 WWLP NBC Springfield

Keene Cable - Keene New Hampshire - 1979
2 - 2 WGBH TV PBS Boston
3 - 3 WFSB CBS Hartford Conn
4 - 4 WBZ TV NBC Boston
5 - 5 WCVB ABC Boston
6 - 41 Vermont Public TV
7 - 7 WNAC CBS Boston
8 - 38 WSBK Boston Ind
9 - 9 WMUR ABC Manchester
10 - 10 WTEN ABC Albany NY via 19 WCDC Adams Mass simuclasting Channel 10
11 - 11 WENH PBS Manchester
12 - 56 WLVI ind. Boston
13 - 31 WNNE NBC Hartford VT

 

[vibe]

While going to school in Las Cruces NM (1976-77) we had an inexpensive but really GREAT cable "system" consisting of the 3 nets from El Paso, 2 Spanish stations from Juarez, 1 station from Alb (240 mi N), a local PBS, and 4 LA indies (5,9, 11, and 13 if I remember. And 1 more but not sure what it was.
What more do you really need?

 

[harrisburgpatv]

Harrisburg, PA - Sammons Communications (swalowled up by Suburban Cable in 1996, in turn by Comcast in 1998)

2 - 21 WHP-TV CBS Harrisburg*
3 - 8 WGAL-TV NBC Lancaster*
4 - 27 WHTM-TV ABC Harrisburg
5 - 49 WGCB-TV Ind. Red Lion
6 - 33 WITF-TV PBS Hershey (now Harrisburg)*
7 - 17 WPHL-TV Ind. Philadelphia
8 - 29 WTAF-TV Ind. Philadelphia
9 - 9 WOR-TV Ind. New York
10 - Local
11 - 11 WPIX-TV Ind. New York
12 - 15 WLYH-TV CBS Lebanon
13 - 48 WKBS-TV Ind. Philadelphia

The * denotes channels that, after all these years, are still in the same dial position. Further down the dial there were some Baltimore and Philly stations - 3, 6, and 10 from Philly were all carried at one point as were 2, 11, and 13. 13 got replaced by either CNN or ESPN early in '81; 3 was replaced by MTV in spring 1982. Until 1990, 6 and 10 shared channel space, as did 2 and 11. 9 from NYC left in early 1990; 11 from NY in 2002. 48 of course from Philly went dark in '83.

 

[e-dawg]

Key West FL 1978

2 WPBT (PBS)
3 WPLG (ABC)
4 Local weather dials
5 Local (Color bars most of the time)
6 WCIX (Ind)
7 WCKT (NBC)

Expansion didn't occur till 1980.

Where's WTVJ CBS 4, WLRN PBS 17,WAJA SPANISH IND 23, WHFT IND/RELG 45, SPAN/ENG IND/ WKID 51 on the cable dial?

 

[azumanga]

Key West FL 1978

2 WPBT (PBS)
3 WPLG (ABC)
4 Local weather dials
5 Local (Color bars most of the time)
6 WCIX (Ind)
7 WCKT (NBC)

Expansion didn't occur till 1980.

Where's WTVJ CBS 4, WLRN PBS 17,WAJA SPANISH IND 23, WHFT IND/RELG 45, SPAN/ENG IND/ WKID 51 on the cable dial?

Kind of odd that the system did not offer at least WTVJ at the time.

Also, did the cable system in Key West offer Cuban television at one point -- I read in an old TV and Cable Factbook that it was one of the stations they carried (or planned to carry).

By the way, WAJA became WLTV in 1971, 7 years earlier.

 

[Groove1670]

Kind of odd that the system did not offer at least WTVJ at the time

Oops correction WTVJ was on 6.

Also, did the cable system in Key West offer Cuban television at one point -- I read in an old TV and Cable Factbook that it was one of the stations they carried (or planned to carry).

Yes. When the channels realigned in the 80's. Tele Media Carried channel 6 from Cuba. It was mostly B/W and reception was poor. It lasted about a year.


I liked the Legal Id they used at the top of the hour. I wish I could find it on Youtube.

Where's WTVJ CBS 4, WLRN PBS 17,WAJA SPANISH IND 23, WHFT IND/RELG 45, SPAN/ENG IND/ WKID 51 on the cable dial?

Many of the channels were added in the very late 80's. The whole cable system was rebuilt and took time.

 

[mjlarochelle]

Hmm...can I remember the People's Cable lineup in suburban Rochester in 1980? Let's see:

25 CBLFT Toronto (SRC)

I would be very surprised if a cable system in Rochester, even back then, carried CBLFT without also carrying an English affiliate of CBC - whether that be CBLT Toronto, CHEX Peterborough, or CKWS Kingston.

 

[mjlarochelle]

In Canada, it depended a lot on where you lived. According to a cable lineup for London, Ontario I've seen from circa 1980, that city received:

2 - TVOntario
3 - Global
4 - WSEE (CBS) Erie
5 - WXYZ (ABC) Detroit
6 - CKCO (CTV) Kitchener
7 - CBLFT (SRC) Toronto
8 - WQLN (PBS) Erie
9 - CFPL (CBC) London
11 - CHCH (IND) Hamilton
12 - WICU (NBC) Erie
13 - Local origination
17 - WJET (ABC) Erie*
18 - WJBK (CBS) Detroit*
19 - WDIV (NBC) Detroit*
20 - WUAB (IND) Cleveland

*These three stations were in the channel 17-19 range, but I don't recall the exact order

There was no "pay TV" or specialty channels in Canada until 1983, and none of these channels had wide distribution until the late 1980s. Areas like Toronto had plenty of channels on cable. Some parts of Canada had far more limited cable channel lineups, particularly before CANCOM was launched circa 1983 which allowed Canadian superstations, the new pay TV channels, and some U.S. stations to be distributed nationally. My understanding is that prior to that time, St. John's, Newfoundland had 5 channels, with the two American stations microwaved in: CBNT (CBC), CJON (CTV), CBFT (SRC), WLBZ (NBC), and WVII (ABC). Yes, no CBS or PBS. Once CANCOM launched, St. John's had a few more channels. Areas like Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories were even worse - cable there prior to CANCOM was limited to CBC North and a couple of part-time cable services, one of which carried weekly local bingo. CANCOM allowed parts of Canada to receive de-facto "superstations" which in the 1980s included ITV Edmonton, CHCH Hamilton, and BCTV. Some rural areas still get Global Edmonton and Global BC on basic cable, as a result.

 

[fybush]

Hmm...can I remember the People's Cable lineup in suburban Rochester in 1980? Let's see:

25 CBLFT Toronto (SRC)

I would be very surprised if a cable system in Rochester, even back then, carried CBLFT without also carrying an English affiliate of CBC - whether that be CBLT Toronto, CHEX Peterborough, or CKWS Kingston.

Be surprised, then.

English CBC has never had cable carriage in Rochester. CBLT's signal here is very poor because of its directional antenna on the CN Tower, and CHEX and CKWS are even worse. The only Canadians that have ever been carried are CBLFT, CJOH (via 6 from Deseronto) and CFMT, and those only on the suburban People's Cable system. Viewers in the city of Rochester, where cable arrived in 1980/81 on American Cable, never had any Canadian signals at all.

 

[searadiofreak]

Interesting topic.

When I was a kid in Seattle it was strictly OTA in the early to mid 70's. However, there were some suburbs that had cable in the early 70's, (couldn't tell you what it was called), but brought in a couple of Canadian stations and KVOS in Bellingham, about an hour and half north of Seattle. I believe the hilly terrain in the market made it difficult for some OTA stations to reach some suburbs.

When I went to college in 1977, cable was available in Pullman, WA (Washington State University) and Spokane stations (about two hours away) were beamed in. (Although they could have been translators, not sure).

However, there is no doubt that the blueprint of what we see today occured for me in the Fall of 1978 when I lived in Lewiston, ID. The apartment complex I lived in offered it for free and included ESPN and HBO. Of course, not for long. HBO became a pay channel soon after.

 

[oldiesfan6479]

Oops correction WTVJ was on 6.

(In reference to the cable system in Key West in 1978.)

From the 1979 Broadcasting Yearbook:
WTVJ Miami was still on channel 4, still CBS, still owned by Wometco.
And Ralph Renick was still the VP News.

 

[RBW]

There was no "pay TV" or specialty channels in Canada until 1983, and none of these channels had wide distribution until the late 1980s. Areas like Toronto had plenty of channels on cable. Some parts of Canada had far more limited cable channel lineups, particularly before CANCOM was launched circa 1983 which allowed Canadian superstations, the new pay TV channels, and some U.S. stations to be distributed nationally. My understanding is that prior to that time, St. John's, Newfoundland had 5 channels, with the two American stations microwaved in: CBNT (CBC), CJON (CTV), CBFT (SRC), WLBZ (NBC), and WVII (ABC). Yes, no CBS or PBS. Once CANCOM launched, St. John's had a few more channels. Areas like Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories were even worse - cable there prior to CANCOM was limited to CBC North and a couple of part-time cable services, one of which carried weekly local bingo. CANCOM allowed parts of Canada to receive de-facto "superstations" which in the 1980s included ITV Edmonton, CHCH Hamilton, and BCTV. Some rural areas still get Global Edmonton and Global BC on basic cable, as a result.

I spent my childhood in Toronto, and I know cable was available wayyyyy back. It would've been the late `60's I believe (recalling where we lived then) and I used to see the cable trucks with the phrase "Cable for COLOR TV" splattered across the sides. Then I DO remember, in the mid 70's, when my family lived in the Avenue Rd- St. Clair area, we DUMPED our cable for a 50' tall rotating antenna! I wish I could recall what we got ON cable, (I think it was Metro Cable in those days) but remember being bedazzled by the array of e-skip and tropo events we had WITH the antenna. I know cable didn't supply us with any Rochester, NY stations, because I used to get them all the time with the new setup. Obviously we weren't impressed with the cable, and my dad was always trying to save money. The antenna certainly gave us everything cable offered... and during those warmer months, a whole lot more. Remember, there were NO "cable only" channels at that point yet.

 

[azumanga]

Kind of odd that the system did not offer at least WTVJ at the time

Oops correction WTVJ was on 6.

Then where was WCIX on cable?

 

[RadioDaze]

This is what I remember of the early Durham (N.C.) Cablevision (now Time-Warner Cable) 12-channel line-up:

2-USA Network
3-WPTF-TV 28 (NBC, Durham, NC)
4-Always remember this as a business ticker, with horrible interference from WUNC-TV
5-WTTG-TV 5 (Ind, Washington, DC) and later CBN/Family Channel
6-WTVD 11 (CBS, Durham, NC, still in this position now as an ABC O&O)
7-HBO
8-Local Access
9-WUNC-TV 4 (PBS, Chapel Hill, NC, also still in this position)
10-not sure what was here, before WLFL-TV/Raleigh signed on in 1981
11-WFMY-TV 2 (CBS, Greensboro, NC)
12-WRAL-TV 5 (ABC, Raleigh, NC)
13-WTBS-TV 17 (Ind, Atlanta, GA)

Durham had 30 channels by the early '80s and didn't expand this until 1989 when they went to 35 channels.

 

[wbhist]

I was curious if anyone would have mid-to-late 1970's channel lineups for both Manhattan Cable Television and TelePrompTer Cable in New York City. I seem to remember WNYC-TV 31 on Channel 3; WXTV 41 on Channel 12; and WNJU-TV 47 on Channel 8. If I'm mistaken, please advise where they would've been, and which other channels would have filled up the other limited slots of those days.