no more "tube"

[PhillyWatch]

WPHL has this message up on screen with what I believe to be a 50's era soundtrack playing-

WPHL has notified Comcast that The Tube, previously seen on this channel, has ceased operation and will no longer be available.

We apologize for any inconvenience.

 

[dhett]

Look on the bright side, Buddy. There's LATV-Another video channel that does show videos ALL THE TIME. In Houston, It is a sub-channel of KPRC-TV. Cities like San Antonio, Phoenix, Orlando, Miami,-They ALL have it.

You may be confusing LATV with LAT TV - two completely different services. Phoenix has LAT TV, but not LATV.

LATV is music videos - IIRC, the broadcast of station KJLA in the Los Angeles market. LAT TV is Spanish-language general entertainment programming owned by Latin America Broadcasting of Houston.

LATV: http://www.latv.com
LAT TV: http://www.lattv-english.com

 

[TroyG]

There's LATV-Another video channel that does show videos ALL THE TIME. In Houston, It is a sub-channel of KPRC-TV. Cities like San Antonio, Orlando, Miami,-They ALL Have it.

LATV is also available in El Paso, Las Vegas, and in Tucson, AZ.

Phoenix has LAT TV, but not LATV. LAT TV is Spanish-language general entertainment programming owned by Latin America Broadcasting of Houston.

Generally speaking, Latin American Broadcasters of Houston does'nt even have a flagship because Channel 30 went off the air for some time now. This Station, and KHLM (Channel 43) are the only two spanish-language channels that are not picked up by our cabler, Comcast. From my own standpoint, look for L.A.B. Houston to buy KNWS-TV51 here, and make it their new flagship.

 

[Jul]

Here is the official message on the site: "Dear friend of THE TUBE Music Network,

We regret to inform you of the fate that has befallen The Tube Music Network. October 1, 2007 The Tube ceased its national broadcast." http://www.thetubetv.com/

 

[Mediafrog+]

Generally speaking, Latin American Broadcasters of Houston does'nt even have a flagship because Channel 30 went off the air for some time now.

Channel 30 in Houston is back on, after some apparent transmitter trouble a few weeks ago. Seems to have cleaned up its audio issues in the process.

This Station, and KHLM (Channel 43) are the only two spanish-language channels that are not picked up by our cabler, Comcast.

You forgot Spanish language religious KVQT Channel 21, also not on cable.

From my own standpoint, look for L.A.B. Houston to buy KNWS-TV51 here, and make it their new flagship.

Not a bad idea, but do they have the $$$ to pull it off? Would give them cable coverage here, though. KHLM might have thought the same thing.

 

[dhett]

From my own standpoint, look for L.A.B. Houston to buy KNWS-TV51 here, and make it their new flagship.

Not a bad idea, but do they have the $$$ to pull it off? Would give them cable coverage here, though. KHLM might have thought the same thing.

I started a new thread about LAT-TV. Didn't want to hijack this thread.

 

[ssetta]

WLVI-DT2 has been airing a duplicate of WLVI-DT, embedded with closed-captioning.

 

[HoustonListener]

Last night channel 39 KHCW-DT 39.2 in Houston was not airing anything in place of the Tube music video network, not even a message that it had gone off the air. I wonder what they plan to do with the subchannel, or maybe just leave it blank. I am surprised that one of the Houston TV stations has not put on a shopping channel on the subchannels, since the shopping channels have even gone away from the low powered stations in town now...but o the other hand, I don't really want to see any shopping channels anyway, so I shouldn't give anyone any ideas by saying this.

The demise of the Tube does clear up any confusion in Houston between The Tube music video network and Channel 55 KTBU Conroe-Houston that identified itself as "the Tube" with the jingle "turn on the Tube."

I am surprised that there wasn't any legal action there on the branding, but seems like so few people pay attention to either the Tube or Channel 55 in Houston that no one was really getting confused anyway.

I do miss the Tube network...I watched it often. I even came close to wanting to buy the remote control helicopters they advertised... I wonder if only I had bought one of those helicopters, more ads would have been sold and the network saved!

 

[rch66]

Re: No more "tube"

I was think to myself it WAS an alternative to MTV-Which now stands for Moronic Television. MTV used to show tons of videos 24/7; but it now turns to endless re-run marathons of stupid shows like "The Real World", "Laguna Beach", and "My Super Sweet 16". MTV is now run by the Monkeys who also run Music Video Nets VH-1, CMT, & B-E-T. And I believe they're trying to run those channels down to the ground as well.

It was a very deicisive move for the owners of The Tube and Tribune Broadcasting (Who owns KHCW in Houston). Right Now, All I see is a dark screen because it's now off the air.

MTV long ago abandoned music as its focus, which sucks for music fans. However, MTV is popular and successful for a new group: teens. MTV does add in clip of a hit song (typically pop) at the end of its reality shows, on a part screen, as their way of pretending to be into music. And, some music is played during these shows also.

It's too bad that those teens watching MTV are probably losing brain cells watching it (i.e. it's just as bad as eating junk food; no value gained).

Now that The Tube is gone, there is really just Music Choice on Comcast for music listening. I think FIOS carries IMF, which has music videos though its international videos mixed in. The Tube was great for rock, esp. 80's and classic rock music.

I'd often rediscover music by watching videos from The Tube. Then I'd buy the songs on iTunes. Of course, iTunes gets the $ from that, not The Tube. The Tube's way of making money was the 1-800 commercials - but they weren't enough apparently. And annoying. I'd change the channel anytime it came up.

 

[imhomerjay]

It is easy for those of us in the original MTV generation to ridicule what they offer to today's teens, but let's be objective: did endless watching of music videos provide any more substantial brain food than the shows they have now?

Music videos were, fairly, dismissed as video junk food back in the day, and though we want to re-write history to make "our" era seem so much better, it really wasn't.

So Gen X wanted to watch "Hot for Teacher" and other videos, and today's teens watch soapy pseudo reality shows. Give it 20 years and the next batch of teens will be watching something that today's kids will find equally insipid.

 

[TroyG]

I was a part of the generation that grew up on watching MTV. After School, MTV was on, and they had videos by Madonna, Duran Duran, Van Halen, among others and I watched it for several hours. Fast Forward 20 years later, You don't see the very latest from James Blunt, Rhianna, or even Avril. Back then, we played with toys, and Today, we still play with toys. More people are now going to YouTube for their own fix. You're Right: Internet DID Kill the Video Star.

 

[imhomerjay]

I was a part of the generation that grew up on watching MTV. After School, MTV was on, and they had videos by Madonna, Duran Duran, Van Halen, among others and I watched it for several hours. Fast Forward 20 years later, You don't see the very latest from James Blunt, Rhianna, or even Avril. Back then, we played with toys, and Today, we still play with toys. More people are now going to YouTube for their own fix. You're Right: Internet DID Kill the Video Star.

I would suggest that the Internet didn't really kill the video star, it just moved them to a better platform, where people can find the ones they want without sitting through others in which they have no interest. I liked the Van Halen, Springsteen and Foreigner videos 20 years ago, but Madonna and Duran Duran held no real interest to me.

GAC and CMT (mostly the Pure Country digital channel, but even the main CMT on weekdays to some extent) show lots of videos, but since I'm only interested in certain artists, I won't spend my time on songs I don't want to hear, and go to the CMT videos on my video on demand service, or to iTunes, or to other Web sites. I'm still watching videos that interest me, but in a different place.

 

[jegrant]

I recently visited the Ozarks, and went to a local "Cowboy" theme restaurant. All the TV sets were playing CMT Pure Country, and my friends remarked that there were artists on CMT-PC that they either had never heard of, or had not heard anything from in a long time. I responded that the establishment showed their love of *real* country music by playing this network.

(I'm not personally much of a country fan, but this network in this restaurant fit the theme so well, I enjoyed it during my visit.)

Getting back to the topic, I did occasionally stop to check out The TUBE as it was carried on Insight (soon to be Comcast) digital cable here. I'm sorry to see it go, because it did fill a unique niche, and obviously many people enjoyed it (if they could find it). I have emailed both my cable company and my local Tribune station (which carried The TUBE OTA, on WTTV // WTTK) - no response from either yet as to what they might replace it with. There are a few options. I wouldn't mind if they would carry local PBS WFYI+ 20.3 - it's a "Create" affiliate during the day and plays an alternative lineup of PBS prime programming, BBC news, and Britcoms during the evening. Overnights, it carries Classic Arts Showcase. Alternatively, they could add one of the low-power stations from the Indy market, such as WIIH Univision or WDNI - Indy's Music Channel.

 

[DToTheJ]

I did occasionally stop to check out The TUBE as it was carried on Insight (soon to be Comcast) digital cable here. I'm sorry to see it go...

If I were in your shoes, I'd be sorry to see my cable company go into the hands of Comcast...

 

[jegrant]

Oooh. Don't get me wrong, I am sorry. I always knew there was a chance of this, as our system has always been 50 percent Comcast owned. But until recently, they were the "silent" partner, and Insight was the managing partner, and I liked it that way. I believe Insight was more aggressive with the introduction of digital cable, VOD, etc. than Comcast would have been.

Disappointingly, Insight/Comcast's reaction was to drop The TUBE's channel from the digital lineup, and replace it with a whole lot of nothing.

 

[Rollo-Smokes]

Perhaps this class-action lawsuit may have been the impetus for the Tube's shutdown.

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/news_press_release,182651.shtml

I've also found another story, one which suggests that the use of the term "financial limitations" in their closing announcement was an extremely gross understatement.

http://www.cable360.net/programming/networks/25911.html

 

[dave73]

I've been working a lot of hours at my job, that I only found out about the demise of The Tube yesterday. I live in Gary Indiana, and got The Tube on WGN-DT 19.2. I turned on 19.2, and got Everyone Loves Raymond in Spanish, thinking something was wrong. I turned it to 19.1, and got Everyone Loves Raymond in English. That was when I went to the website, and found out they went off the air.

The Tube discontinued their online store earlier this year. I ordered some Anastacia music, only to have my order cancelled, due to the online store shutting down. Amazon.com ended up getting that sale.

But I'm sad to see The Tube gone. They aired a lot of live concert footage that even MTV & VH1 never had in their day. But the lack of advertising contributed to it, and few cable companies picking up the channel either.