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Places that got MTV ridiculously late

N

NoWayNoCC

Since we're on the topic of old cable systems, what are some places in the good ol' U.S. and A. that got MTV ridiculously late?

Usually this happened because complaints by local religious zealots delayed MTV's appearance.

Storer Cable in northern Kentucky waited until 1983 to pick up MTV, which was pretty late, considering everybody else all over the country always seems to be talking about what they saw on MTV back in 1982. Then again, I've also heard of places that didn't get MTV until much later than 1983, preferring instead to wait until MTV was pretty much useless.
 
I recall that Madonna, while in Evansville, Ind., to film A League of Their Own, complained that Evansville did not have MTV. Don't know how true that was, but that movie was filmed in 1992 or so, and by then, MTV was indeed, quite useless. Real World, anyone? ::)
 
firepoint525 said:
I recall that Madonna, while in Evansville, Ind., to film A League of Their Own, complained that Evansville did not have MTV. Don't know how true that was, but that movie was filmed in 1992 or so, and by then, MTV was indeed, quite useless. Real World, anyone? ::)
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I am still in this neck of the woods and MTV was on cable in Evansville, Madonna was just enjoying whine with her cheese.

Actually, 1983 wasn't late considering the channel debuted July 1981. Even today it might take a couple of years for a cable network to win a place in a 200 channel environment.
 
radiorob2.0 said:
Actually, 1983 wasn't late considering the channel debuted July 1981. Even today it might take a couple of years for a cable network to win a place in a 200 channel environment.
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Maybe it only seems late, considering how everybody else talks about how they got it earlier.

Besides, Storer had gobs of religious channels nobody watched, plus a channel called Color Bars (which was nothing but color bars). I don't know why they couldn't replace Color Bars with MTV.
 
We also got it in 1983 in our area on Group W cable, but it didn't feel "late." As mentioned before, a couple of years to get a new cable channel wasn't unheard of at that time, especially an unproven channel such as MTV was back then.
 
MTV didn't become available in Gary Indiana until 1984, when then TCI Cable opened for business. I don't know about then US Cable in unincorporated Calumet Township & Griffith Indiana. Cable was in Griffith as early as 1980 (maybe earlier), but didn't come to my grandmother's neighborhood in Calumet Township until 1985 (same service as what's in Griffith, and eventually for Lake County Indiana, except for Gary[TCI] & East Chicago, Whiting, & Hammond Indiana [United Cable]).
 
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