Does anyone remember or have any info on a local public access channel back in the 70's and 80's in Savannah, GA which showed the time, temp, and other weather info with black n white, analog dials that would rotate endlessly across the tv screen.(set to "ez-listening" music and/or a lite local radio station) LOL! I would give anything if I could get a tape of a small portion of this channel....somehow, weird I know! Should be a great recording for vintage video colletors! ALSO, anyone remember cable access channels when it was nothing but three sections divided into red, blue and green? The cable channel was set to usually lite-AC music and it was just a crawl of local weather the forecast, time, temp, etc? Just old stuff I remember when I was younger!
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RETRO CABLE ACCESS CHANNELS (24 hour weather info set to music)........
- Thread starter electroboy73
- Start date
All cable systems used to have that type of set-up---it seems very low tec now, but at the time it was considered a valuable feature. I can remember seeing community messages written in LONGHAND on those channels. I also can remember seeing my first computer generated "bulletin board" on Time Warner (may have still been Cablevision) in Raleigh in the late 70s. Yes, it was divided into three sections, red, blue, and green. One section had a weather crawl, another a bulletin board, and the third was a government info crawl. I thought it was very impressive at the time. You have to remember, this was on an eleven channel system and was the only non-broadcast signal on there.
I was travelling through North Carolina this summer, and The Time Warner system in Asheboro, NC had an 80's era character generator for their community channel (with the hometown County music AM station in the background). The other TW systems I noticed had newer graphics systems (including PowerPoint), but all carried the local hometown AM station for sound.
Where I live, when Acworth (GA) Cablenet (operated by the municple government) started in 2001, the community channel (and the educational and government access channels, which were never used for their intended purposes) sported more modern character generators, and they used a Music Choice channel for music. In 2003, they switched to Microsoft PowerPoint for the community channel (the educational access CG died and was never replaced, the government channel carried the same CG with most of the same info from the 2001 launch). Cablenet folded this June, and everyone went to Comcast (which had been competing with Cablenet).
Growing up with the system before Comcast (before Cablenet was available), the Community Bullietin Board was a CG that aired when other video programming was not on (which was Cable Channel 2 on that system, WSB-TV has always been on Channel 3. Cablenet copied this lineup when they launched. Comcast, back as AT&T Broadband, moved the community channel to Channel 25 about 2000.)
Comcast fills non community channel programming with...infomercials. I wish the FCC would ban this, and require a community channel/public access channel that cannot carry commercial content. Right now, it is up to local governments to require this type of channel or not. Only a leased access channel (which is the community channel I am talking about) is required for all cable systems with more than 35 channels.
As for 24 hour weather info...The Weather Channel and sister channel WeatherScan serve that purpose today.
Where I live, when Acworth (GA) Cablenet (operated by the municple government) started in 2001, the community channel (and the educational and government access channels, which were never used for their intended purposes) sported more modern character generators, and they used a Music Choice channel for music. In 2003, they switched to Microsoft PowerPoint for the community channel (the educational access CG died and was never replaced, the government channel carried the same CG with most of the same info from the 2001 launch). Cablenet folded this June, and everyone went to Comcast (which had been competing with Cablenet).
Growing up with the system before Comcast (before Cablenet was available), the Community Bullietin Board was a CG that aired when other video programming was not on (which was Cable Channel 2 on that system, WSB-TV has always been on Channel 3. Cablenet copied this lineup when they launched. Comcast, back as AT&T Broadband, moved the community channel to Channel 25 about 2000.)
Comcast fills non community channel programming with...infomercials. I wish the FCC would ban this, and require a community channel/public access channel that cannot carry commercial content. Right now, it is up to local governments to require this type of channel or not. Only a leased access channel (which is the community channel I am talking about) is required for all cable systems with more than 35 channels.
As for 24 hour weather info...The Weather Channel and sister channel WeatherScan serve that purpose today.
It's funny you brought that up. In Vancouver in the early 1970's our cable system had that. For years after it was replaced, I was fascinated by that. I always wanted to know how they did that. I thought a cameraman was pointing his camera at dials on a wall, then I saw recently a photo, and the who unit was so small. I was dumbstruck. Or maybe I am dumb? ;D
I wish they would put that back on basic cable. A weather type channel like that is part of digital cable, but I really don't want to spend a ton more money for that. Shouldn't that kind of channel be required just like c-span, and at least 3 shopping channels. (sarcasm).
Amazing that a simple community service that should be provided is not unless you spend the cash.
Amazing that a simple community service that should be provided is not unless you spend the cash.
reading these messages reminds me of what we had on our system in Winchester, Virginia. In our case it was
on channel 6 though for the first year or two ( 1966 and 1967 ) I believe it was on channel 12 as our local cable from what I heard during its early years somehow managed to get Richmond's WTVR on 6.
Until 1975 channel 6 was nothing more than a Black & white camera moving left to right on a small track thanks to a small motor directly under the camera. The only thing the viewers saw were three big clocks, one for the time another for temperature and one for the wind. They also saw three big blackboards. One with a PSA written on it another for the local weather. One board had an ad for some local business usually it was a local insurance company or some funeral home.
The audio came from "beautiful music" WGAY-FM out of Washington, DC. Sometimes the motor would stop and the camera was "stuck" between clocks, usually this happened late at night or on the weekends.
From 1975 until today a character generator was used and the channel went color and over the years the equipment was upated as well as the "background music". Today the audio comes from a HOT AC station, that being 92.5 WINC-FM.
Channel 6 over the years, actually going back to the 60s when it started had it share of other local programs too including religious shows, high school sporting events, local talk shows and for a number of years even a "library" show. The highlight of that show? An older woman who I believe was an employee at the Library Reading the names of who was late in returning their books. Actually that was quite funny. "...and Mr. Tom Jones at 123 Main street...You have a copy of A Joy Of Sex...to let you know that the book was due last week and you owe the library $2.00 for being late..."
BTW..from the mid 70s until 1982, once a year our system had HBO on there, usually when HBO had those "free weekend previews". I remember watching the movies "10" and that infamous "Mommie Dearest" on channel 6. Uncensored of course.
on channel 6 though for the first year or two ( 1966 and 1967 ) I believe it was on channel 12 as our local cable from what I heard during its early years somehow managed to get Richmond's WTVR on 6.
Until 1975 channel 6 was nothing more than a Black & white camera moving left to right on a small track thanks to a small motor directly under the camera. The only thing the viewers saw were three big clocks, one for the time another for temperature and one for the wind. They also saw three big blackboards. One with a PSA written on it another for the local weather. One board had an ad for some local business usually it was a local insurance company or some funeral home.
The audio came from "beautiful music" WGAY-FM out of Washington, DC. Sometimes the motor would stop and the camera was "stuck" between clocks, usually this happened late at night or on the weekends.
From 1975 until today a character generator was used and the channel went color and over the years the equipment was upated as well as the "background music". Today the audio comes from a HOT AC station, that being 92.5 WINC-FM.
Channel 6 over the years, actually going back to the 60s when it started had it share of other local programs too including religious shows, high school sporting events, local talk shows and for a number of years even a "library" show. The highlight of that show? An older woman who I believe was an employee at the Library Reading the names of who was late in returning their books. Actually that was quite funny. "...and Mr. Tom Jones at 123 Main street...You have a copy of A Joy Of Sex...to let you know that the book was due last week and you owe the library $2.00 for being late..."
BTW..from the mid 70s until 1982, once a year our system had HBO on there, usually when HBO had those "free weekend previews". I remember watching the movies "10" and that infamous "Mommie Dearest" on channel 6. Uncensored of course.
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