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What cable system in the US has the least amount of channels?

I don't know if they still offer it now but I stayed in a motel in Sekiu, WA around August 2006 where the Wave Broadband-provided cable only had 25, yes, 25 channels! I remember KOMO, KING, KIRO and KCPQ from Seattle, CHAN and CBUT from Vancouver and CHEK Victoria as the network channels, as well as Superstation WGN on 11 [now WGN America]. I also remember watching The Price is Right one morning where both CHEK 6 and KIRO 7 were carrying it, and IIRC there was no blackout at all [I could see TPiR on both channels]. But again, awful lineup.

But Carson, ND's Western Dakota Cable lineup takes the cake. I dare you to go to TitanTV, type in 58529 as the zip code on "Cable" and look at it. Truly looks like the early 1980s!!

-crainbebo
 
crainbebo said:
I don't know if they still offer it now but I stayed in a motel in Sekiu, WA around August 2006 where the Wave Broadband-provided cable only had 25, yes, 25 channels! I remember KOMO, KING, KIRO and KCPQ from Seattle, CHAN and CBUT from Vancouver and CHEK Victoria as the network channels, as well as Superstation WGN on 11 [now WGN America]. I also remember watching The Price is Right one morning where both CHEK 6 and KIRO 7 were carrying it, and IIRC there was no blackout at all [I could see TPiR on both channels]. But again, awful lineup.

But Carson, ND's Western Dakota Cable lineup takes the cake. I dare you to go to TitanTV, type in 58529 as the zip code on "Cable" and look at it. Truly looks like the early 1980s!!

-crainbebo
Click to expand...

Can that area even pick up anything OTA?
 
Most people (and there are only 293 in what is also the county seat) in Carson, ND should be able to pick up the Bismarck stations as their transmitters are about 40 miles away. That would give them the big four networks plus PBS.

A couple of years ago, I stayed at a motel in Scobey, MT, in what was easily one of the most remote parts of the Lower 48 I've ever been to. The cable lineup wasn't nearly as miniscule as in Carson, but it was the smallest I've personally experienced since the early 1990s. Here's what was on the cable lineup card I took a picture of:

2 - Discovery
3 - HBO (Scrambled)
4 - Fox News
5 - TBS
6 - CKCK (CTV) Regina, Sask.
7 - ABC Family
8 - KUMV (NBC) Williston, ND
9 - KDVR (Fox) Denver, CO
10 - CBKT (CBC) Regina, Sask.
11 - KXGN (CBS) Glendive, MT (via a very snowy analog translator)
12 - USA
13 - CNN
14 - HGTV
16 - INSP
17 - Spike
18 - TNT
19 - Disney
20 - ESPN
21 - KMGH (ABC) Denver, CO
22 - WGN America
23 - TCM
24 - Cartoon Network
25 - A&E

An antenna in Scobey at the time was able to get you CTV, CBC, KXGN, and KUMV, all via analog translators. ABC and Fox were nowhere to be seen OTA, but that remains a common theme in much of northeast Montana and is one of the reasons KMGH and KDVR are relatively common on cable there, even though those stations are located over 500 miles away in Denver. The other most likely reason is that the Denver stations are naturally based on Mountain Time, the same time zone as in eastern Montana, while the western North Dakota stations are based on Central Time, so when those are carried in the region, the network morning shows begin at 6 AM, prime time starts at 6 PM, the late night shows start at 9:35 PM, and so on.
 
crainbebo said:
I also remember watching The Price is Right one morning where both CHEK 6 and KIRO 7 were carrying it, and IIRC there was no blackout at all [I could see TPiR on both channels].
Click to expand...

I think it's network non-duplication thing or CRTC thing too.
 
I've stayed on Put In Bay, in the Lake Erie islands in Ohio, and the cable there in the motel had maybe 20 stations. The Weather Channel there used a local graphics package in the weather on the 8's that looked straight out of 1990. This was maybe 3-4 years ago. But, most people on that island are only there in summer months, working seasonal jobs. The island population in the winter is maybe 200 people.
 
A hotel cable lineup doesn't always give you an accurate picture of what is really available in a location's actual cable lineup. The hotel may only subscribe to a subset of channels. I used to travel for work and stayed at a hotel right outside DC. The hotel lineup only carried about 35 channels. I'm sure if you were a residential customer in that area you would get a lot more.
 
Pittsburgh has no adjacent market stations on cable anymore, so far as I know.

Steubenville, Ohio is 35 miles away as the crow flies. But most cable systems dropped
WTOV-9 in the few years leading up to the transition. Probably they were asked to by
WPXI-11, as the stations are co-owned and there is no point in splitting the NBC numbers.
 
"A hotel cable lineup doesn't always give you an accurate picture of what is really available in a location's actual cable lineup. The hotel may only subscribe to a subset of channels."

Which is why I carry a USB digtial TV tuner for my laptop when I go on a trip.
 
Re: Which cable system in the US has the fewest channels?

I don't know if this necessarily counts, but the "cable system" at Evergreen High School had eight channels (six, plus a couple "internal access" closed-circuit channels) circa 1999-2002.

This system, as I was told, was originally installed as part of a failled "Channel One" experiment that happened there in the very early 90s, and was a remnant of that project. After they pulled out the satellite equipment, they still had all the (expensive then) TV sets in each classroom and coax lines tying them all to the A/V room, so they used it!
 
Or you could visit Stanley, Idaho, which has no cable television provider at all. It's either satellite or nothing.

Other than that, the smallest non-motel channel lineup I've seen is 50-55 channels.
 
Re: Which cable system in the US has the fewest channels?

Darth_vader said:
I don't know if this necessarily counts, but the "cable system" at Evergreen High School had eight channels (six, plus a couple "internal access" closed-circuit channels) circa 1999-2002.

This system, as I was told, was originally installed as part of a failled "Channel One" experiment that happened there in the very early 90s, and was a remnant of that project. After they pulled out the satellite equipment, they still had all the (expensive then) TV sets in each classroom and coax lines tying them all to the A/V room, so they used it!
Click to expand...

Doesn't Channel One lease the equipment for free to schools that will show their morning newscast?
 
crainbebo said:
But Carson, ND's Western Dakota Cable lineup takes the cake. I dare you to go to TitanTV, type in 58529 as the zip code on "Cable" and look at it. Truly looks like the early 1980s!!

-crainbebo
Click to expand...

I just typed in that zip code, and it looks like there are no cable providers in that area.

Anyway, I do know that some sparsely-populated areas do have old-timey cable systems, but I have actually heard that many of them have actually gone out of business, because they could no longer compete with satellite.
 
To see the Carson, ND lineup, here's some steps ssetta.

1. Go to titantv.com
2. Click on Add [to add a channel lineup]
3. Type in 58529, not 58528, or 58527.
4. Click save. It should bring up a lineup that looks 30 years old!

-crainbebo
 
Carson is just one county over from where my mother grew up, in Adams County near Hettinger.

Being a very small farming community, I don't imagine the people in Carson really have time to do a whole lot of TV watching, especially during the spring and summer. Some may even close up during the winter and head to Arizona.

I'll bet the cable service, if available at all, is dirt cheap. Although the Bismarck transmitters are not far away - about 10 mi. south of Bismarck/Mandan - OTA service is hit or miss in the Carson area due to hilly terrain.
 
OMG that lineup DOES look like its 30 years old!! The only modern-ish channel they have on there is the Travel channel. But that's to be expected for states like ND and Montana. I think there's some parts of that region where nobody has ever set foot. I wonder if any of these systems still use old-fashioned slider boxes.

Edit: I don't usually use TitanTV, I usually use Zap2it. TitanTV doesn't seem to be as accurate, or as up to date. Do you actually live in Carson? Like I said in a previous post, a lot of these tiny cable systems are starting to go out of business, and it's possible this one has, which is why I was not able to find it on Zap2it.
 
ssetta said:
OMG that lineup DOES look like its 30 years old!! The only modern-ish channel they have on there is the Travel channel. But that's to be expected for states like ND and Montana. I think there's some parts of that region where nobody has ever set foot. I wonder if any of these systems still use old-fashioned slider boxes.
Click to expand...

How could they afford to get DTV ready?
 
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