What year did Y'all first get Cable TV?

[RobertAnthony]

Our house got cable first in 1983--when Cablevision at one point carried 3 PA stations:

WTAF-29
WPHL-17
from Philly

WVIA-44
Scranton, PA.


But being that I was in school and not doing well, it was removed by mom--was sad about it. Got it again in 1986--more school problems--you know the rest.


Cable didn't come back till 1994--after I had surgery to remove my appendix, mom got cable as something of a gift from having to go through the ordeal. I was in college at the time and was doing okay--no removal until 2002, when CVC didn't carry the YES Network I went to the dish. Then when Dolan gave in and put YES on Cable, bye-bye DIRECTV, back to Cable and now with Optimum Online.


Before all that when I went to a house with cable--rude as it was--I made sure to watch it! My first exposure to cable was at my dad's house in Bridgeport before he got remarried in 1982. It was Southern CT Cablevision--which I don't think was connected with Cablevision. I remember seeing on cable 34 WUBC-TV the public access channel run by The Univ. of Bridgeport--ironically where my dad got his graduates degree.

 

[anotherguyTN]

My first experience with cable was at my grandmother's house in Dyersburg, TN in the early 70's. It had the local stations from Memphis and Jackson, TN, Paducah, KY, Cape Girardeau, MO, and possibly, Jonesboro, AR. She only had basic service, and eventually went to lifeline basic as the system expanded. When she went into a nursing home in the early 90's my brother moved into her old house, and added expanded basic and HBO, and I would tape things I wanted to see from cable. My parents lived in a rural area where cable wasn't (and still isn't) available, and I didn't have cable until 1999 when I moved to an apartment where I could get it, not too long before getting married. Since then my parents moved back into town and got cable for the first time in 2000. Now my brother is living in my parents' old house with no cable and he hasn't sprung for a dish yet, although he says he may soon with the coming changeover to digital TV. Now he's the one taping shows at my mother's house.

 

[NoWayNoCC]

It was CSI or PTI or some such for "city" customers and Storer for "county"...

We had Storer in northern Kentucky (Campbell, Kenton, and Boone counties), and it was absolutely horrible.

For one, they refused to pick up MTV until 1983 because some local wingnut activist types were against it.

Then they had so many service problems it wasn't even funny. And when you called them up about the service, they literally cussed you out with every word in the book.

 

[CrankyYankee]

My first experience with cable TV was in the Army. I was assigned to Ft. Huachuca in Arizona in the fall of 1972 and in addition to the network channels from Tucson we had a couple from Los Angeles! This was GREAT! I was able to get back-to-back "Star Trek"...one from AZ the other from CA. It also allowed me to see some of the now classic commercials done by Cal Worthington (and his dog Spot).
If memory serves me we also had an on-base "weather channel" which was one of those cameras that would pan back and forth and show the time/temp and wind direction.

 

[FreddyE1977]

Yeah, the pirate angle of ol-timey cable was a hoot. As I mentioned earlier, there was the butterknife method. I also remember ads in the backs of magazines for de-scramblers, wide open boxes that had no scrambling, and the like. It also seems everyone knew someeone who could climb your pole and un-hook blockers when they went to that.

In HS, I used to telemarket part time for Storer. It was a neat! They had a house in J-town, and the attached garage was converted to office/sales space. We were given a huge printout with the customers' name, addy, and what service they currently had. We dialed the number by hand, and I would look at the customer's ZIP code and adjust my delivery/accent accordingly. If it was in my neck of the woods, the south end, I would jsut use my regular voice. I would be more proper if I was calling the east end, and more "urban" shall we say if I were calling the west end!

Also, they'd often bust themselves! "Hi I was calling to let you know we're offering Showtime for just 4.95 a month for six months!", and they'd reply, "I already HAVE Showtime.", to which I would reply, "That's GREAT! Would you care to start paying for it at this discounted rate or should I send someone around to disconnect it for you?" I made fully 25% of my sales in this fashion!

Yeah, I knew an old welder (who has since many years ago gone to his reward) who for twenty-five bucks would
come out to your house, climb your pole, pull out the RF line filter that blocked HBO, hook it to his arc welding rig, fry the bejeezus out of it, and climb up and put it back so that cable techs driving down the streets and eyeballing them were none the wiser. (he lost a nice second income when the natural failure rate of those cheap filters exceeded the speed with which he could climb poles).

 

[dxnemo78]

November, 1982
If my memory is correct, this was the lineup:
2 HBO
3 KTVO Kirksville,MO-Ottumwa,IA (Local ABC)
4 USA
5 Cinemax
6 WTBS
7 KHQA Hannibal, MO-Quincy, IL (Local CBS)
8 KIIN Iowa City, IA (PBS)
9 WGN
10 WGEM Quincy, IL (Local NBC)
11 CNN
12 ESPN
13 CBN

And for a few years, that was it! Round about '85, Nashville Network and Discovery were added at 17 & 18, and by the end of the 80's we had something like 28 channels I believe. In the mid 70's, my sister in Quincy Il had cable which consisted solely of the St. Louis stations I think: 4 KMOX (CBS) 5 KSD (NBC) 9 KETC (PBS) 11 KPLR (Ind.) maybe a couple of others.

 

[KML0224]

Wouldn't your sister in Qunicy, IL have received channel 10 from Quincy and channel 7 from Hannibal, MO?

 

[dxnemo78]

Wouldn't your sister in Qunicy, IL have received channel 10 from Quincy and channel 7 from Hannibal, MO?

Yeah, of course 7 (KHQA) & 10 (WGEM) were part of the package, and probably channel 3 (KTVO, Kirksville MO - Ottumwa IA). That was a lonnnng time ago :, and the novelty of receiving the St. Louis channels made an impression on me.... ;D

 

[chitchatjf]

1977 Lineup: Northeastern Mass

2- WGBH (PBS)
3 - Local access (cable co local programming)
4 - WBZ (NBC,CBS today)
5 - WCVB (ABC)
6- WCSH (NBC) THe big thing here were Home Pats games when blacked out on WBZ
7 - WNAC (CBS) now WHDH (NBC)
8 - WSBK
9 - WMUR (ABC)
10 - WJAR (NBC)
11 - WENH (PBS)
12 - WPRI (ABC,now CBS)
13 - WLVI (now CW)
14 - HBO
16 -Cinemax
18 - WSMW (now WUNI,UNI)\
19 - WGBX (PBS)
20 - WOR (now WWOR My TV)
21 - WPIX (now CW)
23 - Cinemax previews
24 - AP News
25 -Access
26 - Access
27 - Access
28 -Data Weather
31 - Test pattern

 

[KML0224]

Really? You used to get WCSH-TV from Portland? Hmmm! I remember then-Continental Cablevision of Saco/Old Orchard Beach carrying WBZ, WCVB, WNEV/WHDH, WSBK and WLVI in September of 1989 when I visited O.O.B. for a couple of days.

Also, did many cable systems north of Boston really carry WJAR and WPRI back then?

 

[Aljr]

About 1966. I grew up in WV. Due to the terrain the region was a pioneer in cable TV.

Before that there was cable radio. Southwestern WV is a deeply eroded plateau. A hollow might 600-800 plus feet deep but only 100-150 yards wide ridge to ridge. MW groundwave would hop over the valley. Coal companies started running cable radio into coal camps in the deeper valleys in the region in the 40's.

 

[chitchatjf]

Yes. We did. However as must carry and other rules popped in they started going away. WPRI got replaced with USA Network,WJAR with WNDS (now WZMY and Boston's My TV affiliate) and WCSH with WQTV (now WBPX Ion)

1993 lineup .............................................................
2 WGBH-2
3 CTV-3
4 WBZ-4
5 WCVB-5
6 Channel 68
7 WHDH-7
8 WSBK-38
9 WMFP-62
10 WNDS-50
11 WENH-11
12 USA Network
13 WLVI-56
14 HBO
16 Cinemax
17 WHLL-27
18 MTV
19 WGBX-44
20 WTBS-17
21 TNT
22 WFXT-25
23 WGOT-60
24 CNN
25 NECN
26 Access
27 Access
28 Lifetime
29 Headline News
30 WHSH-66
31 Nickeloden
32 ESPN
33 Sportschannel
34 NESN
35 Disney Channel
36 EWTN/BCTV
37 HSN
38 Discovery
39 Weather channel
41 Cspan

Lineup TODAY (as Comcast) ------------------------------------

1 On Demand
2 WGBH Boston (PBS)
3 CN8
4 WBZ Boston (CBS)
5 WCVB Boston (ABC)
6 NECN
7 WHDH Boston (NBC)
8 Public Access
9 WMUR Manchester (ABC)
10 Educational Access
11 WENH Durham (PBS)
12 WLVI Boston (CW 56)
13 WFXT Boston (Fox 25)
14 WSBK Boston (38)
15 WBPX Boston (i) (68)
16 WGBX Boston (PBS) (GBH-44)
17 WUNI Worcester (UNI) (27)
18 My TV = Ch 50
19 WNEU Merrimac/Boston (Telemundo) (60)
20 WMFP Lawrence (Shop)(62)
21 WFUB Malboro (telefutura) (66)
22 Government Access
23 WYDN Worcester (Relig) (48)
24 Disney Channel
25 Nickeloden
26 ABC Family
27 Court TV
28 MTV
29 VH-1
30 Fx
31 TBS
32 HGTV
33 TNT SD
34 E!
35 USA
36 Lifetime
37 A&E
38 The Learning Channel
39 The Discovery Channel
40 MSNBC
41 Fox News Channel
42 CNN
43 CNN Headline News
44 Cspan
46 CNBC
47 The Weather Channel
49 ESPN SD
50 ESPN 2
51 NESN
52 Comcast Sportsnet NE
54 Travel channel
55 Spike TV
56 BCTV / other stuff
57 Bravo
58 History Channel
59 American Movie Classics
60 Cartoon Network
61 Comedy Central
62 SciFi channel
63 Animal Planet
64 TV Land
65 VS
67 Food Network
69 Golf channel
70 HSN
71 QVC
72 WWDP Norwell (Shop) (46)
200 Movieplex
201 Sundance Channel
202 Flix
203 Encore Action
204 Encore Love
205 Encore Mystery
206 Indieplex
207 Encore Westerns
208 Hallmark channel
209 GBH World
210 National Geographic
211 Style
212 IFC- Independent Film channel
213 TCM
214 TVOne
215 WE
216 Oxygen
217 GBX Kids
218 PBS Sprout
219 G4
220 Nick toons
221 Discovery Kids
222 Toon disney
223 Noggin
224 The N
225 Retroplex
226 Discovery Health
227 Science channel
228 Nick west
229 Trinity
230 Fit TV
231 Inspirational Life
232 Fox Reality
233 Discovery Home and Leisure
234 JWLTV -Shopping
235 Gospel Music channel
236 Word gospel
237 GBH Create
238 EWTN fulltime
239 fine living
240 DIY
241 BBC America
242 History Int
243 Biography
244 Soapnet
245 Weatherscan
246 Bloomberg
247 Cspan 2
248 ESPNews
249 Cspan 3
250 Speed
251 AZT Television
252 Discovery Times
253 Milirtary channel
254 current tv
255 Outdoor Ch
256 Fox Soccor
257 NBA TV
258 ESPN Classic
259 NHL Network
260 TVG
261 CSTV
262 FCS 1
263 FCS 2
264 FCS 3
265 NFL Network
266 Tennis
267 GSN
270 Lifetime movie Network
271 Fuse
272 MTV hits
273 MTV2
274 BET Jazz
275 VH1Soul
276 CMT Pure
277 VH1 Classic
278 Fox movies
279 GAC
280 MTV Jams
281 logo
282 CMT
283 leased access
284 Fox business
297 NBC Weather Plus (WHDH-DT2)
301 HBO SD
302 HBO 2
303 HBO Signature
304 HBO Family
305 HBO Comedy
306 HBO Zone
307 HBO Latino
321 Starz!
322 Starz Edge
323 Starz in Black
324 Starz kidz and Family
325 Starz cinema
326 Encore
327 Starz Comedy
341 Cinemax SD
342 Moremax
343 Actionmax
344 Thrillermax
361 Showtime
362 Sho Too
363 Showcase
364 Showtime EXtreme
365 Showtime Beyond
381 TMC
382 TMC Xtra
711 MTV3
714 Gol TV
802 WGBH HD (PBS HD Channel)
804 WBZ-DT Boston (CBS-HD)
805 WCVB-DT Boston (ABC-HD)
807 WHDH-DT Boston (NBC-HD)
809 WMUR-DT Manchester (ABC-HD)
821 National Geo HD
823 Discovery HD
825 WFXT-DT Boston (Fox-HD)
828 MHD
831 TBS HD
832 HGTV HD (Not simucast)
833 TNT HD
835 USA HD
837 AnE HD
838 WSBK-DT Boston
839 HD Theatre
842 CNN HD
846 Universal HD
848 Versus /Golf HD
849 ESPN SD
850 ESPN 2 HD
851 NESN HD
852 Comcast Sportsnet NE HD
853 NFL Network HD
854 Food HD (Not simucast)
856 WLVI-DT Boston (CW-HD)
862 SciFi channel HD
863 Animal Planet HD
868 Cinemax HD
870 HBO HD
872 History HD
875 Starz HD
877 Showtime HD
881 Mojo

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

November, 1982
If my memory is correct, this was the lineup:
2 HBO
3 KTVO Kirksville,MO-Ottumwa,IA (Local ABC)
4 USA
5 Cinemax
6 WTBS
7 KHQA Hannibal, MO-Quincy, IL (Local CBS)
8 KIIN Iowa City, IA (PBS)
9 WGN
10 WGEM Quincy, IL (Local NBC)
11 CNN
12 ESPN
13 CBN

And for a few years, that was it! Round about '85, Nashville Network and Discovery were added at 17 & 18, and by the end of the 80's we had something like 28 channels I believe. In the mid 70's, my sister in Quincy Il had cable which consisted solely of the St. Louis stations I think: 4 KMOX (CBS) 5 KSD (NBC) 9 KETC (PBS) 11 KPLR (Ind.) maybe a couple of others.

Dxnemo78,

What town (likely somewhere in NE Missouri) for sure would this lineup have been from? Upon first glance I'm thinking around the Kahoka/Memphis area, as it appears too far away to also have some St. Louis (not even KPLR?) or even Quad Cities or Columbia stations available (some Quad Cities stations are seen on cable even in the Keokuk and Carthage, IL (Hancock County) systems and have been since cable started there).

Even though they did not have Cardinal baseball rights at the time, I'm surprised the system you listed didn't try to see if they could pick up KPLR via microwave. I am aware of how KPLR had wide cable carriage in deep southern Illinois, and is still on cable in Quincy, but I have seen old cable lineups from here in Springfield indicating that channel 11 was on cable here probably well into the '90s. However, I don't think it was ever offered as far north as Peoria and Galesburg (I wonder if KPLR was ever carried on systems in Decatur, perhaps even Champaign/Urbana, or even Macomb--would anyone know). I think it used to be carried for sure in Keokuk and Carthage (I remember hearing a reference on the radio a few years ago about St. Louis channels once offered on cable in Carthage--which I probably think would likely have been KSDK for Cardinal baseball and KPLR--I doubt KMOV would have been offered there as WHBF-4 in the Quad Cities was offered on Carthage's cable up until a few years ago).

 

[mrfish67]

In the Fort Wayne, Indiana area, my family first got cable around 1981. This was the 1980-81 lineup:

2 WANE (CBS) Fort Wayne
3 WBGU (PBS) Bowling Green, Ohio (Fort Wayne channel 39; translator station for ch.57 in Bowling Green)
4 WTTV (Ind.) Bloomington
5 HBO (with sound in glorious FM stereo)
6 WHME (Ind.) South Bend
7 WPTA (ABC) Fort Wayne
8 WIPB (PBS) Muncie / WTBS (Ind.) Atlanta (late-nights)
9 WGN (Ind.) Chicago
10 Public Access
11 WTTW (PBS) Chicago / WBBM (CBS) Chicago (late-nights)
12 WFFT (Ind.) Fort Wayne
13 WKJG (NBC) Fort Wayne
16 Christian Broadcasting Network
17 ESPN
19 USA Network (recently had changed its name from Madison Square Garden Network) / C-SPAN
20 UPI Newstime (consisted of a series of BW pictures scrolling across the screen with voice-over)
21 Reuters News/Pre-empted Network Programs:
WNDU (NBC) South Bend
WSBT (CBS) South Bend
WSJV (ABC) South Bend
WLIO (NBC) Lima, Ohio
22 NOAA Weather Radio/Radar
24 WNIT (PBS) South Bend
26 PTL Club Network

By 1982, they had added Cable Health Network (which later morphed into Lifetime), Weather Channel, CNN, Headline News, MTV, Nickelodeon, and brought WTBS on full-time.

 

[KML0224]

Looking at that line-up, did Fort Wayne have its own PBS affiliate back then?

 

[mrfish67]

Looking at that line-up, did Fort Wayne have its own PBS affiliate back then?

The answer to that is "not really." Channel 39, which is now WFWA and a station in its own right, was merely a Fort Wayne-based translator for WBGU (Bowling Green), which was then on channel 57 (now channel 27). After WBGU, channel 39 was a translator for WFYI in Indianapolis during the 1980s. By about 1986, the station was re-christened WFWA and began originating its own content.

Channel 39 signed on around 1974, I think. I recall that WPTA (ABC) used to air "Sesame Street" in the early 1970s prior to channel 39 signing on since there was no PBS station in Fort Wayne for people without a good outdoor antenna.

And I forgot to mention the name of the cable system--Citizens Cable. It was home-grown. Citizens was supposedly the first cable company traded on NASDAQ after its initial public offering in the late 1970s. By the early 1980s, Cox came into the city of Fort Wayne, but Citizens Cable still serviced the surrounding unincorporated areas. Ironically, the Cox system was partly owned by Citizens Cable anyhow. By 1987 or so, Comcast took over, and it still operates the system to this day.

Also, WGN, WTTW, WBBM, and WTTV were received via microwave. This was important when stereo TV caught on, especially with WGN, because we could hear stereo audio on that station (whereas some cable companies did not yet pass through stereo on many satellite-delivered stations). WTTW was an early advocate of stereo sound, too. Aside from being what I believe was the first public station in stereo, their audio was offered via FM to subscribers at least as early as 1980 for stereo music programming.

 

[KML0224]

Significant since MTS Stereo broadcasting was not approved until 1984. WTIC-TV (FOX) channel 61 of Hartford proudly boasted that they were the first Connecticut TV station to broadcast in stereo when they signed on in 1984 (as if the 5 million watt visual signal wasn't enough on its own!). Today they are Comcast cable channel 6 in New Britain and Hartford. Come to think of it, I think The Weather Channel was on United Cable channel 6 here in the days before WTIC-TV.

 

[fybush]

Thanks for the Fort Wayne flashback! I just ran down the list with my wife, who was in Fort Wayne back then, and she was able to recall most of it by heart. She says the pre-emption channel on 21 was particularly popular, and that there were lots of complaints when it went away a year or two later.

As for good ol' W39AA in Fort Wayne, it was a most interesting translator. I seem to recall reading somewhere that it had special FCC permission to originate a limited amount of local programming. I may be mistaken about that.

It's interesting to note that the Comcast system in Fort Wayne even now uses many of the same channel numbers - WANE on 2, WFWA on 3, WPTA on 7, WFFT on 12, WISE (WKJG) on 13.

 

[mrfish67]

Thanks for the Fort Wayne flashback! I just ran down the list with my wife, who was in Fort Wayne back then, and she was able to recall most of it by heart. She says the pre-emption channel on 21 was particularly popular, and that there were lots of complaints when it went away a year or two later.

The pre-emption channel was quite popular, since network pre-emptions were so common in those days in smaller TV markets (e.g., IU basketball on Thursday nights on WKJG). I do recall that Comcast dropped it around 1987. I remember it well, because it was just after they got the signal problems with WSBT fixed that they decided to just stop offering the service. That WSBT signal seemed to cause their amplifiers to blow out all the time. I guess it was a minor miracle that a UHF station from nearly 80 miles away could be received from a 300' tower in New Haven, Indiana. (I wonder what happened to that tower?)

The out-of-market stations' reception could be hit or miss. WSBT was the worst, followed by WSJV. Most of the time reception was fairly decent, especially since the alternative was not seeing your shows at all.

Sometimes Citizens would offer network shows from the other stations when they were offered at a different time, even though the show was cleared locally. One such example was "Meet the Press" on Sunday mornings. I remember one year, I think it was 1984, when I noticed on one Sunday two weeks before Labor Day that the feed from WLIO in Lima wasn't working. WLIO was the first NBC station that they used for pre-emptions, followed by WNDU. The signal on WLIO was very snowy on this occasion, and then went out completely. I called the cable company, and since they could fall back on WNDU, they used that station for the Sunday night movie and all the network programs not cleared by WKJG during the Jerry Lewis telethon.

I can't imagine even being able to contact a local cable company person at all in this day and age.

I also remember getting the Today Show from WLIO in Ohio from 6-8 a.m. Fort Wayne time during the summer, which probably irritated WKJG quite a bit. (Indiana did not observe Daylight Saving Time back then.)

 

[mjlarochelle]

My parents got cable when they lived near Vancouver back in the late 1970s. I believe that system included the four Vancouver stations (CBUT, CBUFT, CHAN, CKVU), KVOS, KSTW, and the four Seattle stations. My father remembers watching KIRO-7 way back then.

They continued with cable when they moved to London, Ontario in 1982. At the time the local system offered TVO, Global, CBLFT, CKCO, CFPL, CHCH, and the four Erie stations, on VHF. They also offered some other channels on 14 and above including the big three from Detroit, WUAB, and a couple premium channels. They didn't get a cable-ready TV until 1985.