When did You first get HBO?

[David67]

We first got HBO on Smyrna(Georgia) Cable TV in November 1981. I first watched HBO in 1978 at My Uncle's house. I watched Rocky I.

 

[Rob Jason]

I can say the first time I saw HBO...It was summer 1974, on the Ithaca, NY cable system (I guess back then Ceracci still owned it). At a relative's house. We tried to watch the then-new movie Tom Sawyer (or was it Huckleberry Finn?) -- the one with Johnnie Whittaker in it. But there was some sort of transmission problem -- and the channel was garbled.

 

[radiorob2.0]

Owensboro (KY) Cablevision was one of the first systems to import HBO in late 1975. The giant, old school earth station still stands, now with a Time Warner Logo.

 

[searadiofreak]

My first experience with cable was when I was 18 years old and renting my first apartment that offered it free. I recall HBO, ESPN, and a couple of others I can't remember, for free. This would have been 1978. Probably not enough channels at that point for consumers to purchase. Anyone else remember when HBO was offered for free? And perhaps there may be similarities to the currently free channels and internet that may or may not retain that status in the next decade?

 

[David67]

My first experience with cable was when I was 18 years old and renting my first apartment that offered it free. I recall HBO, ESPN, and a couple of others I can't remember, for free. This would have been 1978. Probably not enough channels at that point for consumers to purchase. Anyone else remember when HBO was offered for free? And perhaps there may be similarities to the currently free channels and internet that may or may not retain that status in the next decade?

ESPN first came on the air in 1979.

 

[KML0224]

...from lovely and beautiful Bristol, Connecticut, USA!

 

[WPPCProductions]

I think it was 1975 at my moms house,I remember watching George Carlin 7 words to not to say on reguler tv was on HBO,at the time.As I was going through my late moms file cabinet,I found the old cable bills from the era,36 channels plus HBO was $17.95 from Community TV Systems then later Rollins Cable.Now with Comcast $70 plus with 200 plus channels.

 

[dave73]

Like MTV, I got HBO when cable came to my old neighborhood in 1984. While my parents didn't subscribe to HBO, we got it, along with Showtime. We had both of those channels until we were forced to move from the trailer park I lived in to another trailer park (due to the trailer park land being sold to the city). When that happened, we lost our free HBO & Showtime. No I didn't have a cheater box. The cable company had our line at the old park set to descramble HBO & Showtime. Now, all movie channels are in the digital tier.

 

[Charles1]

Cable came to our neighborhood in Birmingham in 1979, although it had been in other neighborhoods in the city for a couple of years. Prior to getting cable, we had our choice of four channels: WBRC-6 (ABC, now Fox), WBIQ-10 (PBS), WAPI-13 (NBC, now WVTM) and WBMG-42 (CBS, now WIAT). Really, we had three choices, since 42's signal was snowy at best...and we lived less than five miles from their tower. The lineup for Birmingham Cable (now Brighthouse) included the four local channels, WTCG-17 and WANX-46 from Atlanta, HBO, Satellite Program Network, PTL Network, and two channels that gave sports and news headlines and stories via teletype, while piping in the "relaxing" music of "your Q to EZ listening, Stereo 96", WQEZ (now WMJJ-Magic 96.5).

 

[cwf1701]

we got HBO in the early part on 1981 (when cable came into our aera). but back then, the system was only a 35 channel system where we got all the local Detroit stations at the time (2, 4, 7, 9, 20, 50, 56, 62) plus CICO-32 (TVOntario) and CBEFT (then still on 78) Windsor.

 

[cyberdad]

1975, Rock Island, IL. Channel 2 on a 12-channel system.

 

[Ultimajock]

...I'm under the impression that my old system in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, then run by WarnerAmex, didn't add HBO until around 1982, four years after adding StarChannel/The Movie Channel (the latter of which, of course, WarnerAmex owned)...