When I was growing up, we had four channels. My folks lived in the small town of Not-My-Online-Password, which is between two large cities, Neither-Is-This-One and Nor-Is-This-My-Password City. There were three TV stations, associated with the Big Three networks in the former city and the latter had one station associated with CBS.
In the early 70s, a new station that carried NET, which later became PBS, was established in one of the two cities – I forget which – and, of course, UHF reared its head later.
(This is true. Names have been changed just because.)
I didn’t have electricity till I was 13 and then we got one very ghosted staticy channel 4 from Spokane. And frequently took a relay of kids passing along messages.. “better now” as someone was rotating the 16 foot antenna. But.. our family was the envy of the valley for a time.
In Chicago we had about 10 channels, including UHF. The Zenith Space Command remote existed, but we didn’t have one. Rabbit ears worked fine, so there’s no need for cable according to mom and dad.
When the American Football League started playing games in 1960, my local team (the New England Patriots) was NOT televised into New England. Instead, the much better known at the time New York Giants were. However, a fourth channel, beyond ABC, CBS and NBC, I believe WMTW out of Poland Springs Maine did televise them. Of course, you needed rabbit ears, which required constant readjustment to keep the picture at all clear. We’ve had great progress in TV since then to say the least.
RAGs over 2 years ago
Parents had remote controls; they told the children to change the channel.
pauljmsn over 2 years ago
When I was growing up, we had four channels. My folks lived in the small town of Not-My-Online-Password, which is between two large cities, Neither-Is-This-One and Nor-Is-This-My-Password City. There were three TV stations, associated with the Big Three networks in the former city and the latter had one station associated with CBS.
In the early 70s, a new station that carried NET, which later became PBS, was established in one of the two cities – I forget which – and, of course, UHF reared its head later.
(This is true. Names have been changed just because.)
Kaputnik over 2 years ago
In the 1960s, we didn’t have a TV, so the number of channels was irrelevant.
In the early 70s, my mother decided we were going to get one. Four channels sounds about right. Maybe six.
mourdac Premium Member over 2 years ago
The big 3 while growing up. PBS came around in 1970 to make 4. I believe Turner Broadcasting was the first cable channel we got (1976?).
ChessPirate over 2 years ago
You did have the Three Stooges though, Artie, so there’s that… ☺
Alberta Oil Premium Member over 2 years ago
I didn’t have electricity till I was 13 and then we got one very ghosted staticy channel 4 from Spokane. And frequently took a relay of kids passing along messages.. “better now” as someone was rotating the 16 foot antenna. But.. our family was the envy of the valley for a time.
paranormal over 2 years ago
Well, we had cable and that was only twelve channels…
SofaKing over 2 years ago
In Chicago we had about 10 channels, including UHF. The Zenith Space Command remote existed, but we didn’t have one. Rabbit ears worked fine, so there’s no need for cable according to mom and dad.
zarilla over 2 years ago
When the American Football League started playing games in 1960, my local team (the New England Patriots) was NOT televised into New England. Instead, the much better known at the time New York Giants were. However, a fourth channel, beyond ABC, CBS and NBC, I believe WMTW out of Poland Springs Maine did televise them. Of course, you needed rabbit ears, which required constant readjustment to keep the picture at all clear. We’ve had great progress in TV since then to say the least.
Robert4170 over 2 years ago
Three network stations, one independent, and the local school channel when I was growing up.
andrew.scharnhorst over 2 years ago
Aw, c’mon … don’t make us pull out the “Dragnet” to get just the facts.