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Early 80's L.A. TV, pay channels, and cable.
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dook...@webtv.net
Apr 27, 2002, 11:13:36 PM4/27/02
to
Television life was less complicated 15 and 20 years ago. Here is what
I remember of early 80's Los Angeles television from cable, pay tv and
local cannels. Hopefully all this info is accurate and it should be. I
was only about 8 or 9 years old but had a good memory.--- OnTv,
SelecTV: These pay channels were the earliest memories I had of
television, period. I recall they were recieved via a microwave
antenna contraption and had a decoder box that descrambled the signal.
Some of these boxes had a key which was a primitive parental control
to switch off adult programming. Their broadcast was over UHF
frequencies. Ontv was on channel 52 and SelecTv was on channel 22.
They were KVEA and KWHY during the day showing financial news and
Hispanic and Asian programming, then about three o'clock it went into
a scrambled mode. We never subscribed but I always remembered watching
the scrambled picture wishing we did. This was like 1979, we were
desperate for entertainment and our neighborhood in Santa Fe Springs
was not yet cable ready. I can still remember the man's voice coming
over the wavey picture saying something to the effect of, "You are now
watching OnTv. Please turn on your decoder box". I recall the fees
being about 15 dollars a month which was a rip off during that time
considering you only got one channel. I knew of many neighbor kids
who's dad's acquired or altered boxes to recieve the signal for free
which was relatively easy because the encryption method they used was
pretty basic. Eventually, OnTV went out of business I think because a
lot of it had to with people ripping of their service, the high subs
cost and their failure to transfer their service onto satellite like
HBO, Showtime, and TMC did in the mid to late 70's which were also
once microwave services. I recall SelecTv hanging on for a few more
years and was actually carried by Rogers Cable when they finally came
to Santa Fe Springs around 1983. Evetually, SelecTv bit the dust as
well. Another similar pay channel during that time was the Z Channel
which former MGM movie exec Dori Shari helped to start. Other than
that, I really don't remember too much of Z unfortunately. About 3
years later in 1982 we finally got cable TV linked to our
neighborhood. The company was Rogers Cable and a few years later they
were taken over. There is a Rogers Cable that is very dominate in
British Columbia. I wonder if it's the same company? My dad refused to
pay for cabletv so my older sister who was a cashier at an old
Zody's,(maybe it was Two Guys), discount store payed to have us
connected. It was like a whole new world for me opened up. I could
recieve 20 or 30 channels as opposed to the 8 or 9 that I had known so
far. I remember watching "Grease2" on HBO, MTV, (when I had a massive
crush on Martha Quinn), and seeing Braves Baseball on WTBS, wow!
Later on, I remembered this really cheesy, (by today's standard),
channel called The Cinema Preview Channel. It was sorta muted color
wise and had this Commodore 64 like generated figurine that would
dance around, give movie trivia, and preview current theatre films.
Some of the films I remember they would preview would be "Terms of
Endermeant", "Against All Odds" and "Footloose", (always playing the
scene with Kevin Bacon running then disappearing into white
nothingness with Kenny Loggins cackling in the backround). During the
84' L.A. Olympics they always had the little figurine carry a torch
while they were playing the Olympic theme. One of the earliest shows I
remember on a very new TLC (The Learning Channel) was called "Sew
What's New"? This show was a trip and so was the host! It was a sewing
show that had this super effiminate and flamboyant old guy that wore
glasses with strings attached over his nose. This was my first glimpse
of someone who was presumably gay. Also, I remember CBN, (FoxFamily,
now ABC Family) and all the old re-runs of "The Donna Reed Show" and
"The Farmer's Daughter". The original "You Can't Do That On
Television" with Alanis Morrisette on Nickleodeon and "Not
Neccessarily The News" on HBO. Those were good times during those
early cable years. During that time local Los Angeles TV had some
pretty good shows and some great news teams with plenty of interesting
personal history. I remember KTTV's midday news around 1979 had an
anchor named Jackie King that my uncle used to drool for. I think she
got canned and became homeless on Skid Row because she could not find
a job. Everyone thought she was "over qualified". Pretty sad. I also
remember when Connie Chung and Maury Povich used to co anchor the 5
o'clock news on KCBS,(then KNXT) channel 2. After a while, Maury left
but Connie still hung around for a couple of more years. I recall the
time John Beard from KNBC,(now at KTTV), was dating Kate Jackson and
reporter Tawny Little from KABC was married to John Schneider. Tracy
Savage,(former reporter at KNBC), used to be a child actor on "Little
House On The Prarie" playing Kristi Kennedy. Steve Edwards hosted a
cool afternoon show called "330" which was replaced by Tom Schneider
which in turn was bumped for "Oprah". "PM Magazine" was a hot regional
show with a host named Scott Moniac. Wonder what happened to that guy?
Bill Smith, (now at KTLA), anchored a midday news spot in the early
80's with Nancy Nelson who now does infomercials with Ron Popeil and
the like. So much history, so little time. ** Comments and any extra
info on any of these topics would be greatly appreciated!
I remember of early 80's Los Angeles television from cable, pay tv and
local cannels. Hopefully all this info is accurate and it should be. I
was only about 8 or 9 years old but had a good memory.--- OnTv,
SelecTV: These pay channels were the earliest memories I had of
television, period. I recall they were recieved via a microwave
antenna contraption and had a decoder box that descrambled the signal.
Some of these boxes had a key which was a primitive parental control
to switch off adult programming. Their broadcast was over UHF
frequencies. Ontv was on channel 52 and SelecTv was on channel 22.
They were KVEA and KWHY during the day showing financial news and
Hispanic and Asian programming, then about three o'clock it went into
a scrambled mode. We never subscribed but I always remembered watching
the scrambled picture wishing we did. This was like 1979, we were
desperate for entertainment and our neighborhood in Santa Fe Springs
was not yet cable ready. I can still remember the man's voice coming
over the wavey picture saying something to the effect of, "You are now
watching OnTv. Please turn on your decoder box". I recall the fees
being about 15 dollars a month which was a rip off during that time
considering you only got one channel. I knew of many neighbor kids
who's dad's acquired or altered boxes to recieve the signal for free
which was relatively easy because the encryption method they used was
pretty basic. Eventually, OnTV went out of business I think because a
lot of it had to with people ripping of their service, the high subs
cost and their failure to transfer their service onto satellite like
HBO, Showtime, and TMC did in the mid to late 70's which were also
once microwave services. I recall SelecTv hanging on for a few more
years and was actually carried by Rogers Cable when they finally came
to Santa Fe Springs around 1983. Evetually, SelecTv bit the dust as
well. Another similar pay channel during that time was the Z Channel
which former MGM movie exec Dori Shari helped to start. Other than
that, I really don't remember too much of Z unfortunately. About 3
years later in 1982 we finally got cable TV linked to our
neighborhood. The company was Rogers Cable and a few years later they
were taken over. There is a Rogers Cable that is very dominate in
British Columbia. I wonder if it's the same company? My dad refused to
pay for cabletv so my older sister who was a cashier at an old
Zody's,(maybe it was Two Guys), discount store payed to have us
connected. It was like a whole new world for me opened up. I could
recieve 20 or 30 channels as opposed to the 8 or 9 that I had known so
far. I remember watching "Grease2" on HBO, MTV, (when I had a massive
crush on Martha Quinn), and seeing Braves Baseball on WTBS, wow!
Later on, I remembered this really cheesy, (by today's standard),
channel called The Cinema Preview Channel. It was sorta muted color
wise and had this Commodore 64 like generated figurine that would
dance around, give movie trivia, and preview current theatre films.
Some of the films I remember they would preview would be "Terms of
Endermeant", "Against All Odds" and "Footloose", (always playing the
scene with Kevin Bacon running then disappearing into white
nothingness with Kenny Loggins cackling in the backround). During the
84' L.A. Olympics they always had the little figurine carry a torch
while they were playing the Olympic theme. One of the earliest shows I
remember on a very new TLC (The Learning Channel) was called "Sew
What's New"? This show was a trip and so was the host! It was a sewing
show that had this super effiminate and flamboyant old guy that wore
glasses with strings attached over his nose. This was my first glimpse
of someone who was presumably gay. Also, I remember CBN, (FoxFamily,
now ABC Family) and all the old re-runs of "The Donna Reed Show" and
"The Farmer's Daughter". The original "You Can't Do That On
Television" with Alanis Morrisette on Nickleodeon and "Not
Neccessarily The News" on HBO. Those were good times during those
early cable years. During that time local Los Angeles TV had some
pretty good shows and some great news teams with plenty of interesting
personal history. I remember KTTV's midday news around 1979 had an
anchor named Jackie King that my uncle used to drool for. I think she
got canned and became homeless on Skid Row because she could not find
a job. Everyone thought she was "over qualified". Pretty sad. I also
remember when Connie Chung and Maury Povich used to co anchor the 5
o'clock news on KCBS,(then KNXT) channel 2. After a while, Maury left
but Connie still hung around for a couple of more years. I recall the
time John Beard from KNBC,(now at KTTV), was dating Kate Jackson and
reporter Tawny Little from KABC was married to John Schneider. Tracy
Savage,(former reporter at KNBC), used to be a child actor on "Little
House On The Prarie" playing Kristi Kennedy. Steve Edwards hosted a
cool afternoon show called "330" which was replaced by Tom Schneider
which in turn was bumped for "Oprah". "PM Magazine" was a hot regional
show with a host named Scott Moniac. Wonder what happened to that guy?
Bill Smith, (now at KTLA), anchored a midday news spot in the early
80's with Nancy Nelson who now does infomercials with Ron Popeil and
the like. So much history, so little time. ** Comments and any extra
info on any of these topics would be greatly appreciated!
Joe
Apr 28, 2002, 12:31:35 AM4/28/02
to
Here in the Chicago area, the reason why all those different services(OnTv,
Spectrum TV, etc) went belly up is because of the hardcore porn they
offered.
Spectrum TV, etc) went belly up is because of the hardcore porn they
offered.
Nothing against the porn(as I was watching these 'so called' scrambled
channels at way to much of an early age, as all my friends), but the
scrambling was so tame, I could descramble the channels with an old analog
tuner, 13" television. This was very common and all my friends were doing
it. In fact,(to the parents, not us kids) it was such a problem that it was
on all the talk shows on how easy it was for us kids to descramble the porn
at night(came on at 10:00 for OnTV and 11:00 for Spectrum TV).
When this surfaced, I as a kid, new these channels would be out very
quickly, which they were. Seems like OnTv and Spectrum TV had only
themselves to thank for their misfortune. If they would had only found a
child proof way of delivering porn. That's why up until digital
transmission, has hardcore porn been not allowed on television. With digital
signals, their is no scrambled signal for kids to defeat.
Gary Tait
Apr 28, 2002, 5:16:48 PM4/28/02
to
<dook...@webtv.net> wrote in message
news:9fc3bbe3.02042...@posting.google.com...
> Television life was less complicated 15 and 20 years ago. Here is what
> neighborhood. The company was Rogers Cable and a few years later they
> were taken over. There is a Rogers Cable that is very dominate in
> British Columbia. I wonder if it's the same company? My dad refused to
> were taken over. There is a Rogers Cable that is very dominate in
> British Columbia. I wonder if it's the same company? My dad refused to
I highly doubt it. Rogers, in Canada, is a major cable and media giant,
and back then was somewhat large then.. They might have tried cable in the
USA, but I doubt it.
Richard Anselmo
Apr 28, 2002, 5:31:21 PM4/28/02
to
Rogers cables is in Alaska and has been for years!
"Gary Tait" <ta...@hurontel.on.ca> wrote in message
news:lwZy8.4120$Z6.4...@nnrp1.uunet.ca...
"Gary Tait" <ta...@hurontel.on.ca> wrote in message
news:lwZy8.4120$Z6.4...@nnrp1.uunet.ca...
Jim Fraas
Apr 28, 2002, 5:34:48 PM4/28/02
to
> Television life was less complicated 15 and 20 years ago. Here is what
> I remember of early 80's Los Angeles television from cable, pay tv and
> local cannels. Hopefully all this info is accurate and it should be. I
> was only about 8 or 9 years old but had a good memory.--- OnTv,
>
Boston area The average system had around 30 or so channels.> I remember of early 80's Los Angeles television from cable, pay tv and
> local cannels. Hopefully all this info is accurate and it should be. I
> was only about 8 or 9 years old but had a good memory.--- OnTv,
>
In my area HBO and cinemax were the pay channels and since traps were
used,one could if they had a cable compatible tuner,watch HBO WITHOUT a
cable box!
A set top cable box (No remote capacity tune at box) were rented for free.
As for programming in 85 We had MTV (after 2 years of asking for
it),TBS,WPIX New York,Discovery,Univision,Cspan 1,Nickeloden,ESPN,The
Weather channel,CNN,EWTN,Disney.NESN,Fox sports NE,Headline News,and
Lifetime, also HBO and cinemax
There werew two attemps at scrabled broadcast service Starcase and Preview.
Starcase was first in 79 followed by Preview in 81.
The two merged in 83 and the final one Preview weent under in 86.
An interesting note once when Starcase had a BIG boxing match on PPV instead
of scrambling the setup so only those who ordered it would gewt it ,they
tranmitted the fight in the clear.
Gary Tait
Apr 28, 2002, 7:22:22 PM4/28/02
to
Richard Anselmo <anselm...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:JSZy8.1905$t3.9...@news1.news.adelphia.net...
> Rogers cables is in Alaska and has been for years!
But most likely not the big company in Canada.
Is there a website for that Rogers cable?
Richard Anselmo
Apr 28, 2002, 9:21:07 PM4/28/02
to
Same company in Alaska as Canada. It is indicated on the Rogers website.news:_l%y8.4255$Z6.4...@nnrp1.uunet.ca...
Mr Pat
Apr 30, 2002, 4:26:07 AM4/30/02
to
I remember when we got cable... 1983 or 4 it was 13 channell's. Channell 2
was HBO and all I had to do to descrambel it was turn the nob between
channell 2 and 3 and bingo free tv.....
was HBO and all I had to do to descrambel it was turn the nob between
channell 2 and 3 and bingo free tv.....
GMAN
May 1, 2002, 11:50:48 AM5/1/02
to
In article <ucmup4r...@corp.supernews.com>, "Joe" <nos...@nospam.com>
wrote:
wrote:
I remember as a kid here in Salt lake, we had one microwave movie station that
played adult at 10:00 pm. The thing was so easy to decode. I remeber that
allit took was a 3 foot long piece of twin lead being attached to the 300 ohm
connections on the tv and the regular coax on the 75 ohm connection. You would
slowly cut 1/2 inch sections off of the twinlead till you attenuated the
signal of the scrambling being injected . Later you could use the little
barrel descramblers that were getting common on cable tv of the era.
Stanley Esposito
May 28, 2002, 4:03:33 PM5/28/02
to
we also had "WHT" pay service in philadelphia it was UHF scrambled over
channel 65.
channel 65.
Michele Powell
Jul 17, 2021, 3:18:33 AM7/17/21
to
Ant
Jul 17, 2021, 8:16:56 PM7/17/21
to
I miss the old rad 80s days. :(
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Go LA (NBA)! Oh wait... It had been over a year... Will 2021 repeat 2020? :(
Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly.
/\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://aqfl.net & http://antfarm.home.dhs.org.
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