The land of the free.
When I was a kid, we had six channels: 2, 4, 7, 9, 11, 13. If you were lucky enough, you had VHF stations you could actually see (I spent several years sitting in front of my dad’s early portable TV tuning into “Sneak Previews” from a very staticky b/w station).
There was enough entertainment on all six stations to keep us occupied. The Six Million Dollar Man, Love Boat and All In The Family were on network, Mets baseball on WPIX , Yankees, Chiller Theater and the Million Dollar Movie on WWOR and Sesame Street on PBS. And it was free. Cable didn’t enter into our lives until the late 70’s, when only one of my friends had it. While our parents went out to dinner, we stayed at his house, consumed Munchos and watched a whole host of bad B-movies on Action-Plus (which I believe later became Cinemax).
After several years, cable became an affordable option, and remained so for the better part of 22 years. After that, the cost of cable - or satellite - in my area skyrocketed. What used to be $42 a month 4 years ago is now $110 for the same exact service. What was a throw-away expense soon became a cringe expense.
Cablevision decided to buy the New York Knicks (they also owned the Rangers and Liberty), mis-managed them and passed the expense onto their cable audience. Nice.
Anyway, for the last year and a half, it’s been common knowledge in many sectors here that all TV stations would switch over to digital programming full-time this year. While these free stations will not be gone, anyone without some form of a cable connection will not be able to see them (and even if they do, the quality of free stations through cable sucks). There is a converter box program with a free coupon for those who still have tv’s with rabbit ears. The program came up short and around 3.2 million poor and elderly will not be able to get a coupon to exchange for the converter box. What the new digital stations will look like through this $40 converter box remains to be seen. Over the years, the free TV signal has grown progressively worse as cable ready TV’s worked new technology around the old signal.
I guess the sad part for me is that for those of us without 20 year old television sets, the option of free television has disappeared. People need some kind of distraction in their lives, especially those unlike us who are not so well off (and can’t afford the cost of internet service, cheap as it is for some of us) - and several years from now the cost-cutting measure of dumping your cable in tough times will not be an option. Instead of being able to watch a static-ridden American Idol, you’ll only have the option of a blank screen.
Well, at least sex is free - sometimes.
