Canadian family parties like it's 1986, technology-wise

I remember in the 1980s it was a big deal to buy a TV that was "cable-ready," so you didn't have to rent the box from the cable company.

 

But that sweet mullet never went out of style.

 

Our family first got cable in 1982 and I remember USA, ESPN and CNN. Before that, we'd see it occasionally at relatives' houses.

Back in those days, a lot of sports were syndicated and ESPN would show taped replays. I don't know if that was a rights issues or a technology issue. But they certainly didn't have 1000 announcers and 1000 production crews. Also, back then the NCAA managed rights for college football and there were generally no more than 3 live games on Saturday if you had a local team that had a deal. (CBS had jumped in the game in 1982 and split a schedule with ABC, but were not allowed to go head-to-head except for a couple of dates.) After the Supreme Court deregulated broadcasts in 1984, they started airing live games.

ESPN first got the NBA in 1983 (split package with USA). That and the USFL were their first major right deals. Lot of college basketball, but a fair amount (including the NCAA tournament) was picked up from other companies who produced the games. The 1987 NFL deal was the first time the NFL was shown on cable.

I do remember them showing golf as early as 1983 and tennis in 1986.

 

If This guy was sincere in re-creating life as it was in 1986, in the video he'd be wearing a George Bell #11 Blue Jays' jersey instead of a modern #19 Jose Bautista one.

 

We didn't get cable in our rural Eastern Connecticut town until 1994 or thereabouts. In fact, our postal address for the longest time was just RFD No. 1, just like our neighbors'. As a matter of fact, I think if you still use that address, my parents will get their mail.

For whatever reason we couldn't get Ch. 38 via our big antenna on the roof — we lived on a hill — but we could get Ch. 11 out of New York and Ch. 17 out of Philadelphia just fine. Pissed me off as a Red Sox fan, but Steve Balboni quickly became my favorite player as a 12-year-old. But yeah, I still can remember turning the rotor to turn the antenna and hearing it go "ka-chunk ka-chunk" all the way to southeast or whatever. Oddly enough, the antenna still is on the roof, and before my father switched to Dish, he could get HD channels on it.

 

Actually, he'd have burned his powder blue #7 Damaso Garcia jersey.

 

1986? Pussies.

 

I remember when our neighborhood was finally strung for cable in 1980 and thinking we were slumming because we only got Showtime while my aunt in the next town got HBO.

But 1986? Geez, even compact disks were out by then.

 

Just wait till Mookie's up ...

 

Dave Stieb.

 

I honestly didn't know CNHI had a Canada branch.

 

I'm approximating the lineup a bit, but this was cable TV in Garden City, Kansas, in about 1982.
2 - KWGN out of Denver. Wichita didn't have any independent stations, so the company pulled this station in.
3 - The weather channel, which was a black-and-white camera which was on a motoroized tripod that went back and forth along a wall with a series of analog dials. Time, temperature, humidity, wind speed and wind direction. Maybe the barometer too.
4 - The CBS station. It was channel 6 over the air.
5 - Wasn't anything for the longest time I can remember. When HBO came here, they put it on this channel.
6 - The old-style UPI news ticker. Blocky computerized text going up the screen.
7 - A public television station from Denver. Wichita had one, but it didn't have translators in western Kansas like the network channels did.
8 - Allotted to the high school.
9 - I don't remember what it was originally. The weather dials moved here after WTBS became a permanent channel on 3.
10 - The NBC station, 11 over the air.
11 - nothing, usually a ghost signal of the NBC station
12 - The ABC station, 13 over the air.
13 - nothing, another ghost signal.

And it stayed pretty much that way until USA Network was added. They put that on 6. Then late night, it popped over and became WGN. Channel 7 popped over after the public station's sign-off and was WTBS until about 7 a.m.

The channel with the tripod and weather dials would get wonky sometimes. The tripod would get knocked out of whack occasionally and rotate too far in one direction or the other. You'd end up not seeing all the dials on one side and a shot of a bare wall on the other.

MTV and ESPN didn't arrive until 1986 or 87.