Cable TV

When I had Cable...it was bliss.
On
November 26, 2012
Okay, before I get the the accusation of "This Station Sucks Because...", this is about more when I had Cable TV when I was a child, cable TV had a lot of shows and stations that had a lot of good rerun shows! Hell...even Weird Al wrote a song about it!...

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But it was 1991 when I got Cable TV, my mom gave us popcorn after a long day at school and we got Cablevision (Before it became Time Warner Cable). Prior to that, we had broadcast TV...but despite having something to watch on TV...it was mostly fuzz. At this time, cable was at its prime even though it was existent since the 70's. We would still watch the broadcast stations and they came in much better through cable than antenna...and this was before the digital converters or getting Netflix and Cable HAD identity, not identity crisis like today! Obviously, there was the Big Three Stations (NBC, ABC, and CBS)...but we also got the FOX affiliate and a couple of independent affiliates such as WUAB and WBNX, which I feel the latter is like Weird Al's UHF Station in "UHF"...



Only because in 1985, WBNX was owned by a Preacher in the Charlotte region...no, it wasn't Billy Graham! It was Ernest Angely, who bought Rex Humbard's Ministry after the Televangelists Scandals that occurred and (Blank)...yes...prior to 1997 when WBNX got The WB (Now CW Affiliate) no curse words were used, not even "butt"! But WBNX seemed to build itself up as a one of the best CW affiliates out there! Like "UHF" it seemed to struggle, but when it got some good syndicated shows...it's watch by many!



But WUAB would go south after losing The WB, Indians Baseball, and Cavs Basketball...but then again...this is how many Cleveland Teams play....



We got the Basic Bundle, but it was bliss. Now, I'll try to go through the stations as they were lined-up. First was MTV which wasn't watched due to its raunchiness, though "Beavis and Butthead" was popular at this time and became the stations staple at the time. WKYC (Cleveland's NBC Affiliate) was next, Prevue Station would be next but it would go to Channel 19 in 1995. WEWS (Cleveland's ABC Affiliate) would be next, then it would be ESPN...which my brother would watch because of "SportsCenter" and he'd watch the show before I would read the Sports Section and in my honest opinion...is one of the worst TV Shows out there!



CNN was next...and it was rarely watched. But WJW was watched when it was the CBS affiliate...and the FOX affiliate, but we didn't watch "The Simpsons" until 1997 when we got rid of cable...and I still don't watch "The Simpsons" because they're on for so damn long! WGN was watched a lot and there was "The Bozo Show" which was watched a lot as well as some syndicated shows. And for some Holiday feel...Here's 3 cartoons from "The Bozo Show", this is for the Chicagoans out there as well as some people who got WGN!...







With all this talk about Chicago...I want a Chicago Dog....



I didn't watch BET, but I watched the next station called USA which had a lot of Game Shows before GSN (And in a way more so than GSN now)! And there was "The Cartoon Express", which showed MANY good shows...3/4 of them are from Hanna-Barbera (or something like that) and the Cartoon Express may have retired in 1997, but yeah...it had a great line-up!



CNN/Headline News was next but rarely watched. But The Family Channel (Before it was FOX and now ABC Family) also had Game Shows and one in particular was "Trivial Pursuit" which was hosted by Wink Martindale, and in my opinion...is my favorite Game Show Host! The Family Channel is owned by Jerry Falwell and Pat Robinson, the head honchos of "The 700 Club"...but was NEVER watched.



Next were two movie stations called Showtime and HBO. These were Premium Stations, so we didn't get those stations nor watched them! Today, Showtime and HBO have original shows as well as movies. Another station that was rarely viewed was Lifetime, but TBS...the next Station was seen a lot. The 1st Superstation WTBS would have Looney Tunes prior to 1947 (Some were edited for obvious reasons), Tom and Jerry, some Hanna-Barbera cartoons, and sitcoms like "Who's the Boss" and "Andy Griffith".



Like I said earlier, I didn't watch MTV, but I watched its sister station called VH-1 which had music videos as well as MTV, but would have music videos even before the music video was coined, and on 4th of July weekend they had an A-Z Music Video Marathon from ABBA to ZZTop. I miss that. WOIO was actually a station that I loved when I was young, it started out as a FOX affiliate (though I never watched any shows from FOX), but it was the 1st station that I saw change dramatically when it became a CBS affiliate in 1994 and it switched to channel 4 in 1995.


The Movie Channel...another premium station, so we didn't get that. The Nashville Network wasn't watched much either (and after we got rid of cable, it became The National Network, then Spike TV...still wasn't watched much). Cinemax too was premium, but the next station was WAKC, Akron's ABC affiliate until 1998 when it became PAX and in 2005 it became ion. I don't recall watching The Discovery Channel, but I did watch Cleveland's PBS affiliate called WVIZ. A&E had only one show watched a lot..."Biography"! The show that made Peter Graves popular after "Airplane"!



Bravo and The Travel Channel once shared a station. Bravo was premium, The Travel Channel wasn't. CNBC was NBC's Cable News Network, never really watched. But American Movie Classics was highly watched! This was when the station had NO commercials, classic films of the 20's, 30's, 40's, and 50's. I remember watching the first Marx Brothers films when they had Herbert "Zeppo" Marx in them, and yes...he's my favorite Marx Brother! He would later help-out his other brothers Julius "Groucho" Marx, Leonard "Chico" Marx, and the quiet one Adolph (Arthur) "Harpo" Marx by being their client after "Duck Soup".



Zeppo may like this station if he was around in 1982 (He died in 1979) it was The Weather Channel. 24-Hours of weather! I like this station too and I'd watch this station a lot when we had cable. There's even a soundtrack for the "Local on the 8s"...I kid you not! Next was Nickelodeon and it was watched a lot! It was what I would like to call "The Orange Age" of Nickelodeon. It would not only play syndicated cartoons like "Looney Tunes", "Rocky and Bullwinkle", "Underdog", "Danger Mouse, "Heathcliff", and "Inspector Gadget" to name a few...but it had original Sitcoms ("Clarissa Explains It All", "Kenan and Kel"), Game Shows ("GUTS", "Legends of the Hidden Temple"), and Nicktoons such as "Doug" and "Rugrats". There was also "Ren and Stimpy", but that show wasn't allowed...today I wonder how Nickelodeon allowed that show to be on Nickelodeon! It also had the Canadian show called "You Can't Do That On Television" which was adopted as Nickelodeon's staple show because of slime!...

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Basically it was just paint, cornstarch, shampoo, and water. (SPLASH)! There was also Nick Jr. which was on between 9 to 2. It showed Japanimation cartoons...yes they made G-Rated Cartoons, "David the Gnome" which had the voice of the Late Tom Bosley, and "The Elephant Show". By 8 o'clock Nick at Nite would be on with shows from the 50's and 60's and this was before Antenna TV and MeTV...it had some good bumper commercials too....

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Sadly...nothing lasts forever and The Orange Age ended for Nickelodeon when The Spongebob Era came in 1999. The Disney Channel is gone too, well it's now The "Disney" Channel, but this was a premium station as well but there would be weekends when it would be seen as a basic station. In 1992, we got this station because it was just a good station. It showed Classic Disney Shows and Movies, but it would also show old TV Specials. Also, it had "The New Mickey Mouse Club" which would later have some future musicians like Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguleria. At night, there was concerts of popular musicians like Kenny Loggins and Paul McCartney. In 1995, we kinda outgrew The Disney Channel and we would watch another primeum station called Comedy Central. Reason being..."Mystery Science Theater 3000"! And in my opinion...Comedy Central had two eras...The Pre-South Park era, prior to 1997 and it had "MST3K", and The South Park Era which was 1997 and we didn't even watch Comedy Central by then....



Sports Channel was a premium station that wasn't in our package, but it showed Cleveland Sports and my brother would probably wish he had that station. The next station was a Cleveland Public Access Station called Cleveland Television and it had local events like the 185th Street Parade, Flag Football, and some Cleveland History. The next two stations weren't watched and they were C-Span and C-Span 2. Telemundo would be next and it was a Spanish-Speaking Station though it was interesting to see Spanish-Speaking commercials. Another rarely-watched station was Country Music Television, but the next station would be a Promotional Station that had Cleveland's Oldies Station called 105.7, WMJI. It's still an oldies station but now they have songs from the 80's on there as well as the 70's and 60's. The next two stations were Pay-Per-View stations, and we didn't buy any of those movies or events on there. Next was WUAB which played favorites, now not so much. Then there was TNT which played classic cartoons such as "Looney Tunes", "Tom and Jerry", and "The Pink Panther". And prior to Turner Classic Movies, they would play MGM Films and sporting events such as football and basketball. They knew Drama...and now the biggest drama is that it's a drama station.



Seeing that makes me want to sing in the rain....



The next few stations were unwatched, they were Advertising TV, SCOLA which had foreign shows, ALTV which I think was Public Access, and then The Learning Channel which was watched somewhat. It had shows about history, science, and stuff like that...no "Toddlers in Tiaras" or "I didn't know I was Pregnant" (How can we learn from THAT)?! Next was Akron's PBS affiliate called WEAO and that was watched as well. The next five stations were just Education ads with audio, one was from Cuyahoga Community College. WBNX would be next and like I said, it was watched. TBN and EWTN were skipped even though I am a Church-goer as well as my parents. Then Court TV would take-over the EWTN station in 1996, QVC and HSN would switch around that area, Playboy was Pay-Per-View and only seen at night...so it wasn't watched! But next was The Sci-Fi Channel which would pick-up "Mystery Science Theater 3000" after its run on Comedy Central.



The next three stations were basically shopping stations, but E! was next and it had "Talk Soup" which is a talk show with some comedy in it. Univision is another Spanish-Speaking station and not as memorable as Telemundo. Much Music would be the last station that was on our cable provider. I remember watching "AL Music" when "Weird Al" Yankovic would take-over the station. There were other stations that we didn't get like The History Channel an A&E affiliate, FOX News Channel, MSNBC, TV Land which came in 1996, Game Show Network which had reruns of Classic Game Shows, and Cartoon Network that had basically Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry, and Hanna-Barbera Cartoons.



That's a lot of 'toons...just like this commercial....

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In 1997, with the cost of cable going high, being home-schooled, and tightening our belts...we had to get rid of cable. Four years later...we would get Dish Network and oddly enough...we got rid of that six years later! I don't have cable now, but I do have YouTube, Hulu, and Netflix on my PS3 so now I can watch the classic shows and movies in my own leisure. The stations of yesteryear will return when Cleveland wins a Championship, so I'll just remember these stations as is....

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