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Along with having to actually get up from your seat, or bed, and turn the channels and/or adjust the volume how many remember the only three channels that were available, sometime possibly 4 if you had a UHF tuner.  If the President was to speak then all three stations, ABC, NBC, and CBS were tied up.  Today with numerous channels to chose from the main three have lost a great share of their viewers.  As for me, other than the National News, I hardly ever turn my television to ABC, NBC or CBS.  For news I either tune to FOX, CNN, or MSNBC and other that that it's information type channels that I tend to favor such as Discovery, Science, NatGeo, History, and Military channels.  

So much has changed over the years and makes you wonder just what the future will hold.  Will future generations experience exponential growth and changes, as ours have or has the exponential changes already happened and only incremental improvements be experienced?  

Another thing to ponder is just how much has changed from 1955 on and how much things changed from years before.  I can't imagine what it was like before Television and the 3 channels were supreme and high tech for their times.  I can even remember going from Black & White to Color Televisions.  Sometimes I take opportunity to listen to old broadcast from Radio shows from the 1940's and 1950's such as Fibber McGee and Molly and the Great Gildersleeve or Jack Benny.  So many changes due to technology.  Consider that at one time Print media was supreme and high tech where events like the Civil War, World War I was covered in print and people got their only news by word of mouth or print.   After Radio was discovered and became a regular then information was faster but still there was a lag time and the full effect of stories wasn't realized until Television could bring in actual pictures.  

Today it's almost certain that almost any and every event will have some video or photo coverage thanks to the proliferation of smart phones and with the internet we have a period where news lag is the shortest it's ever been.  We've gone from the Civil War days and before where battle results weren't known for days if not weeks or months by the majority of people to Operation Dessert Storm and the Iraq War where journalist were imbedded in the very battles themselves as they occurred.  So much has changed!

Be as the Bereans ( Acts 17:11 )

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I remember basic cable with no box needed, not sure how many channels. Here's a problem someone may know how to solve....I read that by law the cable companies have to give you basic cable...just a few channels as in the "old days"...but will tell you the service doesn't exist any longer...but it does still exist and by law they have to offer it...you just have to insist on it. Clear as mud...right?

Last edited by Jutu
Stanky posted:
gbrk posted:
Stanky posted:

I can remember when people watched their radio.

I think many got more entertainment in those days than what they are getting today.

I think so too. Imagination must be as extinct as the dodo bird.

One only has to spend some time listening to old programs from the 1940's and early 1950's to get some understanding of that profound statement you just made regarding "imagination".  From the Adventure of dramas, Sam Spade, Dragnet and Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar to the comedic episodes of Amos & Andy, The Great Gildersleeve, Fibber McGee and Molly, Red Skelton and Jack Benny to name just a very few.  Also those behind the scenes which worked to make the shows even more encompassing such as the sound effects technicians.  Those LIVE episodes really showed the talent of those participating in the shows in as much for their accuracy and memorization of the lines given to their innate ability to improvise when something went afoul or messed up.  

 

gbrk posted:

I may be wrong, often am, but if you have Comcast/Xfinity Internet you may have some basic channels on that cable if you hook it to a television.   I don't know for sure but I've heard someone say that.

 

The stripped down cable with no frills and way cheaper is what I read. Charter/Spectrum here has been real hinky lately.

gbrk posted:
Stanky posted:
gbrk posted:
Stanky posted:

I can remember when people watched their radio.

I think many got more entertainment in those days than what they are getting today.

I think so too. Imagination must be as extinct as the dodo bird.

One only has to spend some time listening to old programs from the 1940's and early 1950's to get some understanding of that profound statement you just made regarding "imagination".  From the Adventure of dramas, Sam Spade, Dragnet and Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar to the comedic episodes of Amos & Andy, The Great Gildersleeve, Fibber McGee and Molly, Red Skelton and Jack Benny to name just a very few.  Also those behind the scenes which worked to make the shows even more encompassing such as the sound effects technicians.  Those LIVE episodes really showed the talent of those participating in the shows in as much for their accuracy and memorization of the lines given to their innate ability to improvise when something went afoul or messed up.  

 

I also remember that information wasn't as instantaneous as today with the tap-a-talk and the interweb. People used to have to find a book if something interested them or bothered them. That might explain why all those folks of my parents generation with an eighth grade education (Or less!) seemed to be much more intelligent than today's PhD's.

One other thing I had forgotten about until reminded by an article that the wife showed me.  WAFF is going to start airing the National Anthem again.   I can remember those very early hours of the morning when everyone else was asleep and each station would effectively sign off the air for the broadcasting day and end the day with the playing of the National Anthem as well as when they started broadcasting again later on that day.  

I can also remember one other thing that may, or may not be as available today, most likely isn't.  Many years ago when the AM radio was actually very popular and the only speaker in automobiles was a center speaker on the front dash, you could turn you portable AM/FM radio around and hear radio skip from across the nation and the world at nights.  Due to nighttime propagation the FCC requires AM stations to reduce their power but still you could hear, along with mixed in static, signals from many stations around the nation.  I used to set there, in bed, and listen across the AM band to stations like WOWO (Ft Wayne, IN) and WSB (Atlanta, GA) and many others.  Since FM stations took over and after them the Internet allows you to listen to perfect reception of almost any radio station from across the world right to where you are.  

Portable AM/FM radios are almost obsolete anymore it seems.

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