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CATV in History
It seems it has largely been forgotten that cable TV was originally more about reception and picture quality than it was about content. Growing up in rural Arkansas, as I recall at least a hundred miles from any TV transmitter, meant we either had cable or we didn't have anything at all. You could even run a coax cable into the back of the FM tuner, and use the same giant antenna to pick up radio stations. My, how times have changed.
What's funny are the commenters on the article saying "nuh uh, that can't be true, because that's not how technological progress works." That seems to be where the internet is headed... several nations worth of people that think they can change history by refusing to believe it (and, if that fails, by using caps lock and profanity).
Posted by: Tatterdemalian on May 16, 2010 10:49 AMBut you know what caused it to expand like hell? Skinemax's Friday After Dark. Pr0n powers everything.
Posted by: Ron ap Rhys on May 16, 2010 07:34 PMFrom what my Dad says, it was originally also supposed to be commercial-free; basically, what we now call "premium movie channels" were what you _got_ from Cable TV.
Posted by: DensityDuck on May 17, 2010 05:52 PM