Most of you today are clueless on this subject. Back in the 50's and 60's, we didn't have a choice. One of my favorite memories from that era was Sunday afternoons. Something good coming on like the Ed Sullivan show. You could cruise through the neighborhood and see all these people, kids mostly, up on the rooftops trying to get the antenna pointed just right. It was usually a family affair too. A kid would be on the roof, mom would be standing outside acting as translator, and the father would be inside with the TV shouting out the orders of what direction to go. "More to the left. Noooo, you went too far. Go back that way. Riiiight there. No! You missed it again. Hold it! Hold it! There." Junior would then shimmy down the pole and go watch TV. At least until you had to change the channel again. We only had 3 or 4 back then. Rabbit ears. Tin foil. Coat hangers, These all saw duty sooner or later too. Ahhh, memories. Heh. x
I use rabbit ears. I am not about to actually pay alot of money for mostly the crap that is on tv. I can get many channels with just the rabbit ears for free. The couple I was renting a room from several years ago actually ditch cable and install an antenna on their roof. The neighborhood kids thought they were onto some new high tech thing. lol
I lived in southern WV back then, most of us lived down close to the creek and the mountains were as steep as a mule's face. Rabbit ears or a housetop antenna were completely useless. Neighbors would pool their money and buy the equipment to install a "mountain line", which was an antennae on top of the nearest ridge, with ladder wire run up the mountain for the signal and power line for the necessary boosters. A storm would usually either break the ladder wire with falling limbs, or turn the antenna the wrong way. A couple of the neighborhood men would go up the mountain to fix the wire and turn the antenna, someone would stay in the house with the window open and watch the TV, and someone else would sit in a car in the yard with their hand on the horn. One beep means stop turning it, two beeps go forward, three beeps go back, four beeps meant "that's the best picture we can get". Of course, every group had a different system on the beeps. Fun times.
There used to be Tenna Rotors, motors that moved the antenna around. Twin lead was popular back then too. .
I had a tv with an antenna on it a couple months ago. It only had one channel. And it was all snowy. Like I remember trying to watch the superbowl and I could barely see the ball when they were throwing it. It was all fine though cause I don't watch much tv anyhow. I watch a lot of movies. So the TV served its purpose in that respect. But I do remember up until I was almost in high school, before we got sattelite, only having like two or three channels. I remember my dad trying to fix it a couple times, but most of the time the reception was barable.
I'll say one thing for the old days...there was always something on. Even with 2 or 3 channels. Now I have over 200. Nothing on. x
I still have an old tv with an antenna and 8 programmable channels, accessible by eight buttons on the front of the tv.
I still have an antenna on my tv and have to wiggle it around for certain channels at certain times. And we only have 4 or 5 channels depending on where you live over here (UK), two without adverts and 3 with... Aren't we in the dark ages, eh?
I remember getting a little zap one time when I removed the "clothespin" from the back of the set during a storm. Lightning charges up the line. I saw a neighbor's antenna get St. Elmo's fire one time during a thunderstorm. The whole thing glowed blue like a neon sign, then a little ball lightning rolled off the top of it. Weird stuff to see first hand like that. x
I remember a Jerry Lewis movie where he was trying to get the snow out of the picture. He opened up the front of the TV and real snow was blowing out of it. .
my tv had an antenna until about 8 months ago, but it still only got 2 channels and they were so fuzzy that i didn't bother watching once in that 2 1/2 year span. then i struck it rich and got cable, so now the tv's pretty much always on, whether i'm watching it or not
if it wasnt for the music choice channels and the internet that came with it, i wouldnt even bother with cable.
Survivorman, Mythbusters, The Simpsons, etc. Even a panful of mud can give up a few flakes of gold. Then, there's the matter of having 5 mb cable internet. Cheaper if you have cable TV. x
I still use an antenna, all the programs I need are on broadcast, but I for some reason can't get PBS.
