Life before cable? Was there such a thing?

2
 4

Long before cable, and I mean LONG before cable, there was something called...."ON TV".

I grew up in Chicago and when a company called "ON TV" showed up, man, it was big news.

Imagine:  new movies, specials, concerts and more brought directly to your TV with nothing but a piece of coax and a box on your TV set.

So it was cable...but not cable.  You could either watch ON TV or your regular stations (you just had to flip a switch and change the station on your TV).  And as far as I remember, you got ONE station on ON TV.  So imagine buying cable today and all you had were your local stations and TBS...not so funny, is it?

But it was cable, since it pioneered coax in your home, and of course the big bucks it cost to get it installed plus the monthly fee.

I also remember the absolute nightmare if you also wanted to hook up a video game console to your TV.  You'd get a migraine trying to keep track of all the jacks and wiring just so you could play Asteroids on your Zenith.

I remember it impressing just about everyone in my family, and it was impressive.  We got to see all sorts of movies and special events that "the common folk" didn't get to see.

Here's a video of an ON TV commercial to see a Rolling Stones pre-taped concert (OK, on this point, I guess ON TV is like cable nowadays, commercials and all):



...and another for the "adults only" stuff....



The weird part about this is that the "Adults only" stuff they show has an "R" rating, but it seems a bit more X-like (at least the last few frames are...WOWSERS!!!) than I would have thought.

I don't remember how much it cost, but I am pretty sure it was maybe $20 a month, which in today's dollars would be about $51.  And, remember, that was for ONE station.  Today, you spend a bit more than that for hundreds of channels, high-speed internet and maybe even web-based phone service.

The sad part is, there's still nothing on TV to watch.