I can remember a time when I was young having only two television stations - Channel 3 (CBS) and Channel 5 (NBC). We later got an ABC station on Channel 22 (I don’t know why with all the empty spots on the dial they decided to give them 22) and PBS stations at 33 and later at 57. We also have some Canadian stations if reception was good - CTV and CBC on Channels 6 and 12.
When I was 13, we moved downstate for a year and we had the NYC stations, including WPIX. I remember watching the Four O’Clock Movie many afternoons and Space: 1999.
WGN, Channel 9 (before they went “Super”. Now WB). In addition to kids shows like Ray Raynor, Garfield Goose and Bozo’s Circus, they showed Cubs games and reruns of 1960’s sitcoms. On Sunday’s it was The Lone Ranger and Cisco Kid shows followed by “Family Classics” (movies based on books).
WFLD, Channel 32 (now Fox) - Mostly reruns like The Monkees, Brady Bunch, I Love Lucy, and really bad movies.
Channel 44 (can’t remember the call letters) - I didn’t watch this station much, but I remember they showed White Sox games, wrestling and roller derby.
In the 1980’s we got Channel 60 which showed nothing but music videos. This was before my town was wired for cable.
When I was in college, the cable network carried the WGN Superstation which was a nice hint of home as I could watch Chicago area news instead of the local events downstate.
More importantly, as a youth for me: Tennesee Tuxedo, Underdog and The Great Space Coaster. We just called it “Channel U” because there really wasn’t any reason to spin the UHF dial in the late 70’s so when you got to the “U” on the VHF dial, you watched WFLD.
Channel 60 was the best. A free version of MTv and it beat wating for Friday Night Videos. I think it eventually went Hispanic but I may be confusing it for Ch. 66 (which went Home Shopping, I think)
Same here, except I was watching them in Connecticut. I remember watching old movies on those channels on Sunday afternoon, like the Johnny Weismuller Tarzan films. (And Connecticut was and is weird in that we could watch both Connecticut and NYC affiliates of all the major networks.)
Atlanta checking in. I’m old enough to remember when a television had only one channel dial that went from 2 to 13 - there was no UHF dial. As a kid, we had four stations: channel 2 - WSB (NBC), channel 5 - WAGA (CBS), channel 11, WLWA (ABC) and channel 8 (educational - there was no PBS in those days.) But channel 8 broadcast out of Athens, and could only be picked up well by a rooftop antenna - we had rabbit ears. Strictly speaking, you could say that was the first “non-network” station I watched, because in fifth grade, we had some Spanish instruction via television.
Some time in the mid-60s, there was a mandate that TVs be manufactured with a UHF selector as well, and shortly after that in September 1967 WJRJ TV, channel 17 went on the air in Atlanta. I was 15 at the time, and recall the programming was pretty thin. But they showed “Alfred Hitchcock” reruns every night and I really liked those.
A few years later, channel 17 was bought by a fellow who had inherited a billboard company from his dad. That fellow was Ted Turner, and channel 17 changed its call letters to WTCG (for Turner Communication Group, although some say it stood for “Watch This Channel Grow.” I suspect Turner himself started that story!).
Programming was still pretty lame, until Turner bought the Braves, mostly as a way to get some programming on his TV station. Then he got the bright idea to broadcast via satellite. The rest, as they say, is history.
I grew up close enough to New York to get 5, 9 and 11 as was mentioned earlier. Somehow we got cable very early in the late 70s even though I know now that money was tight. I remember being thrilled to have HBO. My parents actually let me watch Jaws which was coming on in the first week. The movie got to the scene where they were showing their scars and the cable went out :eek: . Something I had to get used to from then on. I was too young and unexperienced with cable to know that they would be showing it another 20 times that month.
Besides 2 (CBS), 4 (NBC) & 7 (ABC), in LA we had channel 5 (KTLA), 9, 11 & 13. One (5?) was owned by Gene Autry, the Singing Cowboy. We also had 28 & 50 for PBS, plus the UHF dial.
Lots of old Toho Studios movies and reruns, and later, there was Movie Macabre, with Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (before all those beer ads).