I thought I would post this subject for those of you who feel compelled to click on an aha post but are sick of reading about my efforts to get Cecil to welcome me to this board. You will be relieved to know that after Tuesday these Cecil post will cease to exist…
I was standing by the checkout counter yesterday and picked up a TV guide. I don’t know if it was a special edition or what but it must have been as thick as a Reader’s digest. I thumbed through it quickly and it didn’t look very user friendly either with thousands of channels listed. It looked like a chinese newspaper to me. Any SD’ers out there buy these things?
I used to, but, at $1.79 each, it’s gotten to be a bit expensive (and wasteful). I have a satellite dish which has an Electronic Program Guide (EPG) that can accessed for up to a day and a half and it gives program info for about 99% of shows I can see. I also use TVGrid.com which can be personalized to fit your satellite or cable system. It has listings for up to two weeks. TV Guide is now online, oddly enough and you can get better programming info than the magazine! As for the stories, they’re usually the same ones you can pick up on on E! or at many websites dedicated to celebrity news.
TV Guide has also taken a clue from baseball cards by offering multiple covers! Check out E-Bay and you’ll see lots of old TV Guides for sale. Those would be kinda neat to look at, especially ones from the 50’s and 60’s since the variety of shows was severely limited by todays 500-channel standards.
I’ve subscribed for about 15 years. Embarassed to say that up until our last move, I actually saved them, had several boxes that I ended up throwing out. I don’t know why, I think it started in college when they would pile up on the TV and someone said, you ought to start a collection. I lloked through a couple of the old ones before tossing them. Some interesting stuff, especially the features on new stars that they predicted would have bright futures. Usually ten to the article, of which you could name maybe one today. Maybe they discontinued that feature because it seemed like being listed was the kiss of death.
As for the listings, yeah they are confusing but I think that’s because of the size of the mag. They make a full magazine size version that is easier to read. It might not be available everywhere but it is here in Columbus.
I have a subscription. It’s easier to use than going online. I read the listings when I want to see what’s on or what will be on. I thumb through the “magazine” section to see if anyone died. I almost never read the articles. Sometimes I get pissed off at all of the “filler” and rip it off, leaving only the current and future listings.
You act like thats your only other option?? My GF buys these stupid things. IMHO they are filled with nonscence and hard to read much less find the day your looking for quickly. I keep telling her “You get a free easy to use program listing in the sunday paper!” …her, “oh no, see this one has the cast of ER on the cover” …me, “tightening a noose around my neck and holding the free end up in the air with my right hand and jumping off the coffee table.”
Channels don’t match up with our local ones so I don’t buy it. My TV has free GuidePlus which does the same thing. Its just a regular cable connection too. My tv can tell my vcr to record a program I select from that list or switch to that program all by itself when the program is on later.
Doesn’t cost a thing either. Just input your local zip code & it does the rest.
Actually, inertia, I was going to do that, and watched the going prices for a while, but it seemed like no one was buying anything after 1980, and the 1970’s issues weren’t getting more than a buck an issue if that. Only the old stuff seems to be in demand. I e-mailed a couple of collector’s who had web site, seeing what they would offer, but they both said what I had was just too common to be worth anything.
Actually I have no need for T.V. Guide. This is because I have digital cable. Pressing a few buttons I can find out anything that will be on (that I can get) as well as the channel, start time & description on the program. It beats the crap out of T.V. Guide.
I have been getting TV Guide for about 20 years now. It has become my bible! I think that it is pretty easy to use, and although there is a channel owned by the TV Guide with the listings where I live, it goes to slow and is incrediably aggravating (besides, it shows the listing for about 200 channels, only 90 which I actually have).
I’ve had a subscription to it for a few years, but I’m letting it lapse this year. I realized that I mainly enjoy it for the puzzles, and I can buy them cheaper. I still get ‘BroadBand’ from the cable company, because they have the listings for the premium channels that the regular TV insert in the Sunday paper doesn’t have.