How many TV channels did you get as a kid?

[flamingyouth]

This will really show how things have changed in my lifetime...

We only had ABC, NBC, CBS, channel 11 (Saturday Sci-Fi Theater!!!) and channel 13. We finally got another UHF channel 22 when I was in junior high school. And then, lo and behold, when I started high school, we got CABLE.

But, as a bonus, because I was in Seattle and our house faced north on a hill, we picked up three Canadian TV stations as well - 2, 6 and 8. I think two of them were from Victoria. OK, Canadians of a certain age - is there anything more boring than "The Beachcombers"? What exactly was that show about, anyway?

On edit: I forgot about PBS!! How could I?!? I watched Sesame Street faithfully. I especially loved Oscar the Grouch.

[meegbear]

1. 8 Stations

2 PBS, NBC, ABC, CBS and 3 independant stations. The independant ones are now a Spanish only station, a UPN and a WB.

[Bluzmann57]

2. Only three

and a real fuzzy PBS out of Iowa City. And we actually had to get up in order to change channels. We had some kick ass radio though. Anybody remember "Beeker Street" on the mighty 1090 in Little Rock, Arkansas? Great late night listening. And real diversity back then too.

[RebelOne]

23. Same here. Only three in Miami, FL.

Yes, and I remember the days without remote control. Well, with only three channels, you didn't change channels that much anyway.

[Liberal Veteran]

3. Five. ABC, NBC, CBS, TBS, PBS.

[quispquake]

4. The three major networks & PBS

were it for a long time, then in '76 or so (I'm in central Maine), they started piping up channels 38 & 56 from Boston...amazing indy channels that had some great programming (daytime like the "Banana Splits" & "The Monkees", and lotsa movies on the "Creature Double Feature"...). Of course, both of them are now generic corporate owned stations, but back then, they were something else...

Oh yeah, after 38 went off at night, they piped in channel 5 from Boston, which showed movies hosted by this really cool guy George Fennell(?!). He would talk, sounding rather drunk, while the engineer put on weird psychedelic patterns, then play old horror & Charlie Chan movies...an essential part of my teenage years...

Thanks for bringing back the memories!!!

pp23

[Hawkeye-X]

5. I remember

2, 4, 6, 7, 9, 12, 20 and 31

In that order
(around 1989)
UPN, NBC, PBS, CBS, ABC, PBS, PAX, FOX

Now it changed MUCH later

UPN, CBS, PBS, ABC, NBC, PBS, PAX, FOX

Confusing isn't it. I hate that.

Hawkeye-X

[ronnykmarshall]

6. 3 NBC, ABC & CBS

When we got cable in 1965 we got (from Los Angeles) the three networks (local and LA) plus 4 independent channels, PBS and a KMEX (Spanish).

[ithacan]

7. three, and then when PBS came, four

though where I lived was one of the earliest places to get cable tv in the US (it's a test market and cable came in 1976 or maybe earlier), we didn't get cable.

Where I live now, without cable you get 0 (that's zero) tv stations. It's great! we are tv-free and love it.

[jimbo fett]

8. Three but...

If we had had a newer TV we could've gotten the independent UHF channel.

The TV we had until I was a freshman in highschool was an OLD black and white set my parents bought USED in 1962. It was made in the 50s. Manilla-colored cabinet. HUGE rabbit ear antennae. It took about 3 minutes for the tube to warm up - started as a dot of light in the center and slowly expanded. The only reason we stopped using it was that we got cable TV and it wouldn't work on that old relic.

[amazona]

9. there were 3 networks

There was also a UHF (?) station, whatever that is -- seemed to mean a station that was always heavily "snowing" and always had re-runs.

[Kellanved]

10. three

All three German PBS - It was in the 90s, when mother finally gave in to my brothers and me and ordered cable.

[treefrogjohn]

11. Four: ABC, NBC, CBS, and one in Canada

I can't remember what it was called but it broadcast from Windsor and we could receive the signal in Detroit. They had the best cartoons and kid shows which was what I cared about. Also good hockey coverage.

[sybylla]

12. Only 4

one each of the networks plus a PBS station. Seems silly now to have a hundred channels coming into my home and still have nights when there is nothing on.

[mac56]

13. CBS and NBC till I was about eight.

Way up north by Duluth, MN. The CBS and NBC stations showed an occasional ABC program. Then Duluth got an NET (now PBS) station, and two years later an ABC station. Eventually we moved to the Twin Cities, which besides the majors had two PBS stations and (gasp) an independent! Damn, that was the big time.

[kskiska]

14. We got our TV in 1949 or 1950, I think

This was in the NY-Connecticut area. There was CBS (2), NBC(4), then ABC (7). There was also Dumont (5), WPIX (11), and WNEW (I think – Ch. 9). There was also Channel 13 (don't recall the call letters) which was a forerunner of PBS, that featured weird programming such as polka parties and such. So, altogether, that makes 7 channels, which was pretty good back then.

I was about 5 at the time, and when we first got the set my mother invited some people over and set up a couple rows of chairs like a theatre. It was really fun. What wasn't so much fun was the instability of TV controls back then. You had to adjust the horizontal and vertical hold on the set, and when you sat back down, the picture would start rolling again. My dad was frequently up on the roof adjusting the antenna to face NYC, where the transmitter was.

[wysimdnwyg]

15. Four

NBC, ABC, CBS and PBS

I was so excited when we got what is now the Fox station.

[dback]

16. I grew up in Seattle too! Yep, those "Big 5" were it

I loved Channel 11 back in the 70's, because they were the ones that always showed reruns of 60's sitcoms like "The Munsters" "Bewitched" "That Girl" etc.--all the fine arts a young man needs growing up. :) Then Channel 13 took off in the early 1980's as "The Northwest's Own Movie Channel," and I have to admit I got very hooked on their old-movie fests, especially Alfred Hitchcock. Around 1983 my parents got cable, and the rest is history.

[flamingyouth]

36. I LOVED channel 11 too

Now I guess TV Land has sort of picked up where the local channels stopped showing great reruns. Now all we see on channel 11 now is stuff like Jerry Springer. <sigh>

[tinrobot]

17. Five...

Growing up in Phoenix - 3, 5, 8, 10, 12. That's 3 networks, PBS, one independant. Oh, and 21 was religious/spanish or something.

Funny how this topic comes up now. I'm actually watching the guys install DirectTV on my house as we speak. Upgrading from cable. Dozens of channels is not enough. I need HUNDREDS!

...and I got a Tivo. Woo!

[starroute]

18. 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13

This was in New York City in the Fifties -- before the days of UHF.

2, 4, and 7 were CBS, NBC, and ABC. 13 was really lame when I was little, but by the time I was in high school they'd became a sort of proto-PBS.

I don't remember much about 5, but 9 and 11 ran baseball games a lot. And 9 was notorious for showing the same movie about 11 times a week.

There wasn't a lot of choice, but at its best, it was better than anything you'd find on tv today. The movie studios hadn't yet opened their vaults, and there was no backlog for syndication, so it was forced to be more inventive, varied, spontaneous, and creative.

[CO Liberal]

37. Same Here

I grew up in NJ during the '50s. We had the first color set on the street, because my father worked for RCA. Only two stations carried color shows - 4 (NBC) and 9 (mostly lousy "Sons of Hercules" movies).

A song from my childhood:

"It's Howdy Doody Time
It isn't worth a dime.
So turn on Channel Nine
And we'll watch Frankenstein."

:-)

[last_texas_dem]

19. 36

Well, actually 35 since there was no Channel 1.

Keep in mind that I'm a child of the eighties; I have no memory of not having cable at my house.

I distinctly remember that Channel 36 was the USA Network because I always watched the three hours of game shows they showed in the afternoon in Elementary school, weird kid that I was!

[Braden]

20. maybe 8 and they all sucked

[sleipnir]

21. About 30-40, with Cable (Before cable 5...) I grew up in CableRevolution

[rbnyc]

22. Tell me where I grew up.

It will be VERY EASY to tell.

VHF

2 CBS
5 NBC
7 ABC
9 WGN I won an "I survived the blizzard of 79" T-Shirt on Ray Rayner's TV pow.
11 PBS

UHF

32 The channel that had Son of Sven!
44 The channel that played Night of The Living Dead the first time I ever saw it at age 4

:hi:

[Bluzmann57]

24. Channel 9!

So you actually got to see all of the Cub games, rather than the 70 or so that they show now? Man, back in those early days, we only got the Cubs once or twice a week on the WGN network. When we first got cable, we had ch. 11 too, but our local PBS wasn't up and running yet. Or maybe it was, just too low power. Anyway, I loved it when we got WGN and could watch virtually all of the Cub games.

[Gato Moteado]

28. i think you forgot a few...

32(wfld) and 44(wsns) weren't the only uhf stations in chicago back then. there were the even harder-to-tune-in channels 20, 26 and 66.

incidentally, channel 44 was also the station that broadcasted the white sox games for several years. that was weird.

[rbnyc]

29. I don't remember those.

I bet we couldn't get them in.

:)

[Gato Moteado]

38. they were hard to tune in.....

....weak transmitters i'm sure. channel 66 was interesting for a while. my brother and i were late night uhf and skip radio addicts. we were even able to tune in vhf channels from ohio and michigan by turning the channel dial between clicks late at night.

after leaving chicago and seeing what public TV is like in other cities, i'm convinced that wttw (channel 11) was the best public tv channel in the country.

[rbnyc]

39. It is!

PBS in pretty good here, too. But I've lived all over the country and WTTW is really special.

[Gato Moteado]

42. remember soundstage?

and how it was always simulcast on wfmt. that was very cool.

[DODI]

51. Wish you could get Soundstate on tape/DVD

Jim Croce was great. I will never forget that one.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

40. Chi town?

[hobbes159]

25. Wasn't allowed to watch TV much as a kid

Limited to a hour a two a week -- had to save that for the 3 stooges on Saturday morning :-)

[BiggJawn]

26. 4. Just 4...

WTTV Channel 4 (Home of Sammy Terry)
WFBM Channel 6, the NBC Afil (now WRTV and ABC)
WISH Channel 8, CBS (and still the same)
WLW-I Channel 13, ABC, part of Crosley Broadcasting/AVCO. Included WLW-T,(Cincy) WLW-D (Dayton) and WLW-C (Columbus) Now WTHR and the NBC Afil...

I have an old camera "Flag" from WLWI.

[trackfan]

27. In Los Angeles, in the 1960's we had 7 VHF, plus

4 or so UHF - 2,4,5,7,9,11,13 - 28,34 then later 22, 52,56 etc.

[HEyHEY]

30. HEY! Nobody knocks the Beachcombers!

Relic and the crew! come one!

I got about 30 I think, every Canadian channels including the french ones, all the US major networks. Then som ePBS type channels

[flamingyouth]

35. Yeah, that lumber salvaging is exciting stuff

Not to be outdone by sitting around drinking coffee. It was on for 17 years! :wtf:

[TrogL]

31. 60's Southern Ontario

2 - NBC Buffalo
4 - ABC Buffalo
7 - CBS Buffalo
11 - Hamilton independent
9 - CTV Toronto
5 - CBC Toronto
22 - PBS Buffalo (later)

In perfect conditions

10 - CTV London Ontario
13 - CBC Kitchener Ontario

The Beachcombers - even Canadians found it incomprehensible at the best of times. It was a showcase for one well-known Canadian actor (whose name I've fortunately forgotten else I will have nightmares tonight) and was used to keep everybody's Canadian content on the up and up. The plot - a bunch of guys ran around on beaches and in leaky boats collecting logs. Why? Who knows.

[enough]

32. None.

We didn't have a TV in the house till I was in 10th grade. (I will be 60 on my next birthday.)

I also remember when we used to run out of the house to look at airplanes going over -- it was that unusual.

[chaska]

33. Could only ever pickup one reliably until my teens, then four.

[chaska]

34. Could only ever pickup one reliably until my teens, then four.

[SiobhanClancy]

41. None...the radio had just been invented,though

Just kidding:)..although sometimes I feel that old.
3 networks,4 channels.

[anti_shrub]

43. We had cable

but only the TV in the living room was hooked up.

My TV had:

2: KDKA, CBS
4: WTAE, ABC
11: WPXI, NBC
13: WQED, PBS
16: WQEX, PBS (used to show all the good british shows, now it just similcasts channel 13)
22: WPTT, Ind (now WCWB22, the WB affiliate)
40: WPCB, religious (or as we called it, the Jesus Channel)
53: WPGH, Ind (now Fox)

[anti_shrub]

44. eep

:double post:

[mlawson]

45. Two. We got our first TV in 1953.

Back then, you had to have a specially shaped antenna for each station, believe it or not!!! We had one for Asheville and another for Charlotte.

[FloridaJudy]

46. Zero, Zilch, Zip, Nada, Nichevo, Nema

We didn't have a TV. We had umpteen thousand books and a short-wave radio, instead. I'm not THAT old - TV was invented well before I was born, but my family decided *not* to spend the money on a TV, and to buy books and magazines instead.

Today I have three television sets in my house, and virtually none of recieve squat. I didn't BUY these things, mind you - I inherited them from dead relatives. I did, however, buy the VCRs hooked up to them, and I love them! I can rent or buy obscure little films that never made it to wide distribution, and check out the blockbusters and still take a bathroom break without missing anything.

[Meshuga]

47. My parents didn't let me watch TV

So books were my escape.

[DancingBear]

48. On the VHF band, only 3

That was with the fine combination of rabbit ears and aluminum foil.

Once my uncle (a TV repairman) put up our rooftop antenna (sometime in 1960, I think ) we got 5, and on a really good day we could get 2 UHF channels, but they were really snowy.

[DODI]

49. For a smaller city - quite a few in the 1970's

Channel 3 - CBS
Channel 8 -ABC
Channel 40 - ABC
Channel 30 - NBC
Channel 22 - NBC
Channel 24 - PBS
Channel 57 PBS
Channel 18 - independent
Channel 20 - sometimes NBC, sometime independent

On rainy days Channel 5 out of New York.

Can anyone guess what city were lived in?

[populistmom]

50. Just 4- ABC, CBS, NBC, and PBS

We didn't get cable until I was 15 in 1987.

[supernova]

52. Four

WFMY - The CBS station in Greensboro
WUNC - PBS channel originating from UNC -Chapel Hill
WRAL - The ABC affiliate in Raleigh. Sometime a while back they flipped and became another CBS afilliate
WTVD - The CBS afilliate in Durham. Switched places with WRAL so now WTVD is ABC.

[Nikia]

53. Kept on increasing

Before I went to school, we had cable and 9 channels. That was the early 80's. Then we started gettting more channels. We were at the leading edge of getting channels in my home town because we were headquarters to one of the largest cable companies in the U.S., which I didn't know until they merged with...(was it Time Warner Cable or the other one).

[NightTrain]

54. A dozen at the most

That was in Eastern Connecticut in the 1970s. I had access to three separate TV markets: Hartford, Providence, and Boston.

[BrotherBuzz]

55. Three until they invented

PBS, then we had four! Funny, today I recieve eighteen stations with just rabbit ears and UHF loop. Who need cable?

[Norbert]

56. Three

Just the ABC, NBC and CBS affiliates. Our first couple of TVs when I was a kid didn't even have UHF. We would have needed a UHF converter and my parents didn't think it was worth it since we would only get one more station.