Recently, I came across an old copy of Reader’s Digest. I was fascinated by the articles in the magazine because they were written at a time when life was so much simpler.
One story was about the hottest new thing in television…Cable TV. Here’s an excerpt.
“Today, Cable TV, also called Community Antenna Television or CATV, is the hottest thing in communications since television itself appeared. There are now about 2,200 systems serving some 4.4 million homes in America and 350 systems serving 700,000 people in Canada.
Subscribers are willing to pay $4 to $7 a month for Cable TV for several reasons. First, many present-day coaxial cables which take the signals to subscribers can carry programs on 12 channels; this more than doubles the number of programs available in most areas. Second, the cabled pictures are clearer and third, Cable TV systems with 12 channels open to them can throw in extra local services which TV stations, confined to one channel, cannot provide.
Cable TV has its foes. With12 channels, it can offer its viewers such a rich variety of programs picked up from both near and far that local TV stations have sought official protection against its competition. In various rulings in both the United States and Canada, cable systems have been compelled to carry the programs of all local stations, if the stations request it, and the FCC has sometimes prevented cable systems from bringing in distant programs.”
Now for the contest.
Just let me know the month and year that you think this article first appeared in Reader’s Digest. Closest guess wins a donation in your name to the Canadian Cancer Society.
Give it a try. I especially appeal to my faithful overseas readers in places like Russia, Germany, and Australia to step up and take a guess at mjdaoust@hotmail.com.
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