EARLY EXPECTATIONS OF RADIO AND TELEVISION

     Your comments give me an opportunity to reconsider what I've written in a previous post. For the post on the internet I was trying to comment on one of the problems with the internet. There are others. But I made it seem like all the internet was negative which isn't so. . The internet has allowed us to achieve much by having a much better communication system.

     Then I got thinking about radio and television. I think they both started with hopes for better communication and keeping people together. Radio took a long time to get to the point where homes could have a radio . The first radios in homes where large affairs with poor quality reception. So people had to crowd around the machine and they also invited neighbors. The first radios were battery powered. Electric radios came later and transistor radios about 1954. So families and neighbors gathered around the radio. When the transistor arrived radio became an individual happening. In the beginning there were very few radio stations. Now there are thousands. 

     In 1953, I got my Grandpa's beautiful large wooden cabinet radio. I could listen to radio stations from very far away. There were many different languages and I heard different music. My experience with Grandpa's radio came to an end when I couldn't buy the battery that was required.

     As a kid I made a small radio with parts obtained around the house. We used a magnet, cold of wire, flashlight battery and earphones and wow! We had to buy the crystal. Every kid could have a radio. This gizmo was called a crystal radio.

    Television developed much the same as radio. We had one television station. All the family gathered around the TV. Neighbors got together to watch TV. We didn't have our own TV so we went to the neighbors to watch a very poor reception which was described as snowy. Does anybody have a snowy picture today? Soon homes had more than one television set. Kids had their own TV and watched their own shows. Now we have hundreds of channels to choose from and smart guys who charge us lots of money to see them. 

    So as communication devices develop and change, the listeners and viewers have to change and have a new experience. Or do the listeners and viewers have to change because of the guys with the money? We certainly hear and see far more ads so the money guys can get far more money. 

I Get Free Satellite TV !

      I have only had peasant TV until now. I don't watch even one minute of TV a year. My wife only watches two channels so we've never had any use for cable.

     In Canada recently, they have cut off analog television transmission. We only get digital television transmission now. That means that you can't get anything with rabbit ears anymore.

     So when the shift was made we were told that if we got some kind of converter box we could get the four channels we had. Well, not so. We were told to get a digital antenna and then we would get reception. Not so. Finally,  after a lot of research we found that there is a government program that sets up a satellite dish so that we can get the four channels we always had. Too good to be true we thought. Finally, someone explained to us that it was not a gimmick from a satellite company.  We signed up right away. They put up the satellite, run in the cable, give you a converter box and leave you with television. The good thing besides getting your four TV channels is that you don't have to pay anything for it. Yes, I have satellite TV and it's free.

My fancy dancy satellite dish

    Explanation? When the government abandoned the analog transmission , it left many TV viewers with nothing. Many people were rural and did not have cable. Many were seniors who could not afford satellite or cable . And then there are people like me who have no need for cable or satellite. Since the government received so many complaints, they came up with this program to help the people who would be caught with some unwelcome choices.