in the central florida area anyway. Not a bad thing since I had pretty much given up on RTV after losing the universal owned programming. ANT TV supposedly picked it up, but so far Its just a jerry lewis movie marathon (ironic considering the MD telethonette dropped him).


I see a lot of garbage from the 70's listed (good times, maude) and 80's (married with children, I actually used to think that was funny). Still looking for rockford/mike hammer/LTB/night gallery to make be listed.

We have nothing in our area devoted to old programming. We briefly had RTV; but, it was replaced with the usual "judge this" and "judge that" sludge programming due to poor ratings. When I complained to the station CEO, he personally agreed with me; but, said that he had to make decisions that were the most profitable for his business and that RTV programming was simply not getting it done.

My favorite older shows are the cop shows from the '60's through the '80's, and shows like MacGyver, Dukes of Hazzard, A-team, etc. I also like some of the old medical shows like Emergency, Marcus Welby, and Trapper John. Years ago, Trapper John was aired on TV Land and, later, on FOX. I watched it regulary; but, unfortunately, didn't record any of the episodes before these stations pulled the plug on the series. To my knowledge, this show has not been released on DVD.

We just lost "This TV" and was replaced by "Me TV". It's about time. All we have here is crap. Small market = not much choice. We still have RTV for the moment but I don't watch it much anymore since they changed the programming.

yea RTV lost me with the new programming. I have ME, This and now ANT so its about a good as its going to get.

I just dont understand where all the good show went to, I am trying to find get smart and the man from uncle, that kind of stuff, and I would really like to see some old mystery theater (colombo, McCloud, no need for mcmillen and wife though). and remember all those nutty movies ABC used to run once a week, like gargoyles and duel, man I had the darn tv line up memorized back in the day as a kid, now Its pretty lame.

Been watching Raw Hide on Me tv, that is really a pretty decent western, does not come across as a soap, but seems pretty real (at least the characters seem to have some dimension) It was just a little before my time, but Eric Fleming was a great trail boss.

Outer limits is good to but may 5am geez thats tough, and I still cant stay awake for the 2am showing of honey west...

In my area, 35 miles east of Cleveland, Time Warner Cable picks up Antenna TV and MeTV, both as subchannels of, respectively, Cleveland's FOX and CBS affiliates on channels 8 and 19 (Antenna TV is 8.2, MeTV is 19.2). My thanks to VK member Basil Lambri for giving me a heads-up on the latter; as I will explain, I watch that channel (and Antenna TV) daily and enjoy seeing once again all or most of the TV shows I watched as a teenager and a young adult in the 1970s.

Time Warner Cable in this area does not currently carry RTV, and I don't think it will any time soon, or perhaps ever, as the cable operator may believe two retro-TV channels are enough, for now anyway, in the northeastern Ohio/western Pennsylvania region. I've been watching Cannon (early-1970s crime drama starring William Conrad, as private investigator Frank Cannon) every morning at 11 on MeTV and am enjoying the heck out of it; haven't seen these shows in 40 years and it's wonderful seeing them again, this time around in high definition. IMHO, they never looked better. I also watch The Bob Newhart Show, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Mary Tyler Moore and, on weekends, The Odd Couple on MeTV. I never thought these programs would return to cable after TV Land and Nick at Nite dropped them several years ago.

New shows are added to these retro-TV channels all the time, so it may not be long before Magnum, P. I., et al. show up on MeTV or Antenna TV. Until Magnum does appear on one of these channels, however, it may be possible to get the shows on DVD if you have a subscription to Netflix or Blockbuster Video. If the program is not yet available on DVD (I will check Netflix's website in a few minutes), I would be surprised, as Magnum, P. I. was a very popular show, on, I believe, CBS in the late seventies -- it should have been released on DVD by now, unless fewer than 100 episodes were made. I read somewhere that before a series can be released on DVD, at least one hundred episodes of that series must have been made and released for broadcast over the air or on cable. I always got a kick out of how Magnum and his (for want of a better word) boss, Jonathan Higgins, are always and forever (or so it seems) having differences of opinion or outright locking horns with each other over cases Magnum is working on. Wouldn't mind seeing those episodes again.

BTW, just a heads-up for those of you who would like to see Magnum, P.I. but don't yet get it on cable: I checked Netflix's site (http://www.netflix.com) and found that Magnum, P. I. is in fact available for rental on DVD or via streaming video. However, be advised that if you choose the latter format, you will need a streaming video decoder box such as Boxee, Roku or the like ahead of your TV; standard digital cable boxes (at least the ones used with Time Warner Cable in my area) do not currently have the capability to receive and decode video streams. Boxee offers a freely-downloadable software version of its decoder box (at least it did the last time I checked their site), but I don't see how it can work with any kind of digital TV unless the computer is connected to a flat-screen TV; I seriously doubt that the software, like the physical Boxee box itself, will work with any NTSC-standard television, even if the set is connected to digital cable through a box.

MTM is great, esp the early shows, Newhart always good, and odd couple just plain great. Wild wild west is on the weekend, I have seen star trek advertised but have yet to see in in the schedule (me tv).

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By the time they put RTV on Comcast here, "Bachelor Father" stopped showing, and it's so full of infomercials now it's not funny. Hope Antenna TV finds its way on here next.

I just saw RTV's national schedule on their website and yes, it is, in very large part, infomercials -- as most OTA TV stations run these days between network and/or syndicated shows. Paid infomercials can generate income for the TV station(s) over which they are carried regardless of whether anyone watches them or not (how they can make money with no viewers, I'm sure I'll never know), so apparently RTV's management may not be worried, at least for now, about losing viewers (to say nothing of their future existence) to these obnoxious things.

I don't know how much money one paid program can raise for any individual TV station at any given time, but I'm sure it cannot be anywhere near enough to keep that station on the air for more than a few hours. A TV station would have to carry many hours of these paid shows if that station were to expect to support itself solely on the income from these shows -- in the real world, I'm sure it can't be done. I wouldn't be a bit surprised, therefore, if RTV eventually does go dark -- and the reason will be lack of income, in turn caused by a shrinking viewer base. I sometimes wonder how retro-TV channels such as MeTV can stay on the air with the few commercials they carry; I watch this channel daily and often see only one commercial between, for example, the four segments of Cannon. Many times that commercial is a locally-produced spot inserted into the network feed by the local affiliate, although the network itself compensates for that by adding its own commercials at the bottom of the hour.

I don't know how RTV manages its commercials or why it has so many infomercials, but from what I've read in this thread so far, I sincerely believe that the network must already (if it hasn't been for months or years) be in dire financial straits if a very large part of its broadcast schedule is now composed of advertising. Very few people even pay attention to TV commercials these days (the problem only got worse when the mute button first appeared on TV remotes in the '50s, and is a real problem for advertisers these days -- since all today's TVs have remotes with a mute button, with which a viewer can shut off obnoxious commercials with the touch of a finger), so I think most of those commercials are just wasted time -- which, of course, commercial TV stations cannot afford.

RIP RTV? Only time will tell, although if they don't start carrying more retro-TV programming than infomercials very soon, that day may come much sooner than they may think.


Update -- 10.29.11: I rescanned my flat panel TV recently and found RTV (Canton, Ohio, 60 miles southwest of Cleveland), to my surprise, on channel 94 on Time Warner Cable in this area (actually 94-point-something, don't recall the number to the right of the decimal point). Also found the National Geographic Channel on channel 113.8. I can get other channels above 100 as well, but they are mostly public-access channels from Cleveland suburbs 40 miles or more from where I live, so I deleted them from my channel scan list. I am glad I found the National Geographic Channel, as it is one of the better stations on cable these days next to nighttime programming on PBS. I also found three subchannels of WVIZ, the PBS affiliate in Cleveland, and, again to my surprise, a public TV station in Erie, Pennsylvania, WQLN, channel 54. The latter is the only Erie station I get on my cable.

I stopped watching RTV altogether 7/1/2011. used to have it on at least 2-4hrs a day before (pretty much all I watched). I guess its just a tough game these days with all the content on the cable and internet.

the other loss was PBS, the local PBS sold out to all spanish content, no more saturday night brit comms. The local PBS has been going down hill fast, used to have classical music all day, with a live DJ to talk about the history of the music that was being played, Dave Glarum I think was his name, now just talk. What get me about the spanish station is they have 3 subchannels, all showing the same thing, all in spanish (how about a eng sub channel) and not subtitles in ENGLISH. I know its their station, but what the heck.

Spanish with english subtitles eh.....Sounds like they are trying to teach the mexicans how to read english....

Very strange, saw "Cold Case Files" on RTV 24.2 the other night, not exactly retro (Cold Case Files turns up in other places I don't expect, BTW).

RTN (yes, it was RTN when it was good) was a great idea, and I already miss what it was. It really does look like it is near the end of a slippery slope.

The local stations broadcasting RTV (and others I'd imagine) have a great deal of latitude with the programming. Here, they preempt one hour with The People's Court type shows, then go right back to RTV shows. A few other scattered slots rebroadcast the local news. I am enjoying Police Story, but wish Emergency! had been left in the lineup.

yea police story is prob the only thing left that I was watching, esp when I need a good dose of the 70's

MeTV (Memorable Entertainment Television) is probably stealing RTV's thunder, and could force the latter off the air eventually (RTV seems to have more infomercials and paid programs than regular programming, as shown on their schedule, so they may well be in dire financial straits.) MeTV has quite a few 1970s shows, such as Cannon, The Streets of San Francisco, et al., and is appearing on more cable systems all the time. Time Warner Cable here in northeastern Ohio picked up MeTV earlier this summer; the network is on channel 19.2, a subchannel of the CBS affiliate in Cleveland. Antenna TV is also available in this area on TW, as channel 8.2 (subchannel of Cleveland's FOX affiliate).

We get the ant tv here in Memphis too. Been here for over two months, in that time I hadn't even bothered to unpack my dtv converters until tonight.

But tonight I was working on my 721ts (horiz osc troubles), and I wanted to feed the tv with something, and I've already set up my 2 dvd players, one in the bedroom, one in the livingroom, and didn't really want to move them. So I pulled out a converter, and my other agile modulator, and was I surprised to be pulling in The Three Stooges! So now I've fixed the horiz problems, and I'm watching the Stooges sideways on my 721ts, with the chassis out of the cabinet on its side. I'd post a picture, but I can't find either of my digital cameras.

But I checked their schedule, and they do show a lot of stuff I'm not really that into. It seems to me they put their best stuff on in the middle of the night, with the Three Stooges and the Hitchcock Hour.