Well, RTV is gone for good in my area

[AUdubon5425]

When they replaced the easy listening music with Fox sports radio I wrote a similar letter to the station manager. The reply I received was that "Eric and Kaare" (the two local talkers in the afternoon) were unhappy with the format. Well, they openly mocked the music on their shows, referencing the nursing homes and the 16 people listening to it. Real professional. Needless to say, sports radio has garnered them no additional advertisers nor an increase in the Arbitrons. But it's hipper than good music.

[radiotvnut]

Originally Posted by AUdubon5425

When they replaced the easy listening music with Fox sports radio I wrote a similar letter to the station manager. The reply I received was that "Eric and Kaare" (the two local talkers in the afternoon) were unhappy with the format. Well, they openly mocked the music on their shows, referencing the nursing homes and the 16 people listening to it. Real professional. Needless to say, sports radio has garnered them no additional advertisers nor an increase in the Arbitrons. But it's hipper than good music.

That's pretty much what happened to our good AM music station when the old man who owned it passed away and his greedy son took it over. The old man had already made his money and I think he would have shut it down before adopting an "everybody else" format. At the end of one broadcast day, the son called a staff meeting, informed everyone that the station was flipping to automated black gospel in the morning, and that their services were no longer needed. The DJ's didn't even get a chance to tell their listeners what was about to happen or to say goodbye. From what I understand, the station is making no more money now than when they played decent music. I even heard that clear channel tried to buy the station from the old man for a big sum of money; but, he refused to sell it to them. I think he knew what clear channel would do if they got their hands on it.

One thing I should have stated in my letter to the TV station is that I'm a male in my mid '30's. It seems that radio/TV stations all think that one has to be 85 and in a nursing home to get anything out of old music or old TV shows. Obviously, most of the old music and TV shows that I like were out before I was born; but, I still find more satisfaction in the old stuff. What's being put out today simply does nothing for me. I think the last two current TV shows that I watched were "The Commish" (early '90's-mid '90's) and "In the heat of the night" (late '80's-early '90's). So, except for re-runs of old shows, my TV watching has been fairly limited over the past 15 years. Another one that I used to like was "Jake and the fatman". It's been 20 years since I've seen that show and I don't think it's on DVD.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by andy

Do yourselves a favor, and subscribe to Netflix. Not only is the selection better, but you don't have to deal with commercials, and shows that have has as much as 3-4 minutes per half hour trimmed to make room for them.

I did just that shortly after getting my first DVD player in 2005. I really enjoy watching the old shows I grew up watching in the '70s, now with no commercials. Between Netflix and my personal DVD collection (the latter small but growing every year), to say nothing of the old shows I taped on VHS years ago, I am enjoying TV again -- in a big way. Netflix is an idea whose time has come, and they obviously have been doing a lot of business across the US since they started, I don't know how long ago. For vintage TV fans, IMHO, this is the place to find those old shows TV Land gave up on. Even A&E stopped showing the old NBC Mystery Movies (McCloud, Banacek, McMillan and Wife, Hec Ramsey, et al) several years ago. Now that Netflix is here (and has been for some time), however, we can see all those shows again -- with no commercials and no missing scenes. One nice thing about Netflix is that, once you rent one or more DVDs from them, you can keep the discs as long as you want, as Netflix does not charge late fees. I often keep Netflix rentals here for weeks or even a month or so, watching the shows on them at my leisure. Much better than Blockbuster, et al. that do charge late fees if you keep the DVDs longer than two weeks, which is probably the standard time frame stated by most DVD rental services before they charge the viewer a late fee.

I don't get RTN or RTV, or even Akron, Ohio's WAX TV-35 (aka W35AX and WAOH) on my cable (I have the lowest tier of service available from Time Warner Cable, broadcast channels only plus WGN America), but since I have a subscription to Netflix and my own collection of vintage TV shows and movies on VHS and DVD, I don't feel I need high-priced (and getting more expensive all the time) expanded-basic or digital cable service. Digital cable would be a waste of money for me anyway, since I do not have and do not want a flat-panel high-definition TV -- all I have are my RCA CTC185 in my living room and a Zenith Sentry 2 in the bedroom. The sets are old, granted, but they work amazingly well on bare-bones basic cable (broadcast channels only) for their ages (eleven and 15 years, respectively).

[Carmine]

Yes, I believe you have told us about the wonders of Netflix many times before.

Some of us still like to watch TV the "old way".

[NowhereMan 1966]

Originally Posted by vinljnkie

I'm lucky to have RTV here in New England on it's own station, not a sub channel of another station. It's on WMFP 62 Lawrence/Boston which used to run a combination of infomercials and home shopping. We basically get all RTV all the time

I feel lucky here in Pittsburgh to get two RTV's, Pittsburgh and Steubenville, OH. I like Steubenville a bit better, they broadcast the Filmation Saturday cartoons on Saturday morning which I tape since I work Saturdays. RTV Pittsburgh does not show them

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by NowhereMan 1966

I feel lucky here in Pittsburgh to get two RTV's, Pittsburgh and Steubenville, OH. I like Steubenville a bit better, they broadcast the Filmation Saturday cartoons on Saturday morning which I tape since I work Saturdays. RTV Pittsburgh does not show them

Seems like RTV is on cable in most major cities except Cleveland. The cable in my area (33 miles east of town, near Lake Erie) doesn't carry the channel, and another standard TV station (WAOH-TV, channel 35 in Akron, Ohio, thirty miles south of Cleveland) that shows all vintage television programs does not reach here. My cable doesn't carry it (yet), and I don't know if it ever will. Why, I don't know. I think this channel should be "must-carry" on all northeastern Ohio cable systems, especially since TV Land and Nick at Nite no longer show classic TV as they once did. There are still a few classic shows on TV Land, such as Andy Griffith, et al. but today, that channel is nothing like what it used to be. I don't worry about it, though, as I have a small but growing collection of classic TV shows on DVD, and a bunch of old shows and movies I taped 25-30 years ago when TV Land was still showing older programs.

I grew up watching those Filmation cartoons on Saturday mornings, mostly on NBC. The kids' Saturday morning programming NBC has nowadays is from something called Qubo; the programs are mainly animated shows featuring characters I have never heard of. Just goes to show how much kids' TV has changed in 45 years.

[jr_tech]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

(WAOH-TV, channel 35 in Akron, Ohio, thirty miles south of Cleveland) that shows all vintage television programs does not reach here. My cable doesn't carry it (yet), and I don't know if it ever will. Why, I don't know. I think this channel should be "must-carry" on all northeastern Ohio cable system

RTV is carried by WAOH-LP channel 29 in Akron, Ohio and its translator W35AX channel 35, also known as WAX, in Cleveland, Ohio. Must-Carry rules do not apply to "low power" (LP) or translator stations.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WAOH-LP

"Must-carry
One of the key distinctions between full-service television stations and low-power stations is cable and DBS (Direct Broadcast Satellite) carriage. Full-service stations are guaranteed carriage in their local DMA through "must-carry" and LPTV stations are not. In 2008 there was an effort put forward by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin to grant must-carry rights to Class A LPTV stations. The effort failed due to a lack of support from the other FCC Commissioners."

From:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-power_broadcasting
jr

[NowhereMan 1966]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

Seems like RTV is on cable in most major cities except Cleveland. The cable in my area (33 miles east of town, near Lake Erie) doesn't carry the channel, and another standard TV station (WAOH-TV, channel 35 in Akron, Ohio, thirty miles south of Cleveland) that shows all vintage television programs does not reach here. My cable doesn't carry it (yet), and I don't know if it ever will. Why, I don't know. I think this channel should be "must-carry" on all northeastern Ohio cable systems, especially since TV Land and Nick at Nite no longer show classic TV as they once did. There are still a few classic shows on TV Land, such as Andy Griffith, et al. but today, that channel is nothing like what it used to be. I don't worry about it, though, as I have a small but growing collection of classic TV shows on DVD, and a bunch of old shows and movies I taped 25-30 years ago when TV Land was still showing older programs.

I grew up watching those Filmation cartoons on Saturday mornings, mostly on NBC. The kids' Saturday morning programming NBC has nowadays is from something called Qubo; the programs are mainly animated shows featuring characters I have never heard of. Just goes to show how much kids' TV has changed in 45 years.

Yeah, I watched a lot of those cartoons as well plus the live action shows. I hope they show "Shazam," Isis" and "Ark-II" since I enjoyed those shows. I would say the golden age of kid's programming was from around 1960 to 1990, give or take. TV-Land is a shell of its former self. We also got my aunt's 1999 Sony 36 inch Trinitron since they went flat screen, so the 1982 Zenith is semi-retired but she still gets an hour or two, sometimes more, daily use. From what I see here, I'd better keep her ready to go in case if the Sony croaks.
WKBN-TV is coming in nice tonight from Youngstown, I'm watching the FOX subchannel showing the last "Rocky" movie on the old Zenith.

[Trance88]

Here in Grand Rapids Michigan, we're lucky to have both RTV and the new Antenna TV Network which also shows old time programming and movies. We also have a music video channel called "Cool TV" that plays stuff from the heydays of MTV up through now. I hope the OP is able to at least get his RTV again.

[heathkit tv]

I'm loving the heck out of Antenna TV....much better programming than RTV and far fewer commercials (for the moment anyway). Although they suffer from the same affliction as RTV in that the commercials are always the same few ones played over and over.

Thankfully Antenna TV doesn't hit you with different volume levels between the show and commercials the way RTV does. Plus Antenna TV doesn't blast you with their satellite transponder tones (or whatever they're called) on the station bumpers. On my surround sound these tend to come out of the left rear channel for some reason. Whenever I hear them they make me jump like a chihuahua on crack!

[AUdubon5425]

I don't find them much different than when they had the tone on the hour & half-hour.

[Trance88]

I love Antenna TV's slogan: "Vintage, without the funny smell"