When did cable become available where you live?

About 1982 or 83. My dad was an electrician and one day he was able to fiddle with the cable in the cellar and then voila, we had around 40-50 channels. Before this, we only had the three networks, our local ABC affiliate, two independent stations out of Boston and two PBS stations. Literally overnight, the number of TV stations we had increased by a factor of five or six.
At the time there were three premium movie channels - HBO, Showtime and the now-defunct Preview Channel - but we didn't get any of those. We could get sound though and sometimes see a scrambled image. I taped Elton John and Billy Joel concerts off of HBO this way. Early cable had the USA Network, MTV, ESPN, Nickelodeon (which became A&E after 9 or 10 p.m.), Christian Broadcasting Network, some kind of early preliminary version of CNN, and there was also a second music-video channel that had somewhat less mainstream stuff than MTV did. USA Network was freaking amazing, they had all these older cartoons like Roger Ramjet. My sisters liked the Shirt Tales, which I think was also on that channel. Nickelodeon was great right from the start with You Can't Do That On Television, Dangermouse (which came a year or so later), Turkey TV (oddball funny short films from around the world) and this show called Tomorrow People which was a sort of Dr. Who type sci-fi thing with teenagers/young adults. A&E was probably my favorite of the new channels as they had a lot of plays, stories/documentaries about ancient Greece and Rome, and other history-oriented stuff.
There were also lots of other channels that I can no longer remember.

 

I recall cable sometimes referred to as ‘pay tv’. At maybe 14 I wondered who would pay for something that came for free over the antenna. Foolish me.
Now I’m paying for internet, data on cell phones, streaming music, cable w HBO, Netflix, Amazon Prime. I gotta be a sap.

 

Wow very much so Paul,thank you buddy!!! (I remember getting them in the mail)

 

We had cable but there was no box and only around 10 channels.

Wasn't till early 80's we got a box and I could watch MTV.

 

Basic cable arrived in Sydney around 1975 or so but the package was skimpy by today's standards. Aside from the three local CBC and ATV affiliates, the lineup included two stations beaming in from Bangor, Maine; one was ABC and the other was NBC. There was also a local cable access station dedicated to community activities such as bingo games and the like. There were also three stations that displayed information in print form (like an electronic newspaper) pertaining to news events, sports and the stock market.

 

When we moved back to Upstate NY in 1977 it was already in place. Oddly, we still didn't have touch tone service when we moved away again in 1984.

 

This is what I recall, too. No antenna or rabbit ears, but the wire went into an adapter that screwed onto the antenna receptacle on the TV. I don't remember anything but the big three, PBS and WOR. There may have been one or two others. When we got the box in '82 or thereabouts, it came with MTV, Headline News and the option to purchase the three movie channels (which we never did).

 

In areas where antenna reception was poor, cable was available in a number of markets in the US back in the 1950s. However, I don't think that there were any actual cable networks at that time per se, it was just the standard over the air networks, just transmitted to your set via cable.

 

Jersey City, NJ.

1987.

 

I am fairly sure that our family first got cable in late 1979/early 1980, so I was either 9 or 10 years old at the time. I remember a door-to-door sales rep from the cable company showing up at our house and talking my parents into signing up for it -- or should I say, talking my Dad into it, though honestly as soon as he heard about the 24 hour sports network, he didn't need much convincing, haha.

If memory serves, the first movie we watched on HBO as a family was Heaven Can Wait, with Warren Beatty.

 

1982

 

My parent's house was hooked up in November of 1973. I own it now.

 

1981