Old School Cable Providers

[illytodd]

Can anyone remember the older cable companies from the early 80's or from around the time cable came out? I have been looking everywhere to try to find the names of the companies I used to belong to years ago before they were bought out or just disappeared. Anyone?

 

[Jason Fritz]

Oohh I remember Dimension Cable here in AZ. They had such an ugly set top box with red LED numbering to display the channels. heh That was in the early 80's.

 

[Fardreamer]

Can anyone remember the older cable companies from the early 80's or from around the time cable came out? I have been looking everywhere to try to find the names of the companies I used to belong to years ago before they were bought out or just disappeared. Anyone?

I remember one of the first pay-TV companies that tried to compete with HBO but only offered ONE channel - ON TV. (That was the name of the company.) We had that for, oh, about a year or so, then we canceled because it was getting to be way too pricey for one stupid movies-only channel.

The first cable company we ever subscribed to, Dynamic Cablevision, ceased to exist when it was bought out by MediaOne, which in turn was bought out by AT&T, and now we have Comcast.

 

[illytodd]

That is awesome that you guys remembered those. I can't think of any at all and I have been racking my brain to try and remember at least one of them from the old days.

 

[jack]

no i can't remember it.its really nice to hear these names.in olden days,they will use led for indication.now a days,some providers are doing like that only.it helps some person to operate easily.

 

[Ricardo]

I remember in the summer of 83 I was traveling and stayed in a town that had a satellite for the local TV station, and they pulled in a channel or two like HBO and displayed it on the local TV system.

Something tells me that all the i's weren't dotted and the t's crossed on that deal back then.

 

[70's babygirl]

Im from North Carolina but my family is from Indiana.
When visiting my grandparents their cable provider was American Cablevision.
Their phone service was Southern Belle with the rotary dial and they had an Oil company that delivered oil once a week
Those were the best times!!

 

[Orrymain]

I don't remember the name because I didn't have it. My cousin and his wife had cable from the beginning in the Bay Area of California. I remember going there in high school and seeing HBO which was the rage at the time.

 

[n2rj]

My cable company is Service Electric. Yes, that Service Electric. Still owned by the Walson family even though John Walson has long passed away.

 

[abit of info]

Cable Fact Book

If you are doing serious research about the old cable tv companies you need to get access to the Cable Fact Books from those years. Contact the Barco Library at The Cable Center in Denver and they can help you. But only if your serious. If not I have a few for you. King Videocable Co. Which was owned by the same family that started King5 (NBC ?) in Seattle. They served systems in California, Idaho and Washington State. Wood TV in Bowling Green Ohio which was owned by Roger Wise of WFOB radio. Buckeye Cablevision which was owned by The Toledo Blade Newspaper and is now called The Cablesystems and is part of Blade Communications. Thats about all I can think of off hane

 

[Guest]

We had something call Preview here in Ma. It was just 1 movie channel back in I guess oh '82 or so.

 

[77Sugaree]

Continental Cable in Los Angeles County back in the day.

 

[James]

My cable company is Service Electric. Yes, that Service Electric. Still owned by the Walson family even though John Walson has long passed away.

Ah...up the street..the Allentown area?

 

[Guest]

In Los Angeles we had Adelphia. They went belly up years ago before Time Warner.

 

[Guest8]

Miss

YES. I remember OnTV also. The commercial went..." see whats playing on On TV!"
We thought that was goofy.
Orange County. CALIFORNIA
1979
I was 7 years old.

 

[richp05180417]

IT

I remember a cable company in Northeast Oklahoma called "IT" and the first movie I ever watched on it was called "Players" about tennis. Before this we had the rabbit ears and basic local channels if you were lucky enough to get them to come in clear.

 

[Guest]

Cablenet, Inc / Mr. Prospect, Illinois

In the Chicagoland area (Mt. Prospect, illinois) it was Cablenet Inc. in the early 1980's.

 

[Guestidyouse]

Ms

On t.v. and select t.v. are the ones I had.

 

[Jackie]

Can anyone remember the older cable companies from the early 80's or from around the time cable came out? I have been looking everywhere to try to find the names of the companies I used to belong to years ago before they were bought out or just disappeared. Anyone?

In Colorado I believe it was Mile-Hi and TCI Cable companies.

 

[nelsonjw]

Lincoln Cablevision (Metrovision) in Nebraska in the 80s and early 90s. Cable was a near-necessity for TV viewing in that market as at the time there was only one in-market TV station and it was over 25 miles west of town, so it was difficult to get a clear picture indoors. Cable brought in all the Omaha signals from 60 miles up the highway that otherwise required a rooftop antenna to receive well. I recall there were also several (at least 4 if not more) local cable-only channels ranging from more basic government and school programming to local news, entertainment and sports programming as well. That system went to Time Warner Cable in the mid-90s if I remember right, and so of course is now Spectrum. Last I watched anything on that system a few years ago, all the interesting local cable-only programming seemed to be gone, and Lincoln now has an in-market station for each major network so redundant out of market programming has been dropped except for Fox.

In the early 90s I also remember tiny Harmon Cable in western Sarpy County, Nebraska. 330 MHz, I think. Changed hands to become Galaxy and now Zito. The last time I saw anything on it was around 2006 and it still used a WeatherStar III for The Weather Channel local content.