I can remember only having 3 TV channels, and they closed down sometime around midnight until the morning. You got the fuzzy black and white bits of CBR on the screen when they turned the signal off
When videos came out, only my richer friends had them and they were few and far between, we used to have an after school video club where we’d pay 10p to watch a film in the AV room (sat on a carpet of old piss stains)
The internet didn’t exist, and I saw my first computer while at secondary school in the late 80’s (I’m thinking BBC commodore or something, I can’t really remember)
I remember getting up early and trying to watch TV, there would just be a high pitched sound and a photo of a girl and a puppet I think. There was an urban myth that the girl was slowly moving but no matter how hard I looked, I couldn’t see it.
The TV was heavy and cube shaped, it hummed and had a picture that was grainy and flickered. It had an aerial and had to be tuned with a dial on the front, like a radio. The channels were tuned to buttons which clicked in, on the front of the TV.
We didn’t have a VHS for ages either. We had a local video rental shop (not blockbuster) and we’d go rent a couple of films every week, which was an event which we’d get excited about.
Later I was the only one who could work out how to do the timed record function on the VHS player, so I was in demand as that was the only way to do ‘catch up’ for most things on TV. You would just miss whatever it was you wanted to watch and not be able to do anything about it. :o
Sometimes they did put on replays of programs, even regular ones, but people were crazy about ‘their soaps’ or whatever program they liked and planned their lives around being at home to watch them.
As a kid we had four channels in the rural US. ABC, NBC, CBS, and PBS had really good coverage and all shut down at midnight. Then a Fox station started up just close enough that I could pick it up clearly at night to watch Babylon 5!
I was born in 1983 and I’m old enough to remember having only 5 tv channels, vcr’s, and you couldn’t get on the internet if your mom was in the phone.
I can remember only having 3 TV channels, and they closed down sometime around midnight until the morning. You got the fuzzy black and white bits of CBR on the screen when they turned the signal off
When videos came out, only my richer friends had them and they were few and far between, we used to have an after school video club where we’d pay 10p to watch a film in the AV room (sat on a carpet of old piss stains)
The internet didn’t exist, and I saw my first computer while at secondary school in the late 80’s (I’m thinking BBC commodore or something, I can’t really remember)
I feel so fucking old right now lol
I remember getting up early and trying to watch TV, there would just be a high pitched sound and a photo of a girl and a puppet I think. There was an urban myth that the girl was slowly moving but no matter how hard I looked, I couldn’t see it.
The TV was heavy and cube shaped, it hummed and had a picture that was grainy and flickered. It had an aerial and had to be tuned with a dial on the front, like a radio. The channels were tuned to buttons which clicked in, on the front of the TV.
We didn’t have a VHS for ages either. We had a local video rental shop (not blockbuster) and we’d go rent a couple of films every week, which was an event which we’d get excited about.
Later I was the only one who could work out how to do the timed record function on the VHS player, so I was in demand as that was the only way to do ‘catch up’ for most things on TV. You would just miss whatever it was you wanted to watch and not be able to do anything about it. :o
Sometimes they did put on replays of programs, even regular ones, but people were crazy about ‘their soaps’ or whatever program they liked and planned their lives around being at home to watch them.
That’ll be the test card
Also there was ‘the interludes’ when they had to fill in a mini gap between programs, including, my personal favourite ‘the potters wheel’
https://www.bbc.com/videos/cv2z0v03n64o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUzGF401vLc&themeRefresh=1
Also do you remember the public safety films? The don’t go near deep water Content Warning- includes Jimmy Saville, stay away from the slurry pit, how to survive the bomb and the one that gave me nightmares broken glass (I can never frolic barefoot on the beach because of this film)
If my generation has emotional scaring it’s because of these films…
edit- for those that want a nightmare fueled trip down memory lane the bfi Public Information Film archives
As a kid we had four channels in the rural US. ABC, NBC, CBS, and PBS had really good coverage and all shut down at midnight. Then a Fox station started up just close enough that I could pick it up clearly at night to watch Babylon 5!
It was happier times.
Reading this made my back and neck hurt lol.