I plugged in that $7 antenna I bought the other day and lo and behold--Channel 10 Milwaukee, bright and not-so-clear. And there's ZOOM. Wow. I had no idea that show was still running.
But this is cool--I was also able to pull in Channel 18. I'm wondering how many channels I could get if I bought one of those mega $30 set-ups, 'cause it would be really cool if I could pull in channels 4, 6, 9 and 7 again. I haven't seen those since we moved out of the country, back in '83...I mean, I'm absolutely nuts, I don't care about the SHOWS, it's purely the nostalgia of seeing those old call letters and stuff. And it's kinda neat to see local stations, apart from the ones that are right out here. It gives me a sense of the general region where I live, that I don't really get from E! or the Discovery Channel. Why that's important, I have no friggin' idea.
What sucks is that these days, everything's tied in with a network, and so-called "local" programming--besides the news--seems to be a thing of the past now. (I saw COPS on three different channels at the same fucking time.)And even a couple of the newer stations just recycle their news from a satellite feed. I'll keep my eye on 10, though, since it's a PBS station (I presumed ZOOM was dead simply 'cause our local 35 quit showing it years and years ago) and therefore there's a greater chance of seeing unique content.
They all look pretty fuckin' bland now; the logos are bland, the announcers are bland. Call letters have changed. Local programming has been overturned in favor of endless FRAZIER and SEINFELD re-runs. But if I can find a local station that still runs creature feature shows, I'll be in ghoul heaven...