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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 2, 1981)
OffT HE rALL CABLE TELEVISION & YOG by Richard Levinson This has been a watershed vear for cable television Alter floundering for eons in an ocean of government reg ulation. and bouncing down the rockv rapids of political favoritism, cable TV is now riding the rising tide of public acceptance The question, of course, is this: What does the fu ture hold? Will the next decade find cable television calmly sipping a gin and tonic hv the Swimming Pool ol Institutional Complacence, or will it be hurled from the Cliff of National Ennui to be smashed on the Rocks of Advancing Technology next to its ear her counterpart Network Telegraph' Perhaps this article will throw some I fresh water on the Fire of Unin formed Opmion. dn up the Reser voir of Doubt, and Wet tile Whistle of Unwarranted Optimism. What Is Cable Television? Let me answer that question with j question Who wants to know? Pre sumably. we all would like to be as well informed as possible on the is sues of the day. but. amazingly only 14% of the voting public will even open up a newspaper today Of those who do, 67% will read only one set tion Only 20% of those people will read the front page, and only 6% of those will read past the headlines But of that 6%. an astounding 9K% will, 3 days out of 5, accidentally dip the edge of their paper in their cof fee cup Who wants to know’' Less than one-quarter of 1%, that s who. at least when they're not too busy ruining the dav for everyone in the restau rant who has to watch them dip one of our most sacred institutions in a cup of coffee Where Did Cable Come From? Cable, (an acronym tor actual trAnsmission BeLow ground levEI i was named for Edward Cable who piloted the first experimental lighter than air cable (light and who was un fortunateh killed when the cable suddenh whiplashed and shot him 600 teet m the air His final words were. The vector's all wrong' The numbers are crazy' Thais it' No wonder' It'll fly’ I know it will! Just rellap the bouoontpb” Ed was buried, and so was the cable Now of course, cable transmission is made over telephone wires This causes oc casional problems Ahhh Think I’ll just curl up here with a bowl of popcorn and watch The Stiny> on the ol HBO Click Hello. Susan' This is lad the gu\ who sits behind you in Chemistry I was wondering if you'd like to yeah, the guy with glasses, listen I was wondering Click Rzzz R/// rzz//./ KzKz RzzzRz/zz/ B rrrrrrr i ngggggg Hello, Sharon, tins is lad Public Access And You First of all. let’s define our terms Von means von [lit- reader Put) lie access television means Public access television i c the one or two channels on your cable selector box that always look terrible, cheap and kind ot stupid Since some of vou' look terrible and cheap and kind ol stupid too, it is sometimes necessan to funtier differentiate Public access Pi ls sent over a cable and appears on your TV set. which has a long black cord coming out of u which is "If he didn't have aJennen, I wouldn't be in thinpwition? Jensen® car stereo speakers have become the most imitated in the world And now Jensen designs receivers, amplifiers arid equalizers with the same single minded purpose Sound performance ¥1?TWTC2T1WT So if that's what moves you. surround yourself »l ■*. 1^1 ^ r. 1^1 with a complete Jensen car audio system oak audio When it’s the sound that moves you. plugged into .1 wall to olxatn electru [tower It you .*rt- not plugged into a wall von art- not public access IV It you an plugged into a wall further delineation is called lor Hnhln access TV survives Itecausc there arc laws that don't |xrrriin it to die a natural death II vou survive because ol laws making it ini|xissib|o lor you to die a natural death vou miybl lx- publn access televi sion Hie hnal test is easitv applied through simple logic if A incurable disease II You and ( I'uhlu Ai cess Television, and we assume that A- H and H ( then it Ixxomes clear tlut if. and only il you have an in curahle disease you are public access television II you don t you are nix What’s So Great About Cable? Kcmember (lit- gocxl old days when gasoline was free and cigarettes didn't cause hean disease' When the whole family used to watc h It^nn to see how a pack ol mongrel dugs rould solve crimes that battled Vex land Yard' When the choice on W was limited to Hoffun s /Zeroes, OiIIi ytin s Island I wiltuhi Zorn’ and (n't 'iniari' Well those days are gone Now with your channel selectoi you tan Ret an almost limitless array ot programming from all over the conn try lor example, here is a small part of what was available in I A last iiirIii ■ S NB( Mr\ Hil Traffvdy nr (tiaram" Ibis docu drama follows the life of a Ifol lywood wile, showing the problems ot living in the shadow ot .1 famous sjxiuse r,e> Armenian talk I tuner I’tirty liy AIK Celitbril) IxvLUliun Jamie I an and Richard I law son are on lire block 00 Twtlinht /.our Qjt Honan's /Zeroes 00 <-hicago Super.staiion /'/«• Hubs' )car in AVr/e/e Jack lirickliouse swallows a bottle <»l Stcrno .iml dives on ihe third mil a* \nnirnutn Into I fame inn-, a4 M<)\ || (.idnli) choppers anil Hreaxts A motorcycle conics to a small town with a big secret o Kt innlti Into I hum Party "• ( Its S|>ecial (mtlii (Jtmrur' A voung Ik>\ goes tyjhc city to tmd Ins t>ruiid|>.i who is a hum Grandpa lamie larr hoc Ku hard Dawson o~ {.rrmatt into I kin (i Party M Get 'inuin ** Hn^im \ IlfriH•s These class there re.illi is no ex t use toi ever leaving the house Ami s<sin we will all lie able to push a button on our T\ set and a corned lieel sandwich will automatically ajv (K'.ir on our table pisi like m TIh‘ let* ms I lor one can't wait Cable: The Future Challenge Yes table television is with us and more dun ever we are licmg in a global village Modern technology transmits images ai a frightening dtp, like some Ing electronic blabber mouth eager to till up everybody's brain with hall truths and nusinlurma non over the global hack card fence I the Atlantic Ocean) In some re sjiects tilts Ikxlcs well lor world via bilitv lake agriculture, for example The old saw asks I low do you keep Inin down on the larm alter he’s seen Tans' \krl! with the aid of modern communications, he can see Tarts any time lit- likes, and not luce to leave the larm at all And with tin coming of advertising to cable TV. keeping him on the larm will be even easier An ad agency could pro duce a travel commercial in which a voice asks Mow do you keep him on the larm alter he's seen Tehe ran’ Or Ciarc hid' Or The Sjliara Desert' You can I ret lie'll want to stac on the larm thereby increasing food production and solving world hunger In Conclusion Cable television is like .1 chocolate candy bar il you don't eat it last enough, anti it's hot out, tt will melt anil make a mess Let me explain tlial analogy Cable television is here to lie used (eaten), to us lull |intentlal (eaten Iasi enough) II it is mu used to its lull |xxcntial. and the (xilitical climate is untavorahle (It is hot out), table television will become a tang led web of spet i.tl interests fighting lor a piece ol the table waves (melt anti make a mess) It’s really up to us We can turn our TV sets On and stare blankly at whatever the Programmers decide to teed us, or we can turn our sets off and abdicate our responsibility as t ni/ens h s (lieu wav or not at all, anti don i go Itxikmg lor a third tkxir lo slink through The time has come to st|uurely lace the situation and back down or stand up and be discounted as tie mogr.iplm ally unimportant An error A 11 uke That's the choice and the challenge As I I Stone once said, Owww I caught my huger in the printing press Damn Our lingers are caught in a printing press ol a different kind and we can grin and bear u or amputate quickly Will we? History says wc won l I in hotting we will but either way, win or lose, we ll walt.h the battle, in glorious color, mi table television
