Hollywood Studio Magazine (February 1971)

Giant antenna, set high above any possibility of interference, transmits the TV signals which give you perfect reception on all 12 channels of your dial, once your set is hooked up to cable. Some Elementary / nf or mat i on about Cable <c>,v Television I f you're even a casual television viewer, you're already aware that the era of cable television is upon us. As an average television viewer, your interest probably stops there, unless your expensive TV set delivers only a few channels, or your TV reception is pretty consistently lousy. Don't blame your TV set. It's probably in good shape. What's wrong, if you really want to know, is your antenna, coupled with the area in which you live. So, if you're one of the lucky ones living in an area where cable has already been installed, you're a noodlehead if you don't subscribe to the nearest cable service. The cost is less per month than your telephone. Cable comes into your house the same way your telephone wires do. It may even come off the same pole. But there the resemblance ends. Once your TV set is hooked up to cable, down comes your ugly rooftop antenna. You don't need it. And up comes television reception, clear, trouble-free, always perfectly fine-tuned - all 12 channels on your dial - the commercial VHF channels and most of the UHFs, even if your present set makes By Zelda Cini no provisions for UHF. So far, so good. But what, for heaven's sake, is CATV? Well, to start with, it's "Community Antenna Television", now beginning to emerge simply as "cable". Its purpose is to bring to subscribers the best possible quality of television signal for viewing on their own at-home sets. To approach the problem backwards, this is accomplished by erecting a master antenna in an optimum location, equipping it with signal-processing electronics at the site, setting up amplifiers to maintain the strength of the signal, and adding coaxial cable to oarry the signal from the master antenna into your home. Last step is plugging it into the back of your TV set where your present antenna attaches. Outside your home, the cable is either strung on utility poles (through so-called "pole lease" arrangements with the phone companies) or buried underground, along with other "utility" wires. So, assuming you're interested in subscribing to cable, what does it cost? That depends. It depends on a lot of things, not the least of which is what kind of financial arrangement was intrinsic in the cable company's franchise agreement with the city in which the cable system exists. Every cable system is franchised within its area and every city reaps financial benefit from each installation. In some areas, the agreement breaks down to a mere $5 a month. In others, it goes up to $6.95, or more. But your monthly rental is rarely more than the base price you pay for a telephone and, like a telephone extension, you pay $1 per month extra for an extra outlet, if you hook up to more than one tv set. Original installation costs may also vary, for a number of reasons. Some cable companies "introduce" cable to an area with a special no-installation charge and the first month's subscription free. Others are at the mercy of the price pre-set by the terms of the franchise agreement. For Theta Cable, which covers a major portion of Los Angeles, the cost is $19.50 It's exactly the same for National Transvideo in the San Fernando Valley areas covered by that cable company. In Glendale and Burbank, installation fees