HOW MANY? How many TV channels do you actually need?
Make that “use”, rather than “need”, to cancel out those people who seem to think if they mention a higher number it will make them appear to be more literate, more concerned about world affairs and generally better informed than the average TV watcher.
Mike Shickman, who does a week-days evening “going-home” radio show on WSVA in my hometown area posed a question recently to find out what his listeners “needed.” The replies offered some surprises.
Judging by the replies Mike handled it appears at appears that, locally, at least, most TV viewers use very few stations in spite of the fact that they subscribe to either cable or satellite services which provide them with hundreds of channel choices. Most subscribers soon realize that “hundreds of different channels” does not mean “hundreds of different programs.”
So many listeners who called, when asked to do so, named either shows or talent they like best. I was pleased to find many watched the very same Schnabel's we do as we tend to watch as a family. No one channel seems to be a favorite in the usual sense.. Now, the tendency seems to be to get the information or entertainment they want with less concern about where they are greeting it from. They get used to duplications across the dial and alert to recorded replays which better suit their available time slots.
The call-in reports were mainly concerning family watching. I was pleased to find other families watch the same things we do as a family. The HGTV channel, the Food Channel, CNN and FOX News, ESPN for special SPORTS EVENTS. Our local Public TV station was mentioned, I have noticed as names of personalities associated with various kinds of shows such as Jeff Ishy, Andre and Mark Viette and others. Most of the favorite shows seem to be ru-runs without end. Elaborate “new” shows - bigger money shows mostly are tried but after few weeks many fall by the wayside. In the background are scores of channels doing old-timers – a few years or a decade ago, and others millions remember with “Desi and Lucy,” M-A-S H”, ”Andy Griffith” and others, still on, it seems, every day and night somewhere on the dial.
I think we TV watchers are beginning to be far more selective. Time was when the networks and agencies could the amaze and amuse millions and they still try to fit in loud, flamboyant, shallow shadows of their best from the past. Few of them will ever serve as fabulous repeats and reruns in future TV.
A.L.M. November 3, 2005 [c441wds]
