CABLE-QUEST.COM

If you’re a baby boomer, you might remember spending evenings with the family watching the oversized console radio. In 1951 we bought our first television set with a 12-inch picture tube. The only programming being broadcast then was on three channels.

However, a lot of Americans weren’t able to receive even these stations. Large rural areas were too far away to receive any signals and when UHF started up, people were finally fed up. This brought about the birth of a simple cable system called CATV, or Community Antenna Television, a group of ultra high towers linked together with retransmission amplifiers and microwave repeaters.

As television technology continued to grow, so did the cable industry. Fledgling cable companies sprouted up and expanded to all areas of the country. The future of home cable is bright. We now have digital cable broadcasting, leading to digital high definition and right around the corner, 3D Cable TV.

Our country has fallen far behind in its exports of everyday goods and products due to outsourcing. But one thing these other countries cannot produce is quality television programming. Now one of our major exports is entertainment and American cable programming has become a world-wide, must-have product.