Over one-fourth mumbo-jumbo

It's likely that any critics of this post will mention that I turned on the television at the wrong time of day (5:00 AM in this case), but as biased a time as that may be, the point was still noted by me: Out of 65 channels in my new cable subscription package, eighteen of them were showing "Paid Programming".

It is a sad reality that these are what keep station budgets afloat, and we will never escape or turn back. A local author, Gordon Castelnero, published a very entertaining book in 2006, TV Land Detroit, which chronicle shows of a bygone era: locally produced comedies and interview shows. Dubbed the "golden age" of Detroit television, the age lasted until about 1985, when syndication went the popular route.

Castelnero notes that these paid programs make tasks easier for the local programming station, as they no longer have to budget for sets and crew to fill air time. They simply are given the tape of the infomercial and are paid by the sponsor simply to air it. Sounds like the easy way out to me.

I would understand it to a point, since the goal of local access television (which I worked on) was to end up producing those programs with volunteer staff. But in this area, those channels have been virtually silenced as well by threats of budget and department eliminations.

The advent of mainstream cable television likely demanded that these stations should be on the air twenty-four hours a day. But if the station is unwilling to air reruns of classic local fare, for example, what programming material can they rely on to fill those odd hours of the night? Hence, the informercial.

These days, storage warehouses abound in this area. I'm not one for building up an area, but if we need to have those warehouses around, why can't one of them store tapes of old shows for playback later? What budget would need to be exhausted to re-air what's already there; programs that would bring back memories for the generations my age and older?

With the classic programs, yes, they may seem a bit dated in the technology and content factor, but you see real human TV personalities whose aim at that simpler time was to entertain. Critics of TV today are correct in pointing out that the original purpose of TV, to entertain, has been lost in the shuffle, coining the phrase "idiot box". And just look at the type of people that are feeding life into that phrase: idiots who do informercials.

Also consider what else I found this morning: Four stations were playing the same Donald Trump informercial at the exact same time. And can you believe MSNBC had two more hours of paid programming scheduled after 5:00 AM? With all that is going on in the world with the war, presidential candidates declaring, and everything else, why isn't an information station MSNBC do its job (airing news & viewpoints) 24 hours a day?

Believe it or not, there are sites on YouTube which pay homage to station sign-offs during the days when 24 hour operation was not possible. When people post these clips online with a great wave of nostalgia, you know something's wrong with the 24-hour choice.

Unfortunately, cable television providers would balk at seeing eighteen channels off the air, showing only color bars and that annoying tone. They are thinking of the bottom line, which is live airtime. But when something from Ronco or ITV becomes more ingrained in an insomniac's mind than shows which strive for Nielsen ratings... there renews the "idiot box" phrase time & again.

I was without cable TV from August until yesterday... and it didn't take long to rediscover the one reason why I preferred boredom over late-night viewing.