Get out the tin-foil...

I am an independent satellite installer in Northeastern Oklahoma and on-air channels in these fringe areas are important business. Look for my post on getting on-air channels.

You may be reading this because you heard that congress approved on-air channels for satellite. On the Direct-TV system, there are currently nineteen cities included in the on-air packages. But you may not realize that this only includes the top four networks in each city: ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX. PBS is handled with one network source so you won't be able to see your local PBS programming. Furthermore, there is no more room on the regular satellites for the rest of America's city's. Other Markets will be handled with an add-on kit to read additional satellites which are scheduled to go into position as the system upgrades.

Four local channels may be enough but you know you want those tertiary channels. Where else would you get Boscoe the clown on Slobovian Cuisine?

The current cities covered in channels 900-995 are: San Francisco, Miami, Atlanta, Chicago, Seattle, Washington D.C., Los Angeles, Houston, Orlando, Tampa, Minneapolis, Boston, Clearwater, Philadelphia, Denver, Dallas, Phoenix, Detroit and New York City.

Unfortunately, we are not allowed to buy any local channels except those in our own city. It would be wonderful to be able to watch the San Francisco Evening news here in Oklahoma but that is not the case. It may never be.

We are able to buy the network package, but only if we are in a difficult fringe where local on-air signals are impossible. To be an exception, we have to get a waiver from each local network station. What a drag!

Please consider keeping in touch with your local channels on-air. This could be really important during an emergency. Here in Oklahoma, the weather radar is a lifeline and the brief outages that can occur on the satellite would leave us in a blind spot.

However, as I'm fond of telling my customers: "If on-air signals were a 'piece of cake', Community Antennas would never have developed so quickly."

Historical note: CATV originally stood for Community Antenna Television. Since the first 'weather channel' trained a camera on a barometer, the whole thing has evolved into wired and wireless pay-per-view as well as custom programming. But to get back to the beginning: "Put some foil on those rabbit ears." dino



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