Streaming services faulty just like their predecessor
I remember back in the early 1970s when I was a kid, my cousins who lived around the block became the first people we knew with Home Box Office cable television service.
We were fascinated that the Connellys could watch a movie when they wanted. Of course, in its early days, there were only a few sports games and a handful of movies broadcast for 12 hours a day.
The movies on the first premium cable TV service were uncut and there were no commercials. You paid a flat rate for monthly service. That was it.
While they lived nearby, for years growing up we usually saw the Connelly family at holidays and in school. But we Conlon kids suddenly became frequent visitors to take advantage of this new technological wonder.
There was no way our parents were going to spring for such an extravagance. The fuzzy and inconsistent images of network TV broadcasts picked up by the antenna on the roof of our house were just fine.
In the early days, when they said cable TV, they weren’t kidding. The controller was a large descrambler box with rows of buttons and switches. It was tethered to the television, which was connected to a cable running into the house.
Losing the controller was literally impossible back then.
Cable has changed a lot since the early 1970s. For starters, it no longer needs cables, as satellites and the internet came into play.
A huge development was pay-per-view, which became commonly available in homes years later. It was especially popular for professional boxing and wrestling.
One of the rugby clubs I played for used to gather to watch WWF on pay-per-view at one of their houses.
One time they all came dressed as their favorite wrestlers and had matches late into the night.
The following Monday, the guys who lived at the house were at the local thrift store buying furniture to replace all the pieces they destroyed. To this day, that is the one party in my life that I most regret missing.
The options for cable television have exploded. But the industry has taken a horrible turn in recent years. And it’s got me nostalgic for the early days of cable television.
The two biggest attractions had always been the lack of advertisements and a flat monthly rate. There has been a rapid erosion of both on some streaming services.
The vast number of the movies offered by some providers require a payment to rent or buy them, even movies that are decades old. I hate paying for what amounts to mostly a library of purchase options or having advertisements pop up during a movie.
While I grumbled at my parents’ refusal to jump on the Home Box Office bandwagon, I find myself sounding just like them when I complain about streaming services more than 50 years later.
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Working It Out is the reincarnation of a column by the same name that reporter Kevin Conlon wrote weekly for more than six years for the Cortland Standard newspaper, where he worked as city editor before joining the Cape Gazette staff. The Syracuse Press Club, which covers 21 counties in Central New York, gave Conlon The Robert Haggart Award for best column of 2024.
Kevin Conlon came to the Cape Gazette with nearly 40 years of newspaper experience since graduating from St. Bonaventure University in New York with a bachelor's degree in mass communication. He reports on Sussex County government and other assignments as needed.
His career spans working as a reporter and editor at daily newspapers in upstate New York, including The Daily Gazette in Schenectady. He comes to the Cape Gazette from the Cortland Standard, where he was an editor for more than 25 years, and in recent years also contributed as a columnist and opinion page writer. He and his staff won regional and state writing awards.
Conlon was relocating to Lewes when he came across an advertisement for a reporter job at the Cape Gazette, and the decision to pursue it paid off. His new position gives him an opportunity to stay in a career that he loves, covering local news for an independently owned newspaper.
Conlon is the father of seven children and grandfather to two young boys. In his spare time, he trains for and competes in triathlons and other races. Now settling into the Cape Region, he is searching out hilly trails and roads with wide shoulders. He is a fan of St. Bonaventure sports, especially rugby and basketball, as well as following the Mets, Steelers and Celtics.
