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Worst Cable Systems in America

mvcg66b3r said:
Mid-Kansas Cable Services Moundridge KS (McPherson County - Wichita DMA)
Carries Root Sports Rocky Mtn instead of FS Kansas City despite being in Royals territory. No KSNW (NBC) anywhere!
TV Listings- Find Local TV Listings and Watch Full Episodes - Zap2it.com
Click to expand...
This system shut down last July.
www.moundridgecommunications.net

Moundridge Communications Network | TV Service

With access to favorite shows on channels like ESPN, Discovery, AMC and The History Channel, no one will miss the shows they want to see the most.
www.moundridgecommunications.net www.moundridgecommunications.net
EFFECTIVE JULY 31, 2020, MOUNDRIDGE COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK WILL NO LONGER PROVIDE CABLE SERVICE TO GOESSEL AND MOUNDRIDGE.

Due to increased re-transmission costs and aging equipment MCN has decided to discontinue cable TV in the towns of Goessel and Moundridge. Thank you for your support for the last 40 years.
Click to expand...
 
mvcg66b3r said:
Northstar Broadband (Washington State - Spokane DMA)
No ABC or CW on any of these systems. The Deer Park system has just nine HD channels, none of them local, and you need a QAM tuner to get them.

Deer Park (Spokane County): northstarbroadband.net -&nbspThis website is for sale! -&nbspnorthstarbroadband Resources and Information.
Click to expand...
This system was bought by Comcast in 2018 and got a huge upgrade.
washington.comcast.com

Comcast Launches Live in Deer Park

Comcast Completes $2M dollar Deer Park Expansion - brings a full suite of Services to residential and business customers.
washington.comcast.com washington.comcast.com
 
Tim from Springfield IL said:
I've mentioned this system before on this thread, but I would not be surprised if Comcast's system in Monmouth, IL (population 9,444 per 2010 census, and Warren County seat) could eventually join the ranks of Isleton. No HD that I'm aware of, no local subchannel netlets, a LOT of cable channels introduced in the last decade still not offered even on digital (e.g., Big Ten Network) and I don't think Comcast/Xfinity offers high-speed Internet on that system. Plus I counted only 21 non-premium, non-Music Choice channels on their "digital cable." I couldn't tell if their lineup was "all-digital" and encrypted--wouldn't surprise me if channels 2-64 are still analog. The lineup in Monmouth hasn't changed much since the end of the TCI era in the late 90s--which was the last time the system had a major channel realignment.

http://affiliate.zap2it.com/tvlisti...rence=false&lineupId=IL57298:X&aid=quadcty0zb
Click to expand...

Monmouth got upgraded to become truly all-digital; it's now linked to the Galesburg headend.
 
Mr Tony said:
I'd put Midcontinent (Midco) Mapleton, MN (Blue Earth County/Mankato DMA) in this because while they carry a fair amount of channels...NO HD at all!
55 channels in their "family cable" package
only network from home market is CBS Mankato (no FOX Mankato...NBC Mankato I'll give them a pass as it just started a month ago and only Directv has it)
2 different CBS, ABC, PBS & NBC

https://www.midco.com/ChannelLineup/WritePdfToOutputStream?franchiseNumber=1200730
Click to expand...
They have recently upgraded the system to include HD and tons more channels
 
What generally happens to the retired-in-place infrastructure in these little backwater areas where the cable monopoly shuts down and nobody takes it over? Are people known to hook their own equipment up to it and start backfeeding the community's copper branch (or local trunk) with, say, DBS channels or their movie collections until the copper thieves finally strike?
 
I'm guessing the wiring and equipment in people's homes gets abandoned, same with some of the other infrastructure as it's basically antiquated and worthless if it's gotten to the point where they're shutting down the whole system and walking away from it. Regarding the cabling and equipment that might be installed on utility poles, that most likely depends on their contract with the utility company that owns them as to whether it's abandoned in place or must be removed if no longer in use.
 
People end up going to Netflix, Disney+, Discovery+, etc. when that happens, I assume. DBS is hanging on but for how long. 10 years? 15?
 
ftballfan said:
From a TV listing app I have on my phone:
CommZoom Goliad, TX (Goliad County - San Antonio DMA)
2 - KABB (FOX 29 San Antonio)
3 - The Weather Channel
4 - WOAI (NBC 4 San Antonio)
5 - KENS (CBS 5 San Antonio)
6 - KAVU (ABC 25 Victoria)
7 - Univision (national feed)
8 - KLRN (PBS 9 San Antonio)
9 - QVC
11 - CNN
12 - KSAT (ABC 12 San Antonio)
13 - KVCT (FOX 19 Victoria)
14 - Syfy
15 - Freeform
16 - HLN
17 - HBO
18 - The Movie Channel
19 - Local Access
20 - HSN
21 - Showtime
22 - ESPN
23 - ESPN2
24 - USA
25 - Disney Channel
26 - TBS
27 - Discovery Channel
28 - TNT
29 - History
30 - A&E
31 - Spike
32 - AMC
33 - TLC
34 - Nickelodeon
35 - E!
36 - Bravo
37 - Travel Channel
38 - Oxygen
39 - Discovery Life Channel
40 - Cartoon Network
41 - MSNBC
42 - CNBC
43 - Fox News Channel
44 - Lifetime
45 - Animal Planet
46 - TV Land
47 - Esquire
48 - VH1
49 - MTV
50 - FX
51 - Food Network
98 - CMT
99 - Fox Sports Southwest

CommZoom Kenedy, TX (Karnes County - San Antonio DMA)
2 - KWEX (UNI 41 San Antonio)
3 - KVDA (TEL 60 San Antonio)
4 - WOAI (NBC 4 San Antonio)
5 - KENS (CBS 5 San Antonio)
6 - Showtime
7 - Local Access
8 - KABB (FOX 29 San Antonio)
9 - KLRN (PBS 9 San Antonio)
10 - QVC
11 - KPXL (ION 26 Uvalde)
12 - KSAT (ABC 12 San Antonio)
13 - TBN
14 - CNN
15 - HBO
16 - ESPN
17 - ESPN2
18 - The Movie Channel
19 - TBS
20 - GAC
21 - Freeform
22 - Discovery Channel
23 - Spike
24 - Nickelodeon
25 - Disney Channel
26 - A&E
27 - Fox Sports Southwest
28 - five Spanish channels (Galavision, Discovery en Espanol, UniMas, History Channel en Espanol, Discovery Familia) [28.1, 28.2, etc.?]
29 - HLN
30 - Lifetime
31 - five channels (Hallmark, ID, DIY Network, Cooking Channel, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries) [31.1, 31.2, etc.?]
32 - TV Land
33 - TCM
34 - TLC
35 - The Weather Channel
36 - EWTN
37 - Fox News Channel
38 - Animal Planet
39 - History
40 - FX
41 - National Geographic
42 - TNT
43 - Syfy
44 - USA
96 - Cartoon Network
97 - MTV
98 - VH1
99 - HGTV
Click to expand...
Goliad seems to have upgraded:

While Kenedy is still stuck:
 
An isolated situation, but worth mentioning. Some years ago a buddy of mine lived in an apartment complex that had once been connected to the county cable system but had disconnected after Comca$t took it over, effectively ending the complex's local cable service. The physical connection to the neighbourhood trunk was cut but the complex's own internal wiring was still intact, abandoned in place. (He even once showed me the rather eviscerated green junction box where the coax once came in off the street; the distribution frame and other infrastructure were removed from the box and there was just a corroded little stump of RG56 coming out of the ground.) Knowing this, and with the landlord's blessing (who, in the end, turned out actually couldn't have given half a crap otherwise) he actually managed to set up a complex-wide intercom system by encouraging other tenants to buy those Dakota Wireless MURS base stations and hook them up to the cable, providing sort of a "party line" between participating flats. He even put an low-power FM transmitter on one of his spare outlets and broadcast music throughout the complex to people who connected their radios to the cable, in essence a closed-circuit audio system. (He had said something about pumping a second channel into the system but I don't believe he ever got round to it. Mostly he an extra DVB receiver that he'd park on Foreground Music One and fed that to the complex. Shortly before he moved out I observed a couple other similar closed-circuit broadcasts on the same system, on different frequencies, so there was at least one other tenant that had gotten the same idea, and may have even been influenced by my buddy's broadcast to some degree.)

Then he moved out and took his equipment with him. I don't know if any of what I described above is still going on there today since this was at least 10 years ago.

But that was on a small scale, within a city that still had a functioning cable monopoly. It would be interesting to find out if anybody's doing this on a bigger scale using abandoned city/town cable infrastructure.

DBS is hanging on but for how long. 10 years? 15?
Click to expand...

I'd probably estimate 20 years. There are still a lot of people in remote areas of America who are nowhere near a physical cable monopoly headend or phone line/trunk, and can't get reliable Internet access to facilitate streaming. (Consumer satellite access is usable for desktop Web browsing but still has enough lag and lack of overall throughput to make video streaming impractical or even impossible.) For these people DBS or even a conventional in-the-clear system is their only way to get live TV, or local stations from their closest market unless they want to try ATSC DXing.
 
Blue Mountain Cable in Seneca, Oregon
all of 11 stations (locals are from Boise even though Grant county is in the Portland DMA)

2 3ABN
3 KBOI CBS
4 KIVI ABC
5 KTRV ION
6 KTVB NBC
7 FOOD
9 QVC
10 KTVR PBS (OR)
11 WGN (zap2it shows WGN9 but titantv shows Newsnation....website says Superstaton WGN)
14 Syfy
17 KNIN FOX

bmtv Seneca Channel Line up

Cable TV
www.bmtvcable.com
 
Blue Mountain cable in John Day, Canyon City and Mt Vernon, OR
also in Prairie City except they don't carry channels 22 or 97

2 3ABN
3 KBOI CBS
4 KIVI ABC
5 KTRV ION
6 NBC (titan shows KTVB but zap2it shows KGW Portland)
7 FOOD
8 Local access
9 TBS
10 KOPB PBS (OR)
11 Newsnation
12 Discovery
13 Freeform
14 Syfy
15 Root NW
16 Fox News
17 KNIN FOX
18 Disney
19 QVC
20 HBO
21 HGTV
22 Cinemax
23 ESPN
24 ESPN2
26 Fox Business
97 Outdoor

bmtv John Day Line up

Providing TV Cable to Grant County Oregon
www.bmtvcable.com
tv listings
 
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Sounds like typical small working-town cable systems that you'd find everywhere in eastern WA/OR. Keep in mind that most of eastern intermountain Washington and Oregon, outside of Spokane, Richland/Pasco/Kennewick, Yakima and Pendleton is very spread out and remote, and most people living in rural communities outside the major incorporated urban centres probably are working or at school most of the day and aren't home to watch TV.

Also keep in mind what I said earlier about linear TV potentially being used as a loss leader for more profitable DOCSIS access or to satisfy local tariffs.....probably certain to be the case with these two small rural independent systems.

Seneca's population was 199 as of 2010 (Seneca, Oregon - Wikipedia) and was a former logging town until the mill shut down and railroad access was discontinued in the early 1980s. Literally, it's just a scattering of buildings along Interstate 395 for the most part. If you aren't paying attention you probably wouldn't even realise there was an incorporated town. Still, that's pretty wild that they'd have an all-lowband TV side in the 2020s.....could very well even still be full NTSC making it a true mom-and-pop independent.
 
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Albeit, those small-town cable systems are disappearing from our neck of the woods. The only cable provider in Yakima County is Spectrum. No one else. About 10 years ago, Naches and Cowiche/Tieton received cable from J&N Cable, which provided 35 or 40 channels and no digital. And there was a little cable provider up in Nile/Cliffdell that carried 25 channels, and no CW (either from KIMA's DT2 or the defunct KCWK). Both are defunct, and satellite dishes are prominent in those areas now.

Montana had cable providers 8-10 years ago that were carrying 12-15 channels. I was in awe seeing this tiny Montana cable lineup on Zap2It that only ran from channels 2 through 13 - like it was in the early to mid-1980s. And that cable provider is gone now too. I assume they only had a few subscribers at the end, as everyone else just went to DIRECTV or Dish.
 
I bet so. Did they shut down totally or did they just discontinue unprofitable linear TV and become a straight DOCSIS provider?

I was in Coulee Dam a few years ago (actually, maybe more like 10 years ago) which AFAIK got its cable trunk from nearby Grand Coulee, and they only had something like 20 channels on their system, and I think it was still all-NTSC. Staying in the same hotel I was at with my parents, redoing a long road trip that we had made around eastern Washington in 1991, then seeing that made it almost like being in a time warp. Only diference was I now had my own car and I didn't have the obligatory backpack of Legos that invariably accompanied me on family road trips back then.

I wouldn't be surprised if the city was still using a United Telephone-owned CX1000 step-by-step with TSPS-emulated CAMA in Spokane. I didn't think to play with the phone in the room though it was a Stromburg Carlson 2500 clone, probably the exact same one they had 20 years prior...

(locals are from Boise even though Grant county is in the Portland DMA)
Click to expand...

Interesting piece about that:

"Survey shows Opposition To Portland TV Signals"
History of Blue MT TV Cable Co

Basically in the 1960s when BMTV were beginning operations, it would have been prohibitively expensive to set up a microwave relay network linear enough to convey Potland TV programming (over 200 miles away, and across the Cascades) without severe quality degradation, using the technology of the day. Boise is about as far away but that part of the OR/ID is mostly prairie, therefore making Boise able to be received quasi-locally over the air so that's what they did. They still do, though with ATSC and high-bitrate, low-loss fibre links there's little reason to do today and they could carry Dumptown TV with across-the-road-of-the-transmitter video quality if they wanted to.
 
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I think J&N shut down for good. Most everyone in Naches, Tieton, and Cowiche uses a satellite dish nowadays.
There was also opposition locally when SyndEx came around and Seattle TV had to be blacked out. Historically, Ellensburg carried Yakima on translators and Seattle/Yakima on cable, which was widely subscribed. KOMO, KING, and KIRO were often watched by the Ellensburg locals over the Yakima stations.
 
ftballfan said:
Some Comcast cursed systems.
Brown City, MI (Detroit DMA): http://www.zap2it.com/tvlistings/brown-city?zip=48453&mso=08010&store=1&lineupid=USA-MI54430-DEFAULT
Deckerville, MI (Detroit DMA): http://www.zap2it.com/tvlistings/de...so=08010&store=1&lineupid=USA-MI54747-DEFAULT
Lexington, MI (Detroit DMA): http://www.zap2it.com/tvlistings/lexington?zip=48450&mso=08010&store=1&lineupid=USA-MI55556-X
Sandusky, MI (Detroit DMA): http://www.zap2it.com/tvlistings/sandusky?zip=48471&mso=08010&store=1&lineupid=USA-MI21574-DEFAULT
Yale, MI (Detroit DMA): http://www.zap2it.com/tvlistings/yale?zip=48097&mso=08010&store=1&lineupid=USA-MI21596-DEFAULT
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Per this Facebook post from this past May, Comcast has upgraded at least the Sandusky system.
City of Sandusky, MI
Kathy Ann The city has nothing to do with the cable for east side manor. I know that Comcast has upgraded their entire system within the city limits and maybe it has something to do with the upgrade. I would talk with the manager of East Side Manor
Click to expand...

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=2013146608823463&id=236712796466862
 
Mr Tony said:
Blue Mountain Cable in Seneca, Oregon
all of 11 stations (locals are from Boise even though Grant county is in the Portland DMA)

2 3ABN
3 KBOI CBS
4 KIVI ABC
5 KTRV ION
6 KTVB NBC
7 FOOD
9 QVC
10 KTVR PBS (OR)
11 WGN (zap2it shows WGN9 but titantv shows Newsnation....website says Superstaton WGN)
14 Syfy
17 KNIN FOX

bmtv Seneca Channel Line up

Cable TV
www.bmtvcable.com
Click to expand...

Mr Tony said:
Blue Mountain cable in John Day, Canyon City and Mt Vernon, OR
also in Prairie City except they don't carry channels 22 or 97

2 3ABN
3 KBOI CBS
4 KIVI ABC
5 KTRV ION
6 NBC (titan shows KTVB but zap2it shows KGW Portland)
7 FOOD
8 Local access
9 TBS
10 KOPB PBS (OR)
11 Newsnation
12 Discovery
13 Freeform
14 Syfy
15 Root NW
16 Fox News
17 KNIN FOX
18 Disney
19 QVC
20 HBO
21 HGTV
22 Cinemax
23 ESPN
24 ESPN2
26 Fox Business
97 Outdoor

bmtv John Day Line up

Providing TV Cable to Grant County Oregon
www.bmtvcable.com
tv listings
Click to expand...
Blue Mountain Cable unfortunately has been shut down, as per this link: Blue MT TV Cable Co
 
crainbebo said:
Montana had cable providers 8-10 years ago that were carrying 12-15 channels. I was in awe seeing this tiny Montana cable lineup on Zap2It that only ran from channels 2 through 13 - like it was in the early to mid-1980s. And that cable provider is gone now too. I assume they only had a few subscribers at the end, as everyone else just went to DIRECTV or Dish.
Click to expand...

I know of one Telephone Co-op that provided cable service in eastern Montana that dropped the whole service because it wasn't financially viable to keep their equipment maintained. There's a lot of small towns in Montana that have good translator systems built up and supported locally, so that also factored into that co-op's decision, that most of the towns in their service area would still have OTA TV for people that didn't want to switch to satellite.
 
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