Dear youngs, That wire thing on top of the tv was called an antenna, and you'd often have to move it all around to catch the signal for the channel you wanted to watch. Signed, An old
Replies
When I was young (born 1977) a lot of the U.S. only had 3 channels: ABC, CBS, and NBC. Some people also had access to PBS stations. Since we lived in far northern VT we were blessed with a couple of Canadian stations - having CBC meant I got to watch Kids in the Hall and SCTV!
aug 16, 2025, 6:05 pm • 520 8 • view
You’re still so young. 1970 here
aug 17, 2025, 10:41 am • 0 0 • view
Yep we got CBC in Detroit so we were able to watch slightly different Kids In The Hall episodes than HBO or Comedy Central
aug 16, 2025, 6:11 pm • 5 0 • view
This is annoying some people for some reason. I didn't say anything like "you kids have it so easy these days!" or whatever. It's just fun and strange reminiscing about things that used to be common in every day life but have now mostly (yes I know not completely) disappeared. Lighten up, Francis!
aug 16, 2025, 6:25 pm • 493 4 • view
P.S. People are mentioning hitting the tv so I have to share that I learned there is a lovely colloquial term for that which I adore, "percussive maintenance". en.wiktionary.org/wiki/percuss...
aug 16, 2025, 6:39 pm • 436 16 • view
ah yes, a technique used by novices and experts alike with roughly the same results
aug 16, 2025, 6:44 pm • 37 0 • view
Nah if you know where to hang you get wayyy more use out of it
aug 16, 2025, 7:07 pm • 9 0 • view
used to be in-house tech support, we used it plenty
aug 16, 2025, 7:09 pm • 13 0 • view
honestly the funniest thing there is when a new guy is diligently trying to figure out what’s wrong with something and another guy walking past smacks it twice, and problem solved
aug 16, 2025, 7:11 pm • 21 0 • view
At my job one of the monitors occasionally fucks up. If you flick it in a specific corner it fixes immediately. Our alternator/starter test machine also freezes sometimes so you just gotta clap it on the side of the head about once a month or so.
aug 16, 2025, 7:44 pm • 10 0 • view
thinking about how much joy there can be in being called in as the designated smacker. walk into someone’s office where the monitor isn’t working, as the tech person who understands these things… *smack smack* “ok that’s fixed, anything else you need while I’m here?”
aug 16, 2025, 7:55 pm • 11 0 • view
Fonzie effect 😉
aug 17, 2025, 7:17 am • 0 0 • view
You’re definitely writing about getting Elmers glue on your fingers and then peeling it off
aug 16, 2025, 9:03 pm • 0 0 • view
My grandparents had one of those TVs that was in a wooden box. It had really ornate designs etched into the wood, too. Grapevines, if I recall correctly. Also, are there two cats? It looks like there's a little void cuddling up in there.
aug 16, 2025, 6:47 pm • 3 0 • view
I miss the days of bashing my telly to make it better 😂
aug 16, 2025, 6:42 pm • 3 0 • view
I was born in 90 but ngl sometimes I still find myself wanting to smack the tv if it's acting up 🤣 tempting to smack the computer sometimes too!
aug 16, 2025, 10:34 pm • 1 0 • view
I love learning 🌈
aug 16, 2025, 6:41 pm • 2 0 • view
It rarely, if ever worked but those old TVs could take it.
aug 16, 2025, 7:31 pm • 0 0 • view
I immediately thought of the character Jankom Pog from Star Trek Prodigy. He was always whacking stuff (the helm, the warp core) with a hammer in order to fix it, lol, and said the term "percussive maintenance" ALL the time, lol.
aug 17, 2025, 2:27 am • 2 0 • view
I love this so much.
aug 16, 2025, 7:09 pm • 0 0 • view
My dad called and it 'The Harvard Method.'
aug 16, 2025, 10:25 pm • 1 0 • view
Hitting the TV was referred to as "The Kickplate Method" and was taught that way in a military electronics school I attended back tn the 80s.
aug 16, 2025, 11:53 pm • 1 0 • view
I still employ percussive maintenance from time to time. Tried it earlier today on a fan that had picked up a noisy wobble, and it worked a treat!
aug 16, 2025, 7:03 pm • 4 0 • view
I threaten appliances with replacement and they typically work again.
aug 16, 2025, 9:57 pm • 0 0 • view
Love this. 😂
aug 16, 2025, 6:44 pm • 0 0 • view
I think it was more frustration than thinking it would actually help...but we all did it.
aug 16, 2025, 6:51 pm • 1 0 • view
I call it “The Fonz”
aug 16, 2025, 8:24 pm • 5 0 • view
Ayyyy
aug 16, 2025, 8:39 pm • 1 0 • view
Came here for this. Leaving satisfied.
aug 17, 2025, 4:25 am • 2 0 • view
God yeah. Didn't know there was a term for it, but it always worked
aug 16, 2025, 7:47 pm • 0 0 • view
Also known as RAMS. (At least among the UK techy/nerdy folks I associated with.) Rapidly Applied Mechanical Shock. "Have you tried RAMS?" "Yeah, it worked for a bit then made a noise and a smell."
aug 16, 2025, 6:51 pm • 3 0 • view
"Ought oh, sounds like some one hit it too hard and let the magic smoke escape..."
aug 17, 2025, 12:52 am • 1 0 • view
I have a theory that I love to explain to people, that, if hitting a radio or TV when it malfunctions gets it to work, then hitting it while it's working should make it work even better, and possibly even introduce exciting new capabilities.
aug 17, 2025, 1:29 pm • 0 0 • view
Our tv “blasted” meaning the volume suddenly increased to 10. Percussive maintenance was the only way to stop it from blasting.
aug 16, 2025, 9:16 pm • 1 0 • view
🤣
aug 16, 2025, 6:41 pm • 1 0 • view
Haha percussive maintenance works on a range of appliances, as does the phrase "I'm going to fix it with a hammer".
aug 16, 2025, 8:58 pm • 1 0 • view
OMG! Per my wife, her dad was pretty good at percussive maintenance on their old early 60s TV :-)
aug 16, 2025, 6:47 pm • 4 0 • view
Not gonna lie, it was satisfying as fuck after an entire lifetime of being told "hitting things to make it work doesn't work (even though it often does)" that there's actually a TERM FOR IT 🤣
aug 16, 2025, 8:58 pm • 3 0 • view
Funny!
aug 16, 2025, 8:42 pm • 0 0 • view
I had a monitor that listed percussive probing as a trouble shooting step in the manual.
aug 16, 2025, 9:18 pm • 2 0 • view
Controlled violence dates back to when TV sets were all constructed from vacuum tubes. A well judged Fonzi-style whack could sometimes rattle them into making a better connection in their sockets. Sometimes not.
aug 16, 2025, 6:45 pm • 5 0 • view
Actually, it still works on modern computers, as it can knock off "metal whiskers" that can cause short circuits. (super computers in cold rooms REALLY have problems with it, I think they're trying to evolve a fuzzy covering to keep warm) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whisker...
aug 17, 2025, 12:50 am • 3 0 • view
I'll probably evolve steely grey whiskers by the time winter arrives. Interesting info, thanks.
aug 17, 2025, 5:41 am • 0 0 • view
I think that's why this scene in Armageddon was so funny... youtu.be/dEkOT3IngMQ?...
aug 16, 2025, 7:02 pm • 0 0 • view
Fun fact: this very technique was used in the first human repair of a scientific instrument in deep space when, on Apollo 15, Al Worden gave the gamma ray spectrometer a good kick and it started working again after giving garbage data
aug 16, 2025, 6:58 pm • 0 0 • view
I'm more like concussive maintenance, lol.
aug 16, 2025, 6:57 pm • 1 0 • view
If that falls your only hope is the fabled "manual reset"
aug 16, 2025, 6:52 pm • 4 0 • view
You have to smack it on the side sometimes!!!!
aug 17, 2025, 7:00 am • 0 0 • view
When I used to repair computers in the old days, there was a running joke of micro & macro adjustments. A micro adjustment was done with a 5 lb sledgehammer & a macro adjustment was done with a 10 lb one. 🤣
aug 17, 2025, 5:09 am • 0 0 • view
We used to put blobs of foil on the ends when they acted up. The foil was better than me (being youngest) having to stand and hold the antenna the entire show. >_<
aug 16, 2025, 7:41 pm • 4 0 • view
Yep. The tv programs came through the air waves on a different frequency than radio (smart kids can look up the electromagnetic spectrum for fun). If you had a rooftop antenna you could send dad up to twist it around for best reception of your program!
aug 16, 2025, 6:47 pm • 2 0 • view
aug 16, 2025, 8:44 pm • 1 0 • view
I say that all the time. Still one of my favorite movies. 🤣
aug 16, 2025, 8:47 pm • 0 0 • view
Every once in a while I impulsively think it would be nice to have lots and lots of people following me, but then I look at what you put up with (or occasionally don't) on an account made of old pictures of cute cats and helpful comments and promoting animal welfare and yeah, no I don't think that.
aug 16, 2025, 6:34 pm • 16 0 • view
It's a net positive but yes very reliably some people get weird!
aug 16, 2025, 6:35 pm • 11 0 • view
The trick is largely to remind yourself that it's an alternate reality, and to walk away when you need to. (However, quite a few people have suddenly "gotten big" and had to walk away for mental health and/or safety reasons. Women, especially, get the bulk of the abuse.) Thanks for all you do!
aug 16, 2025, 7:02 pm • 3 0 • view
yeah same in the UK, 3 channels until the early 1980s then 4.
aug 16, 2025, 6:37 pm • 4 0 • view
Did you also have an antenna tower outside? We had one that was about 100’ high. Not sure how many extra channels it enabled, but we thought we were advanced.
aug 16, 2025, 6:27 pm • 3 0 • view
Note to the youts: That last line is a Stripes reference. No relation to Francie, who is already light, loud, and perfect.
aug 16, 2025, 6:31 pm • 11 0 • view
😆 Yes, that's true.
aug 16, 2025, 6:31 pm • 6 0 • view
😹😹 Welcome to the oldies’ tree fort. “Lighten up, Francis” is our secret handshake.
aug 16, 2025, 6:44 pm • 4 0 • view
🫡 "Razz-le Dazz-le!"
aug 16, 2025, 8:16 pm • 0 0 • view
Now you're going to have to explain what "lighten up, Francis" means...
aug 16, 2025, 6:37 pm • 3 0 • view
How strange that some people would be annoyed by someone just sharing a memory. They are the weirdos
aug 16, 2025, 9:41 pm • 0 0 • view
I was a child antenna adjuster and my old man’s remote channel changer, AMA… if only we could have trained the cat to do it
aug 16, 2025, 6:27 pm • 20 0 • view
Our oldest child was our channel changer! By the time the second came along we must have gotten a remote. And we didn't have cable until they were out of high school. They were very deprived.
aug 16, 2025, 6:48 pm • 2 0 • view
Friends of mine had a color TV and remote in the '60s, so we sometimes sat in the living room relentlessly clicking through those four stations. The remote worked on some kind of acoustic principle. When you mashed a button, you could hear a metallic ping. Really had to point it at the set.
aug 17, 2025, 1:32 pm • 4 0 • view
A neighbor had a color TV and the first time I saw The Wizard of Oz at their house I was amazed!
aug 17, 2025, 1:36 pm • 2 0 • view
My fondest memory of rabbit ears is always Saturday night dad trying to get them just... right... for the hockey game and always going just a bit too far and making it worse. "DAD! STOP!"
aug 16, 2025, 7:25 pm • 0 0 • view
A certain brand of human psychology delights in grinding any joy from a small joke.
aug 16, 2025, 7:44 pm • 2 0 • view
I think people are just so used to every mention of generational differences being a fight about which generation is best & which is 'ruining' things. We're all on a hair-trigger for taking things as an attack. We had a majestic 5 TV channels where I grew up, which was the largest city in Australia
aug 17, 2025, 1:07 am • 1 0 • view
Absolutely! It's history! This is what it was; and (probably before your time; I'm b. 1960s) "party-line" phones were a thing, too (i.e., sharing your phone line with strangers who might be on it when you wanted to call). It's not like we want to go back to it, any more than outdoor-only plumbing.
aug 16, 2025, 6:56 pm • 1 0 • view
I remember when we wanted to go online we had to listen to the sound of robots being tortured. I'm "my first console was a Pong clone from the Sears catalog" years old.
aug 16, 2025, 7:39 pm • 5 0 • view
Yes.
aug 17, 2025, 6:25 am • 0 0 • view
Let me explain to your complaintants in a language they might understand. I can hear them saying, "You mean outside? What if my phone gets dirty? EWWW!" already.
aug 16, 2025, 6:58 pm • 2 0 • view
They can't. Their lives are so horrible their only recourse is negative discourse.
aug 16, 2025, 6:28 pm • 3 0 • view
The lounge “cable” TV on my college dorm floor was usually busted (could only get a handful of channels anyway), so people would gather in my room to watch my 19-in b&w portable. It was better than nothing, and we had no problem with that.
aug 16, 2025, 7:09 pm • 1 0 • view
You are the same age as my daughter :) Now, I am old, we didn't have a tv until I was six, lol.
aug 16, 2025, 6:47 pm • 1 0 • view
I loved learning about old shit when I was a kid! I remember seeing 70's beer cans and the tabs on the floor in pictures like, wtf?? That was the upgraded style? What the hell is a church key!? lol
aug 16, 2025, 6:51 pm • 1 0 • view
Ah, we got CBC in Northern Maine. It's what we watched in the evenings.
aug 16, 2025, 6:10 pm • 2 0 • view
And if you watched late enough at night, you'd eventually see this! www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKQ-...
aug 16, 2025, 6:49 pm • 0 0 • view
(I was ont he opposite side of the country, so I was watching CBUT, but the map-painting clip was used nationally.)
aug 16, 2025, 6:51 pm • 0 0 • view
(as was the national anthem. And bleh, I wish I could fix typos. :)
aug 16, 2025, 6:53 pm • 0 0 • view
I'm older than you and grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. We had the 3 networks plus PBS (then called NET - National Educational Television), and an Oakland station, KTVU that had kids' shows, Dialing for Dollars, and Creature Features. We didn't get a color TV until 1966.
aug 16, 2025, 6:34 pm • 1 0 • view
I lived in a part of the country that got zero channels. We were lucky if we could catch a radio station on a clear day.
aug 16, 2025, 6:24 pm • 2 0 • view
I’m a contemporary (b. 1978) who grew up in WA within sight of BC. Loved having access to those Canadian channels, and also Canadian radio. To this day there are songs I recall as incredibly popular that my U.S. friends don’t recognize at all.
aug 16, 2025, 6:43 pm • 0 0 • view
I'm from 1974, Denmark had 1 channel, and if you were lucky 2 Swedish and 3 German channels, so I watched Doctor Who, Battlestar Galactica and such, with bad German dubbing... Imagine my surprise when I got to watch the originals. 😂 Second nationwide Danish channel is from 1988.
aug 17, 2025, 6:12 am • 1 0 • view
Our TV had one antenna, and a dog though.
aug 17, 2025, 6:20 am • 0 0 • view
We had a rooftop antenna and since we lived across the Detroit River from Ontario we got CBC besides ABC, CBS, NBC and the local PBS station. I remember listening to CKLW radio too. There wasn’t the kids programming when I was a kid like there is now.
aug 16, 2025, 9:17 pm • 1 0 • view
born 1994 and this was my life!!!! (rural kid) my father refused to get cable. In 2009 they did away with analog for digital broadcasting - and we suddenly had NINE tv stations. That showed up without me holding the rabbit ears!!!! Live changing.
aug 16, 2025, 6:47 pm • 2 0 • view
I grew up outside Detroit & we had access to CBC as well! SCTV & the late-night music show, Good Rockin’Tonight were my favorites. We also had UHF channels—for PBS & ch. 62, WGPR a local Detroit station.
aug 16, 2025, 8:41 pm • 0 0 • view
We were north of Wa state on Vancouver Island, we’d get the US channels and I remember Almost Live on KING-TV was a great show.
aug 17, 2025, 2:28 am • 0 0 • view
Nowadays you can probably pick up the same number of stations, but there's at least more channels per station thanks to the switch to digital.
aug 16, 2025, 6:15 pm • 1 0 • view
I live in far northern VT! I've only been here a few years and never thought about watching Canadian television. I should put an antenna on the roof and see if I can score Montreal TV!
aug 16, 2025, 6:35 pm • 2 0 • view
Dear "Old". I started college the year you were born. My girlfriend freshman year and my song was "I just Wanna Stop" by Gino Vannelli. If you were a true fan of SCTV you'll instantly remember the music video they did for that song.
aug 17, 2025, 12:46 am • 1 0 • view
Okay, so related to other things I'm yammering about tonight, another reason to love @merrymacsanctuary.bsky.social is that they have a pig named after Eugene Levy (because of his big black "eyebrows"). bsky.app/profile/merr...
aug 17, 2025, 12:49 am • 3 0 • view
No way! Way? No way! I just saw him on Half Wits last night but unfortunately nobody won a car seat cover.
aug 17, 2025, 12:53 am • 1 0 • view
SCTV was one of the best sketch comedy shows ever made. Equaling or besting SNL many times.
aug 17, 2025, 12:41 am • 2 0 • view
Yep. They will never understand tracking knobs either, or having to wait to watch a show.
aug 16, 2025, 11:03 pm • 0 0 • view
We didn't get access to cable until 95 or so, so I grew up with ABC, CBS, and two PBS stations, though the one out of Philly was unreliable except on cloudy days, for some reason. I thought cable TV was for hotels.
aug 16, 2025, 6:24 pm • 3 0 • view
Crazy. Born same year and lived in Barre.
aug 16, 2025, 6:19 pm • 2 0 • view
Whoa!
aug 16, 2025, 6:20 pm • 1 0 • view
Having both the Vermont and New Hampshire public TV was a treat for young me.
aug 16, 2025, 6:12 pm • 1 0 • view
'78 here, and I grew up near Seattle; we also got CBC on basic cable! I watched a ton of kids' TV there. (Among other things, it's how I watched Fraggle Rock growing up, because we never had HBO.)
aug 16, 2025, 6:38 pm • 1 0 • view
I couldn't rely on over-the-air reception, though, because we were in the Cascade foothills, and mountains can definitely mess with you. Years later I found the FCC's DTV Reception Maps website and it was kind of hilarious looking up what you could get via antenna at that address. Read: not much.
aug 16, 2025, 6:39 pm • 1 0 • view
Why on Earth would people be “annoyed” by these wonderful historical artifacts?
aug 16, 2025, 9:00 pm • 0 0 • view
Newsflash: You're still young. I got a color tv in 1977!!
aug 16, 2025, 6:36 pm • 2 0 • view
Even older Brit here (born 1956). We only had 2 channels (BBC and ITV), b&w, right up until I left home in 1974. Other people's tellies were getting a 3rd channel (BBC2) by then but ours was too old.
aug 16, 2025, 9:38 pm • 1 0 • view
We got Canada if we climbed up on the porch roof to directionalize the antenna.
aug 16, 2025, 6:54 pm • 0 0 • view
I’m even older. Used to be, TV stations didn’t broadcast around the clock. At midnight or not too long after, they’d go off the air. Then you might see something called a “test pattern.”
aug 16, 2025, 6:13 pm • 10 0 • view
Oh yeah, we'd get the anthem, good night, and the test pattern. You'd wake up and find it still going Then the first program was in think the farm or weather report
aug 16, 2025, 6:28 pm • 4 0 • view
Or static…
aug 16, 2025, 7:26 pm • 1 0 • view
My parents didn't have cable, so we had two channels. I wasn't much of a TV watcher.
aug 16, 2025, 6:18 pm • 1 0 • view
And! Then HBO came but they didn't scramble it, so EVERYONE got HBO. For free. It was awesome.
aug 16, 2025, 6:58 pm • 0 0 • view
OMF the original KitH was amazing!!
aug 16, 2025, 6:26 pm • 4 0 • view
Yeeessssssss but I thought the revival on Amazon was really good, too.
aug 16, 2025, 6:27 pm • 4 0 • view
Ambumblance!!!!
aug 16, 2025, 7:12 pm • 1 0 • view
😂
aug 16, 2025, 7:15 pm • 1 0 • view
Wow, you had three channels? It sounds like you're too young to remember that lot of the U.S. only had two television stations so they would either ignore ABC programs or decide which popular ABC show each station would broadcast.
aug 16, 2025, 10:47 pm • 0 0 • view
Growing up in Montreal, thank goodness for tv in Plattsburgh, Burlington and Poland Springs! Vague memories of a North Pole too?!
aug 16, 2025, 6:31 pm • 3 0 • view
Yes! WPTZ was originally licensed to North Pole, NY. My boyfriend grew up not far from there in the Adirondacks. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_P...
aug 16, 2025, 6:34 pm • 3 0 • view
I was born 10 years after you in northern Michigan and we could reliably get PBS, sometimes pick up Fox, and less frequently tune into NBC. our cats loved to chew on our rabbit ear antenna, maybe because it had tinfoil on it - my dad was SURE that helped us get better reception.
aug 16, 2025, 6:08 pm • 4 0 • view
Oh, hey, we're the same age! I was in LA though, so I think we had at least 7 channels. Can't remember.
aug 16, 2025, 6:18 pm • 1 0 • view
Same here, and we were very rural and lived in a valley at the base of a large mountain. For whatever reason, reception from one of the channels broadcast from the other side of it was better once the sun dropped behind it. Don’t forget the tin foil flags wrapped around each rabbit ear!
aug 16, 2025, 7:36 pm • 0 0 • view
In far southern Florida one of the tiny amount of UHF (remember them?) stations grabbed up SCTV. Then I got cable and could watch Kids in the Hall.
aug 16, 2025, 6:21 pm • 1 0 • view
Tell 'em about *UHF stations* – that'll blow their minds. (In Phoenix, Channel 15 ran Monty Python episodes, which was cool.)
aug 16, 2025, 6:07 pm • 19 2 • view
Denver had the big three, plus the regional PBS affiliate and a WGN affiliate. By the 80s there was a second, weaker, PBS station (UHF?) on Channel 12, which ran Teletunes — an hour and a half of music videos — one weekend morning. 90 minutes of free MTV!
aug 16, 2025, 6:34 pm • 4 0 • view
KWGN (Channel 2) was the home of Blinky’s Fun Club, the local Krusty-style kid’s show. Blinky ran an antique store on S Broadway after finally retiring.
aug 16, 2025, 6:38 pm • 3 0 • view
KWGN (and later the OG Chicago WGN, when we had cable) were key to my taste in films. Badlands, Body Heat, Rear Window, Rosemary’s Baby — taped ‘em all off WGN stations. @willmckinley.bsky.social
aug 16, 2025, 6:42 pm • 2 0 • view
Love that. All three of the independent stations in New York aired movies back in the day: daytime, prime time, late night, weekends. It was great.
aug 16, 2025, 8:15 pm • 2 0 • view
I think we got em all in central CT. Certainly I have movies taped off of channels 9 and 11 probably still. Then we also got TV 38 and 56 out of Boston. Grew up with The Million Dollar Movie and The Movie Loft, Creature Double Feature and Godzilla marathons on Black Friday
aug 16, 2025, 8:22 pm • 5 0 • view
I figured out how to get Channel 31 (UHF) on our TV so I could watch Elvira’s Movie Macabre. Good times.
aug 16, 2025, 10:30 pm • 3 0 • view
Nice. When DARK SHADOWS aired on New Jersey Network in the ‘80s I convinced my father to buy (and install) a high/powered antenna w/ a rotary motor so I could watch on Long Island. I controlled that thing from my bedroom like I was a Bond villain.
aug 16, 2025, 10:34 pm • 4 0 • view
In Hartford we'd also get 18 and 27 too...38 and 56 only at night, sometimes 5 or 9, never 11.
aug 16, 2025, 8:32 pm • 4 0 • view
I honestly don’t remember all of the channels-I was in Middletown, though, so south of you.
aug 16, 2025, 8:36 pm • 3 0 • view
The Movie Loft was the best thing about getting cable.
aug 16, 2025, 8:28 pm • 3 0 • view
I have extremely fond memories of watching Movie Loft with my dad :)
aug 16, 2025, 8:36 pm • 2 0 • view
Best day was always “let the kid stay up! This is a classic” moments in those days. Or the time in 6th grade I saw The Good, The Bad and The Ugly split up over two nights and walking to school humming the theme on the day after night one!
aug 16, 2025, 8:38 pm • 2 0 • view
Teletunes was great!
aug 17, 2025, 9:04 pm • 2 0 • view
Ah yes I remember the TVs with 2 knobs (VHF/UHF). Johnny Carson was always on one of them, eventually.
aug 16, 2025, 6:21 pm • 3 0 • view
UK used one, Ireland used the other, if you lived in Northern Ireland you could buy a dual standard TV that picked up both and you had *6* whole channels!
aug 16, 2025, 7:22 pm • 2 0 • view
we had some UHF and VHF Canadian stations! (Buffalo)
aug 16, 2025, 6:09 pm • 4 0 • view
I do not have a DAB radio, currently my analogue one´s playing a close private TV station called #RadioSeefunk, previously we´d known the DJs and had visited them at the studio often, back in the late 1980s/early 1990s, the station was founded in 1987. 😂😂😂
aug 16, 2025, 9:38 pm • 0 0 • view
Oh my, our TVs already had the antennas inside, at least from the times I remember them, I was born in 1971. Cute kitty. But only to mention it, I still use analogue radio with wire antenna. Depending on the weather, I have to throw it into another direction... 😍😍😍
aug 16, 2025, 9:36 pm • 0 0 • view
They still exist too lmao Yes im poor who doesn't have cable. 🤷♀️ They're a bit more modernized now tho but if you break an antenna off by accident tinfoil for sure still works 🤪
aug 16, 2025, 6:36 pm • 7 0 • view
I know it well. My family didn't have cable until the mid-1990s.
aug 16, 2025, 6:16 pm • 7 0 • view
We first got cable was summer of 1989. First time I ever watched CNN was to see its reporting of the Loma Prieta earthquake in San Francisco in the fall. Our son wanted to move to San Francisco even at 14 and seeing the devastation frightened me.
aug 16, 2025, 6:48 pm • 4 0 • view
It was scary, not gonna lie.
aug 16, 2025, 6:50 pm • 2 0 • view
The first reporting on that earthquake that I actually saw was on...ESPN. They were in town covering the World Series, of course, and they were some of the first to get their cameras online. This is an interesting look back at it: www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0oG...
aug 16, 2025, 7:20 pm • 3 0 • view
and if you'd rather read something than watch a video, this is good too: www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/...
aug 16, 2025, 7:39 pm • 2 0 • view
When I was growing up, we had a younger sibling hold the antenna so we wouldn't lose the signal. Siblings also served as great remotes. We had to go to my aunt's to see Wizard of Oz in color because we only had B&W tv.
aug 16, 2025, 9:45 pm • 1 0 • view
Also rabbit ears :3
aug 16, 2025, 5:55 pm • 22 0 • view
All the shows were in Black & White...and, in our market, the three channels (ABC, CBS, NBC) signed OFF the air and went to "snow" at about 11:00pm (after the National Anthem).
aug 16, 2025, 7:56 pm • 3 0 • view
And from the looks of it, the TV is probably black and white.
aug 16, 2025, 10:45 pm • 2 0 • view
Also referred to as "rabbit ears" due to the designs of some of them.
aug 17, 2025, 3:35 am • 0 0 • view
Where's the tin-foil?
aug 16, 2025, 9:26 pm • 0 0 • view
Occasionally it would happen that you would touch the antenna in a way that the picture came in, and would go out if you let go. So, we'd stand in whatever position required to get a picture. 1 hand on the antenna, 1 in the air, head to the side, standing on one foot, whatever it took
aug 16, 2025, 8:27 pm • 1 0 • view
Thats like the remotes at one time was attached to a cable lol
aug 16, 2025, 6:37 pm • 3 0 • view
And the channels were FREE!
aug 16, 2025, 8:25 pm • 1 0 • view
Dear olds, We're aware of old technology because we grew up watching old cartoons. Signed, a young
aug 16, 2025, 7:01 pm • 1 0 • view
BUT IT TOLD YOU THE TIME AND PLAYED AM RADIO TOO...YIPPEE
aug 16, 2025, 8:51 pm • 1 0 • view
I was at an antique & craft fair yesterday at Allaire State Park and there was so much cool stuff. But there was a TV from the 1940s. I was obsessed. It took everything in me to not get it a it was way over my budget. But so cool.
aug 17, 2025, 10:33 am • 0 0 • view
This is making me remember a friend I had when I was a little girl in the early 90s. They were a teen and told me that they'd had a friend once who had a cat who liked to sleep on top of the TV and they'd prop the aerial up against him because it was JUST the right angle for the best reception. xD
aug 16, 2025, 6:12 pm • 52 2 • view
😆
aug 16, 2025, 6:18 pm • 15 0 • view
Win win. Our cats spread themselves in pole position in front of the open fire. Then we’d smell fur singeing. Yes, occasional sparks would land on them. No animals were harmed!
aug 16, 2025, 9:43 pm • 1 0 • view
Cat-tenna
aug 16, 2025, 7:39 pm • 4 0 • view
I was young enough not to ask further questions, but I assume the cat was either old enough to not move much or they'd reposition the aerial every time the cat did move. xD
aug 16, 2025, 7:41 pm • 3 0 • view
🤣
aug 16, 2025, 6:42 pm • 1 0 • view
And those TVs had vacuum tubes inside; they'd get nice & warm so the tops of such TVs were great napping spots for cats >^..^< Such a sad day when my old Zenith finally gave up the ghost (just under 20 years old but my first Zenith lasted over 25 years!) New microchip/PCB TVs just ain't the same.
aug 16, 2025, 8:06 pm • 3 0 • view
Since my cats would be sad about the old Zenith's napping spot being gone I quickly cobbled together a box to go around the new flatscreen TV with masonite pegboard sides & wood frame (w/ a thick plywood top, as several of my cats are chonkers, lol) wide enough that the cats could nap on top >^..^<
aug 16, 2025, 8:25 pm • 2 0 • view
In case anyone was wondering, here's a pic of the aforementioned boxed-in TV (sitting on top of the aforementioned first Zenith which has been repurposed as a TV stand with shelving for the VHS/DVD VCR & the Blu-ray player & some discs) with one of my cats blissfully asleep on top >^..^<
aug 16, 2025, 8:50 pm • 5 1 • view
🥰
aug 17, 2025, 7:24 am • 0 0 • view
Ours was on the roof. There was a dial to adjust it by the tv. Trying to get it just right was an art. And I still remember the noise it made. Kinda like the OG modem sound, something only the olds will ever know.
aug 16, 2025, 6:47 pm • 3 0 • view
Then came rabbit ears
aug 16, 2025, 6:19 pm • 3 0 • view
Ours was on the roof but the "move it around" thing still applied, particularly in certain weather. My dad occasionally sent me up there to "tune" in the horse racing and I had to stay up there and keep it oriented till the event was over.
aug 16, 2025, 6:30 pm • 2 0 • view
No it wasn't, AI bot, it was called an 'aerial' or a 'rabbits ears'.
aug 16, 2025, 8:53 pm • 1 0 • view
I take it the majority of your personal interactions are positive
aug 16, 2025, 9:05 pm • 97 0 • view
Zero of zero?
aug 16, 2025, 9:07 pm • 16 0 • view
what
aug 17, 2025, 3:50 am • 0 0 • view
It was an antennae, but lovely to see a bot name itself. (Learn what synonyms are before you make more of an ass out of yourself, honey)
aug 17, 2025, 2:07 am • 1 0 • view
Does it matter? “Whojawothamacallit” whilst pointing at it works.
aug 16, 2025, 9:09 pm • 6 0 • view
antenna or rabbit ears. Never heard of it being called aerial in the southern United States
aug 16, 2025, 11:29 pm • 0 0 • view
It's called an antenna. Are you always this disagreeable?
aug 17, 2025, 3:05 am • 1 0 • view
We called it an antenna. Why do you think using different words for things than you do makes someone a bot?
aug 16, 2025, 10:09 pm • 4 0 • view
That doesn’t even look like what I grew up calling bunny ears
aug 16, 2025, 9:21 pm • 5 0 • view
literally no one I have ever known has ever called it an "aerial," not even my mother who's in her 60s. also they're not a fucking ai bot, a quick glance at their profile would easily tell you that.
aug 16, 2025, 10:32 pm • 2 0 • view
Antenna/aerial is often interchanged as a description of the device, aerials generally receive signals, antennas transmit/receive signals. So all antennas can be aerials, but not all aerials are antennas.
aug 17, 2025, 4:57 am • 0 0 • view
you do realise that there are many different names for things right? that the world is bigger than your own country. We called those antennas here in my nation aswell, both in Swedish and English.
aug 16, 2025, 9:08 pm • 18 1 • view
Aerial if outside Inside: Dual looped, bunny ears Circular, antenna or aerial Twin prongs, all of the above Looked like a miniature version of the one outside, aerial All also known as that fucking piece of shit
aug 16, 2025, 10:08 pm • 3 0 • view
🤣 too true ... remember the static, and when someone knocked the thing off by half a degree and lost the picture 🤣
aug 16, 2025, 10:10 pm • 1 0 • view
Zero people called it “rabbits ears”. Sometimes people called it “rabbit ears” (singular rabbit) as a slang name but everyone knew it was called an antenna. Calling it an aerial was a minor regionalism at best, like calling a sub a “grinder”
aug 16, 2025, 10:06 pm • 3 0 • view
If you don’t know this common English language usage maybe you’re an AI bot
aug 16, 2025, 9:20 pm • 9 0 • view
I'm 46 and we called it all those things. Silly of you to think they're an AI bot as well. First day on here? It's not too late to delete this.
aug 16, 2025, 9:02 pm • 42 0 • view
Well done 😂 Well, not day one, without counting I guess 18 months or so? But since then the influx of generated nothingness on BS has been notable and it's not too late to stop it 😉
aug 16, 2025, 9:06 pm • 1 0 • view
So has aggressive antisocial behavior, though you must've been one of the originators if you've truly been on here that long.
aug 16, 2025, 9:25 pm • 36 0 • view
18 months, 18 followers … yeah, that tracks 🙄
aug 17, 2025, 3:56 pm • 1 0 • view
Who the fuck ever called that shit an "aerial?!" What kind of moonman shit is this?
aug 16, 2025, 9:14 pm • 18 0 • view
🤣 laughed out loud
aug 16, 2025, 9:19 pm • 1 0 • view
Cope
aug 17, 2025, 2:00 am • 0 0 • view
An aerial was that big ass thing on the roof. And I'm old enough to know this with 💯 certainty.
aug 16, 2025, 9:16 pm • 20 0 • view
This. Antennae on the device, aerial is the ugly thing on the roof.
aug 16, 2025, 9:28 pm • 10 0 • view
Hot take, i think it looks cool
aug 16, 2025, 10:54 pm • 1 0 • view
They kind of a rarity now, I can see it neat now. I still have one on my roof because I can't be arsed climbing up there and taking it down - it's 7ft tall and weighs like 80lbs lol
aug 16, 2025, 11:13 pm • 3 0 • view
even when they were more common 15ish years ago. i thought they looked like sophisticated astronomical tools that could measure space frequencies or something (i mean technically...)
aug 16, 2025, 11:16 pm • 3 0 • view
Clown.
aug 17, 2025, 8:15 am • 0 0 • view
Aerial? Where are you from? That’s the antenna.
aug 16, 2025, 9:03 pm • 34 0 • view
guessing they're a Brit
aug 16, 2025, 9:05 pm • 2 0 • view
Certified midwesterner here. That’s the antenna. If I heard someone call it the “aerial” I would assume they were trying to be fancy.
aug 16, 2025, 9:05 pm • 34 0 • view
I think it's a British/American thing
aug 16, 2025, 9:06 pm • 9 0 • view
Possibly (not British but I get your point)
aug 16, 2025, 9:07 pm • 0 0 • view
I'm british and my grandparents called it the aerial
aug 16, 2025, 9:10 pm • 5 0 • view
Same
aug 17, 2025, 1:37 am • 0 0 • view
My grandpa would have called it an aerial, but he flew
aug 17, 2025, 1:59 am • 0 0 • view
The funny thing is that this could just be one of those little regional terminology discussions where we compare notes about our respective vocabularies, but for some reason dmb0058 had to throw in an “ai bot” pejorative out of nowhere
aug 17, 2025, 2:07 am • 7 0 • view
Well they're a dickhead so...
aug 17, 2025, 2:08 am • 1 0 • view
The aerial was outside. Ya know. In the *air*. That's the antenna. It may or may not be connected to an aerial.
aug 17, 2025, 3:07 am • 0 0 • view
I grew up in the midwest and only knew of “antenna” and “rabbit ears” until I watched _Female Trouble_ and heard Baltimore-dwelling Divine threaten to whip her child with a car aerial.
aug 16, 2025, 9:41 pm • 2 0 • view
Next you'll be criticizing Americans' use of 'parking lot' instead of 'car park' or 'underwear' instead of 'knickers'.
aug 17, 2025, 4:17 pm • 0 0 • view
What the fuck is the matter with you, Mr No Picture Lettersandnumbername? It's a fucking antenna and Cats of Yore isn't ai or a bot. How can you be wrong so many times with so few characters?
aug 16, 2025, 9:51 pm • 8 0 • view
🤪🤪🤪😤😤😤😤 Stay away from highly charhed environments Mr "Lightning Rod" 🤣🤣🤣 What were your parents thinking? Fucking hell ...🤣
aug 16, 2025, 9:56 pm • 0 0 • view
Do your friends call you dmb0058? Because mine call me Lightning. It's a nickname.
aug 16, 2025, 10:01 pm • 0 0 • view
So. Let's just see if I have this straight: you tell people they're wrong when they're right and refuse to acknowledge it even after you've been told multiple times, you accuse people of being an IA bot when their not and don't apologize for that, and you don't understand nicknames?
aug 16, 2025, 10:00 pm • 9 0 • view
I find it suspicious that mister "everyone is a bot" doesn't recognise such a well known cat-posting account. Like, CoY was well established in the Other Place before the shift to here.
aug 16, 2025, 10:18 pm • 5 0 • view
The British are the worst
aug 16, 2025, 10:03 pm • 0 0 • view
Maybe in the UK but here in the Midwest we just called them antennas. Sometimes bunny ears but usually just antennas. Feckin weirdo.
aug 16, 2025, 9:05 pm • 8 0 • view
Even in the UK you'd often hear "antennae" for the ones that were two extensible prongs (i.e. more like antennae). But the one on top of your house that was just a single unit was always the aerial.
aug 16, 2025, 9:12 pm • 6 0 • view
Being, like, up in the air and all.
aug 17, 2025, 9:51 am • 0 0 • view
Never heard of colloquialisms have you? Cause that's what bunny ears and aerial is to an antenna
aug 16, 2025, 9:37 pm • 0 0 • view
So, um... how's them social skills coming along?
aug 16, 2025, 9:21 pm • 21 0 • view
dude i guess you're too dumb to realize that not everyone is exactly like you.
aug 17, 2025, 1:12 am • 0 0 • view
What the fuck is a rabbit
aug 16, 2025, 9:36 pm • 1 0 • view
No idea where they got the name🐰
aug 16, 2025, 9:59 pm • 0 0 • view
Not in the US, sweetie. They were antennas.
aug 16, 2025, 9:22 pm • 15 0 • view
lmao what the fuck is an aerial
aug 16, 2025, 10:20 pm • 0 0 • view
Don't act like a Br*tish person. It's unbecoming. That's an antenna
aug 16, 2025, 9:14 pm • 8 0 • view
What an odd thing to get worked up about
aug 16, 2025, 9:08 pm • 27 0 • view
How very confidently uppity you are
aug 16, 2025, 11:35 pm • 0 0 • view
aug 16, 2025, 10:21 pm • 12 0 • view
😊
aug 16, 2025, 10:22 pm • 0 0 • view
Yes it was, asswipe
aug 16, 2025, 11:19 pm • 2 0 • view
You speak English bot, or just shite? 🤣🤣
aug 16, 2025, 11:21 pm • 0 0 • view
Beep boop. Go fuck yourself
aug 18, 2025, 6:19 am • 1 0 • view
Speaking from experience, sometimes the youngest sibling was tasked with holding the antenna awkwardly while standing behind the TV so the rest of the family could watch.
aug 17, 2025, 5:00 pm • 0 0 • view
Wire coat hanger!
aug 17, 2025, 4:57 am • 0 0 • view
i miss real tvs. tvs used to be furniture, upon which a cat could sit amongst framed portraits of family members. portraits taken by professional photographers in photography studios. signed, an even older old
aug 16, 2025, 6:30 pm • 8 0 • view
I had a cat who puked into the vent holes on the tv while she was laying up there.🙀
aug 17, 2025, 12:47 am • 2 0 • view
oh no!!
aug 17, 2025, 1:13 am • 2 0 • view
Rabbit Ears
aug 16, 2025, 10:21 pm • 0 0 • view
Love it!
aug 17, 2025, 10:41 am • 0 0 • view
We got 2 channels.
aug 16, 2025, 7:51 pm • 0 0 • view
My dad’s wife mentions this every time my dad talks about the TV. I watch him lose his mind and/or go virtually comatose when the comments about “them rabbit ears” start. I call it “The Beverly Hillbillies Television Conniption.”
aug 16, 2025, 7:34 pm • 2 0 • view
Dear hoomans, That wire thing on top of the TV was called a cat toy, and you'd often have to move it all around to attract the attention of your cat so they would start playing with it, giving you the opportunity to refill their food bowls with tasty snacks. Signed, A cat. 😸
aug 16, 2025, 6:02 pm • 35 0 • view
I remember the antenna , a fond memory from my childhood.
aug 17, 2025, 7:48 am • 1 0 • view
We had the roof mounted antenna since they were much better at picking up the signals. I remember Dad and his brother up on the roof for a couple hours, making sure it got all of the two channels available.
aug 16, 2025, 10:15 pm • 1 0 • view
Wabbit Ears...
aug 16, 2025, 10:21 pm • 1 0 • view
Oh, the days when it was discovered, reception only improved AS LONG AS someone was actually standing next to the tv touching the antenna...
aug 16, 2025, 6:57 pm • 0 0 • view
Also, how you can get free tv now without paying streamers for the same thing www.tvchannellists.com/w/List_of_ov...
aug 16, 2025, 7:32 pm • 0 0 • view
Sat hours in the most uncomfortable position with an antenna to watch BBC in black&white bc i wanted to see the Shakespeare plays. Good old times 😉
aug 16, 2025, 6:03 pm • 26 1 • view
Human closest to machine changes channel.
aug 16, 2025, 5:55 pm • 47 0 • view
Human CHILD closest to machine. That's why they had us
aug 16, 2025, 6:32 pm • 57 0 • view
That’s why parents had kids.
aug 16, 2025, 7:54 pm • 7 0 • view
That’s why parents had kids.
aug 16, 2025, 7:54 pm • 0 0 • view
Pass the tin foil please...
aug 16, 2025, 6:40 pm • 6 0 • view
Sometimes (a lot of times!) when you let go of it the adjustment went out of whack.
aug 16, 2025, 6:57 pm • 1 0 • view
Better yet, twist an end of a wire to the antenna, then run the wire up to a curtain rod. Now you're cookin! 🤣
aug 17, 2025, 9:25 am • 0 0 • view
I remember
aug 16, 2025, 6:08 pm • 4 0 • view
Ooooh and as a kid having to stand there holding it at a certain angle because you let go the channel goes. 🤣🤣
aug 16, 2025, 6:10 pm • 5 0 • view
Ah ! What's up doc? Ears
aug 16, 2025, 8:19 pm • 0 0 • view
Rabbit Ears Stand on one foot and lean to the left with tin foil at the antenna ends while holding it at arms length 😀 To watch black & white TV What memories
aug 17, 2025, 8:54 am • 0 0 • view
1952 the year I saw the coronation of QE2 on a,(maybe) 10 inch Dumont tv. Everything was live then, tapes not invented. I was about 6 when a Video Ranger kicked over a prop ( a mountain I think) and he looked at the camera and said *oh fuck!" Remember Uncle Miltie too.
aug 16, 2025, 9:21 pm • 1 0 • view
I still use antennas 📡
aug 17, 2025, 10:45 am • 1 0 • view
I remember that thing. And I was the remote control…🤷🏼♀️
aug 17, 2025, 3:56 am • 0 0 • view
You kid, but I literally had to explain this to someone a month ago who discovered the only way they could watch a particular game of sportsball was to OTA it. They had to be told how to put the antenna on the TV, find the input, and adjust the aerial to stabilize the signal.
aug 16, 2025, 9:40 pm • 1 0 • view
My grandmother used to unplug the TV during rain storms in case there was lightning 🙂
aug 16, 2025, 6:48 pm • 3 0 • view
Dear old, That antenna, I was the one who had to move it around and stand there when my older brothers said "Right.... there. Good. Now stay like that." Another old.
aug 17, 2025, 10:47 am • 0 0 • view
Ah, ‘’fond” memories 😂
aug 17, 2025, 12:44 pm • 1 0 • view
My old job, monitoring our network transmitted signals was preferred. A proper arial often broke, so a long bit of solder bent into funny shapes was the business, stuffed in the aerial socket. Solder broken though too much bending, run off a new length off the reel, start the funny shapes again.
aug 16, 2025, 8:48 pm • 0 0 • view
What a beautiful kitty!
aug 16, 2025, 6:40 pm • 3 0 • view
Aluminum Foil ... Where's the Aluminum Foil ?
aug 17, 2025, 3:55 am • 1 0 • view
And does anyone remember having to be the one to hold the antenna just so, yet out of range to see it? 📺👀😁
aug 16, 2025, 7:39 pm • 2 1 • view
And if you let go of it & walked back to your seat, the TV may go back out of focus. So you'd go back to the antenna & keep trying; maybe letting go when it was slightly fuzzy, hoping it would tune in better when you walked away. Nope? Try some wire hangers. Still no? Hold antenna & sit next to TV.
aug 16, 2025, 7:15 pm • 1 0 • view
You were posh. We had a coat hanger!
aug 17, 2025, 7:44 am • 0 0 • view
Ah, memories of having only 4 channels.
aug 17, 2025, 12:38 pm • 0 0 • view
Thhen there was a big pole outside the house if you lived in the county & got like 3 channels if like, you had to hand rotated. But if the neigborhs were watchin' porn it over rode family hour on your 3 in Noarthern California. My kids got real good at dominos, poke & blackjack on those nights.
aug 17, 2025, 12:19 am • 1 0 • view
Occasionally, your father would make you hold on to the antenna so that his important baseball game would come in more clearly.
aug 16, 2025, 8:36 pm • 1 0 • view
Id go back in time to when SM was not a thing And we had a 30 million more birds in a heartbeat
aug 16, 2025, 8:03 pm • 0 0 • view
Yep we even had to get up to change the channel 🙄
aug 17, 2025, 12:02 am • 3 0 • view
I was clearing out a senior home recently and found an old tv with an antenna like this.
aug 17, 2025, 7:30 pm • 1 0 • view
Or if you’re a gen X or boomer kid, sometimes you had to stand there holding the antennae just so, while the adults enjoyed their show.
aug 16, 2025, 10:05 pm • 2 0 • view
I remember it like it was yesterday.
aug 16, 2025, 7:33 pm • 0 0 • view
You failed to mention that adornment with odd manipulations of aluminum foil was important in some households. More fashion statement than signal enhancement in my experience.
aug 16, 2025, 6:51 pm • 0 0 • view
Was the cat required to boost the signal
aug 16, 2025, 7:37 pm • 1 0 • view
Sometimes, if you were the oldest kid, you got to stand there holding the antenna at just the right angle for everyone else to see the show. Signed, an even older
aug 16, 2025, 6:28 pm • 3 0 • view
Along those lines, when I was a kid and the original Star Trek came on we had to go outside and rotate the outdoor antenna because none of the local stations carried it, had to get the signal from Nashville
aug 16, 2025, 7:33 pm • 5 0 • view
We were in Detroit area, so Windsor channels were good. For Toledo, some juggling was needed. Getting a side view of the screen while I stood on one foot 😐
aug 17, 2025, 1:07 pm • 2 0 • view
And sometimes wrapping tin foil on it helped some stations come in better (for us it was the Canadian stations since we were close enough to the border to pick them up)
aug 16, 2025, 5:57 pm • 18 0 • view
Where's the foil😂
aug 17, 2025, 12:13 pm • 0 0 • view
Some were on the roof and in a violent storm your father would get the ladder out to adjust it so you could watch Rocky and Bullwinkle
aug 16, 2025, 11:10 pm • 1 0 • view
My mother wouldn’t let my dad do that. He was already blind and she didn’t trust one of us to be his eyes when there might be lightening. Tv went out, we’d listen to a talking book or have enforced family fun, i.e. game night. My most hated nights. I’d rather listen to or read a book!
aug 16, 2025, 11:45 pm • 2 0 • view
😂 the exterior antennas were fun. IF nothing came in, in short order, someone had to go outside and make sure it was moving🤣
aug 16, 2025, 8:24 pm • 1 0 • view
Flip, flip, flip. Turn dial a fraction of a hair. Flip, flip, flip other direction. Lather, rinse, repeat.
aug 17, 2025, 9:24 am • 0 0 • view
We had to hang one from the lamp behind the tv to get more than one channel
aug 16, 2025, 6:09 pm • 7 0 • view
And sometimes you had one of your children hold it while standing in an awkward position to catch the signal 😁
aug 17, 2025, 12:12 am • 1 0 • view
We called them rabbit ears..
aug 17, 2025, 1:07 pm • 0 0 • view
And there were only three channels, and they all turned off at night
aug 16, 2025, 6:44 pm • 13 0 • view
Midnight sign off with the National anthem. There were some shows on in the 50s during the day that were only 15 minutes long.
aug 16, 2025, 9:58 pm • 5 0 • view
The BBC used to play the National Anthem at the end of the day's broadcasting. Closedown was usually around midnight in the 1970s - earlier if watching BBC2.
aug 16, 2025, 9:30 pm • 1 0 • view
I touched that EXACT same model of antenna, so many times. It would easily stay in any position you slid or rotated it into, EXCEPT THE ONE WHERE THE RECEPTION WAS PERFECT. Whatever that configuration happened to be, on any given day, that one would never stick.
aug 17, 2025, 6:58 am • 0 0 • view
We also often made "wings"out of aluminum foil that we attached for better reception.
aug 17, 2025, 3:29 am • 0 0 • view
What You mean was called and used to, that's how I get a TV signal still
aug 16, 2025, 6:33 pm • 0 0 • view
When dinosaurs roamed the earth and we lived in caves.
aug 17, 2025, 7:14 am • 2 0 • view
And we had to walk 5 miles to school. In the snow. Uphill, both ways.
aug 17, 2025, 7:18 am • 1 0 • view
Commonly known as rabbit ears. 🤗
aug 16, 2025, 7:41 pm • 0 0 • view
Try to catch the signal of the only 3 stations you had
aug 16, 2025, 6:21 pm • 5 0 • view
Where’s the foil and the youngest sibling “adjusting” it?
aug 16, 2025, 9:31 pm • 0 0 • view
And if that wasn’t enough you added tin foil to it.
aug 16, 2025, 7:48 pm • 1 0 • view
I am watching TV with one right now.
aug 16, 2025, 6:08 pm • 10 0 • view
Thought of trying that but the valley Im in precludes receiving an adequate signal.
aug 16, 2025, 6:19 pm • 3 0 • view
My phone has a signal that can pick up YTTV and other online streamers.
aug 16, 2025, 6:23 pm • 6 0 • view
Best way to use that signal is to use a cable to connect to my TV to avoid a lot of data use outside the phone.
aug 16, 2025, 7:22 pm • 1 0 • view
My cell picks up the subway engineers when I am talking to my son!
aug 16, 2025, 6:32 pm • 4 0 • view
Interesting. Is he moonlighting?🤔😀
aug 16, 2025, 10:32 pm • 1 0 • view
Lol no he lives in a tiny apartment in NYC next to sn elevated subway track. He can pretty much shout out to people exiting the subway, there's a stop right there.
aug 17, 2025, 3:18 am • 1 0 • view
Rabbit ears...❤️❤️
aug 16, 2025, 9:36 pm • 0 0 • view
Don’t forget the crunched up aluminum foil.
aug 16, 2025, 10:26 pm • 0 0 • view
Those were the days! Remember the tenarotor? You were moving on up if you had one of those. 😂
aug 16, 2025, 7:22 pm • 0 0 • view
My dad made a late career living installing and maintaining rotors that were installed in people's homes to turn ariel antennas on the roof to catch the best signal ❤️
aug 16, 2025, 10:33 pm • 2 0 • view
Occasionally we had to stand and hold it for my dad during games. 😁
aug 17, 2025, 12:07 am • 0 0 • view
or add tin foil ....
aug 17, 2025, 12:14 am • 0 0 • view
Pre-remote days too. When someone would have to get up and change the channel. 😂
aug 16, 2025, 8:38 pm • 1 0 • view
And we were the "remote"! Lol
aug 16, 2025, 10:05 pm • 1 0 • view
Or your Dad would climb up on the roof with an antenna on a pole and swivel it around while you stayed in the lounge room shouting "Better! Better! No, worse! Better!" through the window.
aug 17, 2025, 7:43 am • 0 0 • view
and if you still got bad reception, add a metal coat hanger attached with a wooden clothes peg.
aug 17, 2025, 7:38 am • 1 0 • view
What's a tv?
aug 17, 2025, 12:36 am • 0 0 • view
This TV antenna scans for signals once an hour. (See my pinned post for context.) #MechanicalArt
aug 16, 2025, 6:55 pm • 0 0 • view
You call *that* "old"? We listened to stories on the radio and the pictures were provided by our own brains!!
aug 16, 2025, 9:41 pm • 0 0 • view
And sometimes you had to adorn it with tin foil to improve reception.
aug 16, 2025, 8:21 pm • 1 0 • view
Little kitty was so desperately trying to stay awake to watch Ed Sullivan but just couldn't make it.
aug 17, 2025, 12:43 am • 1 0 • view
Cuz Topo Gugio was a guest? 😄
aug 17, 2025, 2:36 am • 0 0 • view
Or them new-fangled rock-n-rollers called "The Bugs" or something like that.
aug 17, 2025, 3:33 am • 0 0 • view
…..you mean one of those google box things? 😄
aug 17, 2025, 3:50 am • 0 0 • view
AND you had to get up to change the channel. AND you could go to the bathroom during a commercial. Couldn't put it on pause.
aug 17, 2025, 3:58 am • 0 0 • view
And we had to get off the couch to change the channel!! No remotes lol!
aug 17, 2025, 1:32 am • 3 0 • view
My husband and I were talking about this the other day. We're boomers, we lived it.
aug 16, 2025, 8:00 pm • 0 0 • view
Some people would put aluminum foil around the antenna rods as it supposedly improved reception.
aug 17, 2025, 12:35 am • 1 0 • view
We used Saran Wrap…..the signal can’t penetrate tin foil. 😶 🤣
aug 17, 2025, 2:37 am • 1 0 • view
Rabbit ears And or Bow
aug 16, 2025, 9:32 pm • 0 0 • view
But eventually you got an a reasonably watchable picture.😁
aug 17, 2025, 3:35 am • 0 0 • view
Wire coat hangars employed often.
aug 17, 2025, 6:55 am • 0 0 • view
If you were really desperate you'd extend it using bunched up aluminum foil. Oh boy. That's the stuff.
aug 16, 2025, 5:57 pm • 69 0 • view
wire hanger twisted all to hell
aug 16, 2025, 5:59 pm • 60 0 • view
🤣😂🤣🤣 could make a whole new antenna outta tinfoil!
aug 17, 2025, 7:19 am • 2 0 • view
#foil-flags
aug 16, 2025, 11:30 pm • 0 0 • view
Bent fork jammed into the female end of an antenna cable. Got that signal nice and steady.
aug 16, 2025, 8:04 pm • 2 0 • view
and people had children because there were no remote controls
aug 16, 2025, 9:36 pm • 0 0 • view
This was worse. Outside TV antenna attached to a pole that had to be rotated by hands to pick up channels. It took three of us, one to rotate, one to yell to my Dad, and my Dad who sat on his ass and said, "OK!"
aug 16, 2025, 11:48 pm • 2 0 • view
Dear youngs, 😅 that boxy thing under "the antenna" is a (portable!) device for watching (monochrome) television (TV), not a computer monitor. It has mechanical channel controls on the right side and three vertical slider controls (likely volume, brightness, and contrast). 🤓
aug 16, 2025, 9:03 pm • 3 0 • view
But yours isn't wrapped in foil!
aug 16, 2025, 7:13 pm • 0 0 • view
🤣🤣👏👏I bought a Roku a couple of years ago, so had to get an indoor antenna for local stations.
aug 16, 2025, 7:02 pm • 1 0 • view
Don’t forget the tin foil 😁
aug 16, 2025, 7:59 pm • 0 0 • view
Two antennas one vhf the other uhf. Oh crap i'm old too😂
aug 16, 2025, 6:42 pm • 1 0 • view
Oh what a glorious baby!!
aug 16, 2025, 7:22 pm • 1 0 • view
An inside antennae? Luxury! Ours was outside, so someone had to stand at the front door and shout out to the antennae operator to keep turning until the picture was clear enough through the ‘snow’. It was like operating a land periscope. Also, magpies attacked us at certain times.
aug 16, 2025, 9:21 pm • 0 0 • view
Good times! Children were remotes and learned how to adjust the antenna while Daddy gave instructions. Saturday morning cartoons started around 7 a.m and lasted until noonish or until Daddy sent us out to play so he could watch his shows.
aug 17, 2025, 12:00 pm • 0 0 • view
Or stand there and hold it!
aug 16, 2025, 7:49 pm • 0 0 • view
Don't forget the aluminum foil crunched on the ends!!!
aug 21, 2025, 3:58 pm • 0 0 • view
We had the one that rotated
aug 16, 2025, 8:17 pm • 0 0 • view
Also called rabbit ears on occasion. Ah the old tube sounds. Back then I was the remote and would ‘twist’ the knob to change the channel for my parents. I kind of miss other forms of input other than buttons.
aug 16, 2025, 6:35 pm • 3 0 • view
...Or have your kid brother go hold out to one side so the picture would stay good
aug 16, 2025, 10:36 pm • 0 0 • view
Rabbit ears.
aug 16, 2025, 6:34 pm • 0 0 • view
AKA rabbit ears.
aug 16, 2025, 9:18 pm • 0 0 • view
antenna mentioned
aug 16, 2025, 6:03 pm • 4 0 • view
Or slap the TV a couple of times
aug 17, 2025, 3:39 am • 0 0 • view
Sometimes aluminum foil helped with the reception.
aug 16, 2025, 7:01 pm • 1 0 • view
If you were the youngest you'd have to stand there and hold it
aug 16, 2025, 9:12 pm • 0 0 • view
What? Why is it on top of a microwave?
aug 16, 2025, 6:32 pm • 5 0 • view
😆
aug 16, 2025, 6:34 pm • 3 0 • view
Somehow, that reminds me of when my hand-me-down big floor model TV wore out, it was too big and heavy for me to get it out of my apartment and disposed of, somewhere. But it was a perfect "stand" for the little second hand TV I then got. (In my early 20s, in the early 70s.)
aug 16, 2025, 11:46 pm • 1 0 • view
Also that tiny TV weighed 2000 pounds
aug 16, 2025, 8:30 pm • 1 0 • view
Oddly with all the cord cutting from cable antennas kinda made a comeback awhile ago. But they are different. Most are a letter sized plastic box rather than the rabbit ears we used to have.
aug 16, 2025, 5:57 pm • 8 0 • view
The big, plastic, panels are decent at picking up UHF channels, which is where a lot of digital stations ended up. Only about four of my local ~30 digital channels are still on VHF.
aug 16, 2025, 6:58 pm • 2 0 • view
I'm in Toronto and I guess because we're in a big bowl it's ideal for antenna use. Tbh I mostly get dvd from the local library but I think I got 8 or so channels on the antenna and I'm on the ground floor.
aug 16, 2025, 8:37 pm • 2 0 • view
I checked on one of those online sites and that sounds about right. Looks like one of the nearby channels is still VHF. www.tvfool.com?option=com_w...
aug 16, 2025, 9:01 pm • 1 0 • view
You forgot the 1960's childhood ritual of "No Stand right there and hold it". Especially in rural areas.
aug 16, 2025, 9:02 pm • 0 0 • view
Don't forget the foil!
aug 16, 2025, 6:06 pm • 22 0 • view
There were occasional times when in order to watch something I really didn't want to miss (youngs: when it was on it was on, no saving for later) I had to stand there with my body serving as an additional reflector till conditions improved or the show was over. Fortunately that didn't happen often!
aug 16, 2025, 6:12 pm • 28 0 • view
Can confirm, sometimes had to hold the antenna and stand in the right place.
aug 16, 2025, 8:33 pm • 13 0 • view
Sometimes, we had to stand there with one hand gripping the antenna, and the other waving around, until the static on Dad's ballgame cleared up.
aug 16, 2025, 6:14 pm • 11 0 • view
I remember. LOL
aug 16, 2025, 7:35 pm • 1 0 • view
I’m TV antenna old. I remember when we got a rotor to automatically redirect the antenna (point SW for CBS, SE for NBC, Etc). Life changing!
aug 17, 2025, 12:01 pm • 0 0 • view
Yes two different kinds, First one for VHF. Later, what year?, you needed another one, like a loop, for UHF channels
aug 16, 2025, 9:00 pm • 1 0 • view
This was especially true with the UHF channels. You had to fine-tune those. 🤔
aug 17, 2025, 12:29 pm • 1 0 • view
And don't forget "Married with Children" and their 'assume Fox network viewing positions' gag:
aug 16, 2025, 6:52 pm • 9 1 • view
Still use one for sports. Constantly running to the data limits on our internet package means OTA helps mitigate that when possible.
aug 16, 2025, 6:18 pm • 2 0 • view
Nice!
aug 16, 2025, 6:19 pm • 2 0 • view
I then used the internal coaxial wiring such that all our TVs get fed through the same Antenna
aug 16, 2025, 6:20 pm • 1 0 • view
The ol’ rabbit ears. I remember those from the 90s too. The most annoying thing was adjusting them until the image was clear, walking away, only to go back to readjust because your body had turned into a signal booster when you were adjusting it lol.
aug 16, 2025, 7:28 pm • 2 0 • view
Or twisting the knob on the TV just the right way because, stubbornly, it didn't want to go to the proper channel on the designated mark/slot for that channel and only worked on the in-between.
aug 17, 2025, 12:58 am • 3 0 • view
“That should be in a museum!” 🤠
aug 16, 2025, 7:08 pm • 1 0 • view
And You were the remote control 🤣
aug 16, 2025, 6:30 pm • 1 0 • view
Desperately Needs some aluminum foil wrapped around the rabbit ears to improve reception! If you really wanted decent reception where we lived you needed a working Directional TV Antenna on your roof. Best thing ever was when we got Cable in our neighborhood!
aug 16, 2025, 6:18 pm • 5 0 • view
Rabbit ears
aug 16, 2025, 6:37 pm • 1 0 • view
...you're gonna have to explain what a TV is
aug 17, 2025, 4:44 am • 0 0 • view
it still works!!!
aug 16, 2025, 7:51 pm • 0 0 • view
Yo!
aug 16, 2025, 8:30 pm • 0 0 • view
Our antenna was on a pole outside. On Dallas night my parents sent me out to turn the pole until the channel came in, yelling out the window.🤣
aug 16, 2025, 9:06 pm • 2 0 • view
sometimes even an old coat hanger would do
aug 16, 2025, 6:35 pm • 4 0 • view
Right on. And sometimes one sibling had to go outside to adjust a tall antenna to watch a certain channel.
aug 16, 2025, 9:29 pm • 0 0 • view
aug 16, 2025, 10:49 pm • 1 0 • view
I saw an ad a few years back for a telco selling a TV/internet package that proudly boasted "Wireless TV" as a modern miracle
aug 16, 2025, 6:02 pm • 6 0 • view
I honestly don't understand why more people don't have a hookup! They still sell tv antenna, and you can still get basic cable (honestly even a little more) for the one time price!
aug 17, 2025, 12:17 pm • 0 0 • view
Oh I remember! 🐈
aug 16, 2025, 8:10 pm • 0 0 • view
And programming was over at a certain time. Then there was the test pattern.
aug 16, 2025, 6:45 pm • 10 0 • view
And the National Anthem played.
aug 16, 2025, 6:47 pm • 7 0 • view
Oh yeah, I forgot that.
aug 16, 2025, 7:53 pm • 4 0 • view
Oh, and we made those place mats for mom at the local library arts & craft sessions during elementary school summer breaks.
aug 17, 2025, 12:37 am • 1 0 • view
The antenna was also referred to as "rabbit ears" and television stations used to "sign-off" around 1:00 A.M. We didn't have cable or 24-hr tv stations.
aug 16, 2025, 6:04 pm • 5 0 • view
Verbal aign off, followed by the National Anthem, then dead air & SMPTE color bars! youtu.be/WgjdQGE0zjM?...
aug 16, 2025, 6:51 pm • 1 0 • view
It's 10 p.m. Do you know where your children are? 40 years later that's kinda scary that was a real thing.
aug 16, 2025, 6:10 pm • 12 1 • view
We got that messaging a lot during the Atlanta Child Murders -- Wayne Williams, serial killer
aug 17, 2025, 1:02 am • 0 0 • view
Let's not forget the tin foil
aug 16, 2025, 8:50 pm • 1 0 • view
Sometimes you became an antenna yourself and had to stand next to the tv.
aug 17, 2025, 2:14 am • 1 0 • view
Here’s an old cat. Looks very friendly. Photo with my grandfather. I’m 63. Picture maybe 75-80 years old.
aug 17, 2025, 12:50 am • 0 0 • view
As the youngest in the family, I often had to stand and hold my hand on it, serving as a human antenna, to get a clearer picture.
aug 17, 2025, 3:12 am • 3 0 • view
Not only did you have to wiggle the antenna, sometimes you had to stand in the right place!
aug 17, 2025, 1:09 am • 1 0 • view
We had to put aluminum foil on the rabbit to enhance the the chance of actually getting a picture…. 1950s
aug 16, 2025, 9:55 pm • 1 0 • view
You may have had to stand up and walk over to the TV to change the 3 or 4 channels who had to choose from.
aug 16, 2025, 7:46 pm • 0 0 • view
Further back than that you had to pound on the TV to get it to quit rolling
aug 16, 2025, 7:47 pm • 1 0 • view
got one of a cat near rabbit ears?
aug 16, 2025, 9:43 pm • 0 0 • view
I remember going out in the back yard and turning the antenna when we changed the channel. Lots of fun i the rain.
aug 17, 2025, 1:09 am • 1 0 • view
My dad set up an indoor control to move an outdoor antenna (big one on a metal pole), presumably with items he got from Radio Shack. It used to make a clacking sound to turn the antenna. 😂
aug 16, 2025, 6:50 pm • 0 0 • view
In the '60s and '70s, most households had rooftop antennas that would need to be adjusted. Being a nimble lad back then, I was called upon to do this until my gadget-loving dad attached the antenna to a rotor that could be adjusted from inside the house.
aug 16, 2025, 7:34 pm • 2 0 • view
I was my dad’s remote control.
aug 16, 2025, 6:00 pm • 20 0 • view
The youngest?
aug 16, 2025, 9:48 pm • 5 0 • view
Middle child.
aug 17, 2025, 2:14 am • 4 0 • view
I distinctly remember owning a black and white television with dials. DIALS
aug 16, 2025, 5:59 pm • 71 0 • view
I was born in 1951. The dials on our Stuart-Warner TV were the size of pancakes. It also included a radio and a record player, which was in a bottom drawer.👍😃
aug 17, 2025, 12:57 pm • 2 0 • view
I remember when we got our first color television. I fell asleep and when I woke up Tiny Tim was singing Tiptoe Through the Tulips on the Tonight Show. It was pretty colorful.
aug 16, 2025, 7:53 pm • 22 1 • view
I was home sick in the 50s watching the B&W TV, when a special came on. They threw a switch to start color broadcasting. I was confused as to why our tv wasn't showing color.
aug 16, 2025, 9:06 pm • 15 1 • view
I saw him perform that song on Laugh In.
aug 16, 2025, 10:58 pm • 2 0 • view
Yes, I remember. Being the youngest, as on another post, not only was I on outside antennae duty, but on dial duty! Looking back, child abuse!
aug 16, 2025, 9:37 pm • 1 0 • view
Ah yes, the dials. They'd often break off and then we had to use a pair of PLIERS to change the channels!
aug 17, 2025, 1:08 pm • 2 0 • view
Thank you for making me feel old, since I remember TVs like this.
aug 16, 2025, 8:11 pm • 0 0 • view
Sometimes you'd wrap that antennae with aluminum foil to catch a better signal.
aug 17, 2025, 10:57 am • 1 0 • view
We live out in a rural area. We had a big goddamn metal antenna on the roof that only came down in the early aughts because we got Dish, and the roof was being replaced. I'm actually looking at getting a new digital one up there so I can run it into the router for local channels again.
aug 16, 2025, 8:31 pm • 0 0 • view
Batman The Animated Series on a grandmother's barely-color TV. Fond memories.
aug 17, 2025, 4:24 am • 1 0 • view
However, role of cat in blocking visual media remains unchanged
aug 16, 2025, 8:49 pm • 3 0 • view
I have a core memory of stop watching a regular show because someone moved the antenna and we couldn't find the channel again
aug 16, 2025, 11:55 pm • 3 0 • view
Oh nooooooo
aug 16, 2025, 11:59 pm • 2 0 • view
And/or, wrap it in aluminum foil.
aug 16, 2025, 6:02 pm • 9 0 • view
Don’t forget the tin foil
aug 16, 2025, 7:16 pm • 2 0 • view
Who remembers this? Stations used to sign off at night, and all you would see was the test pattern. [Wikipedia page entry]
![The Wikipedia page for the Indian-head test pattern used by early TV broadcast stations when they signed off at night. Yes, it was B&W televisions with antennas and shows were not on 24 hours a day. [Le Sigh]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ll7rb5c7rylmrs2vp3orbfyd/bafkreidtfxvhjmhkkg4356jyw732bt6gpr53rrobkqt2xdvz3wzdl6xenq@jpeg)
aug 16, 2025, 6:48 pm • 3 0 • view
I was the youngest son so I was my father's remote
aug 17, 2025, 8:59 pm • 1 0 • view
and if the TV was on the fritz you'd hit it.
aug 16, 2025, 7:42 pm • 0 0 • view
do you remember when you had to make one out of a coat hanger wire?
aug 16, 2025, 8:36 pm • 1 0 • view
I still have rabbit ears. When the internet is down, we get the local channels.
aug 16, 2025, 7:28 pm • 0 0 • view
I can even remember standing by it to hold it in position. Ah, the joys of being the youngest!
aug 16, 2025, 7:14 pm • 0 0 • view
And sometimes, you’d have to stand by the tv and hold it “right there!” long enough for your Granny to view the local weather forecast on the nightly news.
aug 17, 2025, 3:30 am • 0 0 • view
And remotes were very remote.
aug 16, 2025, 6:54 pm • 0 0 • view
And young, usually.
aug 16, 2025, 7:29 pm • 1 0 • view
Don’t tell Spamton. He’ll have an electronic aneurysm.
aug 17, 2025, 2:31 am • 0 0 • view
Also, youngs… This is what phones looked like back in the 1920’s to the 1980’s..
aug 16, 2025, 6:56 pm • 3 0 • view