JOHN KOSMER

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JUST A THOUGHT

We have been in our new home since last June and have not yet ordered TV service. Let me say just say that there are many good things on TV, if you can find time to watch them or make time to find them.
Some people just like being able to say they don’t have TV. As a former TV addict, I am not one of them. Not having TV may be an unfolding trend just like increasing numbers of people do not have land line phones and have opted, instead, for solely using their cell phone.
Every fall I would get that special annual issue of TV Guide with the map of prime time programming. I would chart out all the programs I would watch from 7:30 p.m. until 11 p.m. for all seven days, making sure no time slot was overlooked. The most trouble I had were with shows that aired in the same time slot or ones that overlapped time slots. No video recorders, TIVO, DVR or computers then. You made your decisions and lived with them.
But we live in a different world today. In the golden age of television, prime time shows were produced and sold to the networks – a costly process. Today, in an effort to save money, the airwaves are full of less expensive reality TV, news magazines and other types of “soy” used as cheap filler. When you add to that soy the writer’s strike (with no new episodes for months), it became a perfect storm for giving up TV.
The road to no TV started innocently enough when we tried to get cable from Time Warner. We used to have cable TV and broadband in our last home. Time Warner wanted over $6,000 to run a line to our home – a line they would own for any future use. They said that included a booster they had to install on Route 28. Well, that was about $6,000 more than we were willing to spend, so we declined their offer.
The reports we got about satellite were mixed and you needed a separate satellite connection for broadband. The reports on satellite broadband were mixed too, none coming close to cable’s speed and reception. So we started innocently enough, simply having dial-up and no TV until we were able to sort things out. A funny thing happened. We got used to it. In our last home sometimes the TV would just be on, without our really paying attention to it. Now the silence is quieting.

John Kosmer ranges the Otsego Lake region from his hilltop home outside Fly Creek.

Labels: Columns, John Kosmer, Just a Thought, Opinion