TREotM: The Eighties Previews the “Tens”

Weamp8217ve made it to the Eightiesamp160 Big hair blond jokes and amp8220I want my MTVamp8221Of course it was whole lot more than thatamp160 In the 1980amp8217s cable companiesamp8217 desires to conquer the consumer TV universe then truly dominated by broadcast TV resulted in an explosion of channels and technologies that presaged todayamp8217s parallel explosion in Web services apps and overthetop OTT wannabesamp160 Take a close look at some of the innovations of the decade and youamp8217ll get an interesting overview of the digitaleverything fireworks in the 2010sFor cable the amp821680s action really got going in middecade asIn 1984 Arts ampamp Entertainment Network American Movie Classics Lifetime Television Network all launched amp8211 on cable of course amp8211 seeking new audiencesamp160 Meanwhile in technology Sony introduced the CD playeramp160 In early amp8220Internetamp8221 news Trintex amp8211 a joint venture of CBS IBM and Sears amp8211 was founded in early 1984 it didnamp8217t launch until 1988 after Sears ducked and the name changed to ProdigyIn 1985 More channels launched with Nostalgia TV Discovery by John Hendricks not long after Shark Week opened its jaws Goodlife TV Home Shopping Network InDemand Nick at Nite VH1amp160 In tech news CVC launched QLink which became AOL amp8220Youamp8217ve Got Mailamp8221 amp8211 even a movie got made about it lateramp160 The WELL was launched by Stewart Brand and Larry Brilliantamp160 And an early way way too early push new service debuted courtesy of a partnership of TCI McGrawHill and Telecrafteramp160 In the venture called XPRESS Information Services Inc Telecrafter President Clint Ober and I built a system of global wire services including the first US deals with Chinaamp8217s Xinhua the Soviet Unionamp8217s Tass and 92 other feeds plus 20minute stock quotes from McGrawHill that multiplexed each service uniquely coded each story using key words and combined them into a singular feed distributed via satellite using the vertical blanking interval on Turner Broadcasting Systemamp8217s TBS feed to cable headends from whence it went via coaxial cable to just about every make of personal computersThe technology worked wellamp160 Business executives loved itamp160 Nearly every cable system installed the proper headend equipment to handle itamp160 But XPRESS didnamp8217t make itamp160 Whyamp160 At that time only one cable system in the US has fired its financial district Honoluluamp160 XPRESS thrived on Oahu but withered elsewhere for the lack of access to its target audienceamp160 A lesson still imperativeamp160 Be sure you have a way to reach your audience before you launch your next big ideaIn businesstobusiness publishing and information The Times Mirror Company publisher of the Los Angeles Times and the Jeppesen books for pilots bought Broadcasting Magazine from the Taishoff family leaving them in charge for some timeamp160 Broadcasting now Broadcasting ampamp Cable later joined TWICE and Multichannel News at New Bay in 2009Another hightech failure for the year came from Japanamp8217s NHK which proposed analog high definition televisionamp160 Called MUSE it scared electronics manufacturers all over the world because of two things 1 it used significantly more bandwidth than regular TV channels and 2 it was startlingly better than just goodamp160 But hereamp8217s another tip for todayamp8217s innovators TCIamp8217s John Sie didnamp8217t like how much bandwidth the MUSE system demandedamp160 As a result he started exploring a route to high definition via compressionamp160 It took a while but the move to digital helpedIn 1986 After the excitement of 1985 the government raised its head in 1986amp160 Another lesson never discount DC or even the local mayor or city councilamp160 Because a DC Circuit Court ruled it amp8220no longer served the public interestamp8221 the FCC dropped one if itamp8217s oddest regulations the Fairness Doctrineamp160 The Doctrine had been promulgated in 1949 and was aimed at broadcast licensees mandating any coverage of controversial subjects be done in a manner that was amp8220honest equitable and balancedamp8221 whatever that might mean was left to the Commission to judgeamp160 The language of the Doctrine hung around until 2011 when the rule which had earlier been used to revoke broadcast license of Lamar Broadcastingamp8217s WLBT in Jackson MS because of its prosegregation stance it hosted a bookstore owned by the White Citizenamp8217s Council in its lobby and censorship of NBC News coverage of the civil rights movementamp160 It was later licensed to Raycom and became an early pioneer for racial equalityThatamp8217s three years with a lot of activityamp160 Next week weamp8217ll take a look at the late Eighties when media saw more and even bigger changesamp160amp160amp160amp160amp160amp160amp160amp160amp160amp160Next week Chapter 10 Part 8 amp8211 The Late EightiesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillage management or associated bloggers

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TREotM: The Eighties Previews the “Tens”

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