Re: Heritage calls lost

[mwaters@mail.wesleyan.edu (Martin J. Waters)]

>Regarding WHCT, Ch 18, Hartford, Paul Anderson wrote:
<snip>
>Of course, the station hasn't been on the air continuously, but has a
>very interesting history:
>>     owned by CBS in the 1950s before WTIC-TV (now WFSB) existed
>     ran the country's first pay-per-view service
>     ran a lot of CBS shows not picked up by WTIC
<snip>

        And, IIRC, the radio connection is that in the CBS o-and-o days /
world's first pay-per-view days (late 50s/early 60s?), Charles Osgood
managed the station. Also, IIRC, he has recounted the doomed effort to do
pay-per-view with stone-age technology. First, there weren't that many
customers. And, then, the story goes something like there was essentially
some sort of easily bypassed in-home and/or set-top honor system to keep
track of the viewing, and most of the customers who signed up watched a lot
but never paid for most of it.