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Interestingly enough, back in the old days of analog television, you could listen to the audio feed for channel 6 - it was broadcast on 87.76 MHz. Not every car

Interestingly enough, back in the old days of analog television, you could listen to the audio feed for channel 6 - it was broadcast on 87.76 MHz. Not every car radio was capable of going low enough on the frequency spectrum, but if you had one that could hit 87.7 and you were in an area utilizing TV channel 6, it was possible to listen to TV on the radio.

larrywright 7y ago
I had a Walkman clone (Aiwa perhaps?) in the mid-late 1980s, and one of the things I remember doing a lot was just slowly moving the analog dial from the far left to the far right to see what I could pick up. I could pick up TV sometimes including, for reasons I never figured out, HBO. We didn't have HBO, and so this was pretty cool. Obviously listening to a movie (especially a movie you've never seen) would be annoying, but they used to show a lot of comedy specials too. Dennis Miller, Robin Williams, Eddie Murphy, whatever that big day-long comedy special is that raises money for charity. I can't imagine how eye-rolly my kids would get if I told them this now, but at the time that was a blast.
- deadmetheny 7y ago
  That's very strange! Back in those days HBO would have been a satellite uplink directly to cable or to a personal satellite receiver so it's not like it would normally just be floating around the airwaves. Honestly, radio as a hacker hobby is still absolutely a blast. If you're into breaking out a shortwave radio receiver or HAM equipment there's all sorts of wild stuff out there just waiting to be discovered - same with satellite wildfeeds and free OTA television, honestly. It carries a bit more magic than the Internet since it's all around us just waiting to be picked out of the air.
  - larrywright 7y ago
    This was before cable boxes, I think (or maybe they were only needed if you had a fancy cable package). At least around here, there was a physical RF filter that was removed at the cable box that delivered cable to your house, if you subscribed to HBO. I swear I remember hearing about people removing the filter themselves and then getting in trouble when the cable company found out. On most sets you could turn the knob to channel 2 and get a distorted picture and audio for HBO if you weren't a subscriber. I always figured that it was either leaking out from the cable, or maybe a TV or something wasn't shielded well enough. I'm out of my depth on that though, so I'd just be guessing.
    - fmj 7y ago
      Did you have any neighbors? Maybe one of them was using some sort of wireless sound system with a low power FM transmitter.
      - larrywright 7y ago
        Plenty of neighbors but I don't think wireless sound systems were available in the mid-80s. Maybe they were though.
reaperducer 7y ago
This is still happening today, only in reverse. The FCC is allowing analog TV stations on channel 6 to stay on the air to serve as an additional FM signal for the market. There's one in Chicago, and a few others around the country I've seen. Technically, they're all supposed to be off the air, but the deadline keeps getting pushed back since they serve a useful function in an already crowded FM band.

larrywright 7y ago

I had a Walkman clone (Aiwa perhaps?) in the mid-late 1980s, and one of the things I remember doing a lot was just slowly moving the analog dial from the far left to the far right to see what I could pick up. I could pick up TV sometimes including, for reasons I never figured out, HBO. We didn't have HBO, and so this was pretty cool. Obviously listening to a movie (especially a movie you've never seen) would be annoying, but they used to show a lot of comedy specials too. Dennis Miller, Robin Williams, Eddie Murphy, whatever that big day-long comedy special is that raises money for charity. I can't imagine how eye-rolly my kids would get if I told them this now, but at the time that was a blast.

deadmetheny 7y ago
That's very strange! Back in those days HBO would have been a satellite uplink directly to cable or to a personal satellite receiver so it's not like it would normally just be floating around the airwaves. Honestly, radio as a hacker hobby is still absolutely a blast. If you're into breaking out a shortwave radio receiver or HAM equipment there's all sorts of wild stuff out there just waiting to be discovered - same with satellite wildfeeds and free OTA television, honestly. It carries a bit more magic than the Internet since it's all around us just waiting to be picked out of the air.
- larrywright 7y ago
  This was before cable boxes, I think (or maybe they were only needed if you had a fancy cable package). At least around here, there was a physical RF filter that was removed at the cable box that delivered cable to your house, if you subscribed to HBO. I swear I remember hearing about people removing the filter themselves and then getting in trouble when the cable company found out. On most sets you could turn the knob to channel 2 and get a distorted picture and audio for HBO if you weren't a subscriber. I always figured that it was either leaking out from the cable, or maybe a TV or something wasn't shielded well enough. I'm out of my depth on that though, so I'd just be guessing.
  - fmj 7y ago
    Did you have any neighbors? Maybe one of them was using some sort of wireless sound system with a low power FM transmitter.
    - larrywright 7y ago
      Plenty of neighbors but I don't think wireless sound systems were available in the mid-80s. Maybe they were though.

reaperducer 7y ago

This is still happening today, only in reverse. The FCC is allowing analog TV stations on channel 6 to stay on the air to serve as an additional FM signal for the market. There's one in Chicago, and a few others around the country I've seen. Technically, they're all supposed to be off the air, but the deadline keeps getting pushed back since they serve a useful function in an already crowded FM band.