I don't know what channels are what anymore.
That's not a "grumpy old man" statement, either. It's not that I have too many channels on cable, but something happened around the time that Time Warner Cable moved around its lineup.
Maybe it's that it went to a four-digit system. Maybe it's that I watch very little TV that's not DVRed. Maybe I just can't take the time to learn a new system.
There was a time when I knew that CNN was on channel 44, that MTV was on 52 and that ESPN was on 30.
Now, I know only this: HD stations start at 1000, and I don't watch anything that's not in HD. I also know that the Brewers are on 1309, CNN is 1350, and the local network stations start at 1004. The rest I navigate by pressing "guide" and sorting through my "favorites," or by watching the shows I've prerecorded.
I realize that this is an unusual blog topic, but I can't remember not knowing where to find my favorite stations on the "dial." I think it's because I watch less and less random TV these days, as my DVR is filled with more and more good stuff.
The channel realignment, apparently, was the last straw. While it makes perfect sense to group stations by content, and to keep all the HD channels together, my already-too-full brain just couldn't keep up. Ironically, too many other diversions have prevented me from mastering the ultimate diversion of them all.
Come to think of it, I watch almost no live TV anymore. Even sporting events are a little paused, because inevitably I'll rewind to watch a highlight then pause here and there. As long as it's live to me, it's still live, right?
The local news, when I watch it, is a rare exception, but really, it's just background noise at this point, since I've read almost everything I care to see online already. I've enjoyed the "look back" feature, but as soon as I realized you can't then fast forward, I lost interest.
If others are watching TV like I am, none of this is a bad thing, except for the companies that buy advertising (I skip it) and the stations that run schlocky informercials and syndicated old crap (I don't feel compelled to watch it). Instead, I focus on better TV, like the great original programming on HBO and AMC.
For everyone else, the bar is being raised, and the idiot box is getting smarter, more on demand and more relevant. In this age of four digits worth of channels and DVR hard drive extenders, I don't watch more TV, I watch better TV more.
Andy is the president, publisher and founder of OnMilwaukee. He returned to Milwaukee in 1996 after living on the East Coast for nine years, where he wrote for The Dallas Morning News Washington Bureau and worked in the White House Office of Communications. He was also Associate Editor of The GW Hatchet, his college newspaper at The George Washington University.
Before launching OnMilwaukee.com in 1998 at age 23, he worked in public relations for two Milwaukee firms, most of the time daydreaming about starting his own publication.
Hobbies include running when he finds the time, fixing the rust on his '75 MGB, mowing the lawn at his cottage in the Northwoods, and making an annual pilgrimage to Phoenix for Brewers Spring Training.
