Back before the switch of NFL’s NFC Contract rights from CBS to FOX, the Bucs used to be seen on, well, ok, same channel they are on now; 13. But it was CBS 13.
Soon after the NFL left CBS for FOX, which was a huge unprecendented event, it caused ripples throughout the TV industry. Suddenly Fox had the NFL to broadcast, but because FOX was such a new network, they had mostly UHF channels, which are the channels higher than 13 (14 up). Yes, this predates cable folks, back when you had to have an aerial antenna to recieve TV signal, much like you do today. In fact, the remnants of these channels only disapeared a few years ago in the switch over to digital.
So the FOX network went out and outbid lower, more powerful channels in the VHF frequencies, which are 2-13. This caused a rapid change of channels never seen before in America.
These were the old affiliations before 1994….
3 WEDU Educational
8 NBC
10 ABC
13 CBS
28 FOX Only recently created in 1986
44 WTOG independant
Then FOX moved into channel 13, and CBS had no choice but to outbid ABC for their Channel 10. ABC had no where to go, NBC 8 wouldnt budge, so it took the empty 28. And that is why our channels in the Tampa Bay area are, the way they are.
One more interesting note: You couldn’t watch TV in the middle of the night before 1980s unless it was the weekend. VCRs didnt come around until late 1970’s, and didnt get cheap enough for everyone to afford one till the mid to early 80s.
But not only that…the TV Channels stopped broadcasting usually around 1 am, after Johny Carson (At the time the only late night talk show host), late news, or whatever. TV Stations actually signed off, played either a national anthem or some other national song, and went off the air. People who worked late nights had nothing on TV to watch except on the weekends when they would play older movies and shows.
Now today, we can watch any TV show we want in our own front pockets on our iPod/iPhone/Android device. And all this came about in only the last 30 years.
So here from about 35 years ago, the Channel 13 CBS signoff courtesy of YouTube user eyeh8nbc.
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