Michigan Radio & TV Buzzboard

Strange isn't it how some of these channels seem to lose their way and forget their original purpose.

One example is HLN. It started out as a legitimate news channel. Now it's the crime channel. And what's happened to CNBC? Seems now it's just nothing but back to back Shark Tank programs.

The biggest shock came when we were on our way to Florida. Turned the TV in the room to The Weather Channel one night to see what I'd be driving through the next day. They weren't showing the weather. It was a reality show, loosely connected to the weather. Truckers driving in the winter.

Do they announce these format changes in advance, or do they just sneak it in?

Another horrid change was Bravo. In the U.S., it was once home to sophisticated arts and culture programming and we watched it almost daily. Now, nothing but lowest common denominator horse manure.

We do see the same sort of programming the channel once had when we visit Canada. There's a channel there with the same name and same sort of programming we haad in the U.S. before the Real Housewives franchise took over.

[quote=Turkeytop post_id=592969 time=1579058259 user_id=8801]
Strange isn't it how some of these channels seem to lose their way and forget their original purpose.

One example is HLN. It started out as a legitimate news channel. Now it's the crime channel. And what's happened to CNBC? Seems now it's just nothing but back to back Shark Tank programs.

The biggest shock came when we were on our way to Florida. Turned the TV in the room to The Weather Channel one night to see what I'd be driving through the next day. They weren't showing the weather. It was a reality show, loosely connected to the weather. Truckers driving in the winter.

Do they announce these format changes in advance, or do they just sneak it in?
[/quote]


In the case of MTV the process seem to move gradually. I guess it went from the original VJ's leaving in 1986 to Beavis And Butthead, to The Real World, to what we have now.

Vic Doucette wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 15, 2020 5:44 am

Another horrid change was Bravo. In the U.S., it was once home to sophisticated arts and culture programming and we watched it almost daily. Now, nothing but lowest common denominator horse manure.

We do see the same sort of programming the channel once had when we visit Canada. There's a channel there with the same name and same sort of programming we haad in the U.S. before the Real Housewives franchise took over.

In September of last year, Bravo in Canada became CTV Drama, with a new emphasis on drama programming -- that is, what you normally see on the networks in prime time:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CTV_Drama_Channel

Surprised no one brought up A&E -- back in the day, it was arts and cultural programming. These days, it's mainly crime shows such as "The First 48" and "Live PD".

rugratsonline wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 15, 2020 7:29 pm

Surprised no one brought up A&E -- back in the day, it was arts and cultural programming. These days, it's mainly crime shows such as "The First 48" and "Live PD".

Yep, I miss what A&E used to mean.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpDuMn8Z_C8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2lzgI-8mGQ

BRAVO - used to be high culture including opera, ballet, and foreign art house films. Now? The gay & lesbian channel.
A&E - used to stand for Arts & Entertainment. Now? All "entertainment" and realty TV.
History Channel - used to be what it said. Now? Reality TV whose signature shows have an extraordinarily loose connection to the name.
TLC - used to stand for The Learning Channel. Now? Ha!
AMC - used to stand for American Movie Classics with hosted insights. Now? It's where you can see The Godfather trilogy, Braveheart, and the Rambo movies on a regular basis with incessant commercial interruptions. Breaking Bad and Mad Men were good originals. I could never get into The Walking Dead.

So many cable channels originally came into being with such high ideals, but devolved into more commercially viable low common denominator bullshit. On a more elevated level, they're now a vehicle for edgier original programming not suitable for over-the-air television.

moldyoldie wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 23, 2020 11:33 am

BRAVO - used to be high culture including opera, ballet, and foreign art house films. Now? The gay & lesbian channel.
A&E - used to stand for Arts & Entertainment. Now? All "entertainment" and realty TV.
History Channel - used to be what it said. Now? Reality TV whose signature shows have an extraordinarily loose connection to the name.
TLC - used to stand for The Learning Channel. Now? Ha!
AMC - used to stand for American Movie Classics with hosted insights. Now? It's where you can see The Godfather trilogy, Braveheart, and the Rambo movies on a regular basis with incessant commercial interruptions. Breaking Bad and Mad Men were good originals. I could never get into The Walking Dead.

So many cable channels originally came into being with such high ideals, but devolved into more commercially viable low common denominator bullshit. On a more elevated level, they're now a vehicle for edgier original programming not suitable for over-the-air television.

I agree. You can basically get "Pawn Stairs" on just about every single cable channel. Hell, even some OTA is airing it overnight. At first I thought all these OTA sub-channel networks made absolutely no sense (some still don't), but at least they're trying. Charge!, Laff, H&I, etc. All could use more programming, but they're new, and you don't have to pay for it. As a whole, cable has basically become a glorified pay-for OTA, in my opinion.

Although I didn't know that BRAVO was originally high culture. I've always known it to be the LGBT channel, which I've always thought was an incredibly stupid name for that type of channel. I will confess that I was a "sheltered" child of sorts with TV. The cable lineup in Cheboygan wasn't much until 2002. As I recall, the "latest" cable channel was Fox News.

TCM, which began in 1994, has always been pretty much the same, (though a lot of people on it's message board would disagree.)

Bravo really started out as BRAVO! (with the exclamation mark) and you were supposed to pronounce it with the emphasis indicated by that punctuation, as if you were celebrating the end of a performance. It was also originally a "premium" channel offered by cable systems but usually priced at a rate much less than HBO, CINEMAX or SHOWTIME. IIRC, when HBO was $7.95/mo then BRAVO! was $3.95/mo.

sfpcc wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 29, 2020 7:12 am

TCM, which began in 1994, has always been pretty much the same, (though a lot of people on it's message board would disagree.)

Ted Turner got himself a helluva movie library through his acquisitions. The changes over the years, at least as I've noticed, is the inclusion of more latter-day classics and a host of cult-level b-movies, even some good "classic" trash!

How about The Nashville Network, which became The National Network (with a stupid emphasis on pop culture), then Spike, and now is the completely forgotten Paramount Network?

VH-1 is another example of a network that's kept the same name over several decades but does not even remotely resemble the original purpose of the network.

Agree about the Weather Channel and HLN no longer being the channels they used to be. CNBC is still a business news network by day and reality shows about business and money at night.

Sadly, the Weather Channel has gotten worse - not better - under its new ownership.

MWmetalhead wrote: ↑

Sat Feb 08, 2020 8:52 am

Sadly, the Weather Channel has gotten worse - not better - under its new ownership.

I agree. I still remember 5 years ago when they were still under NBCUniversal owner, that they were going to drop all reality shows from their lineup and go back to 24/7 weather. Under Byron Allen's ownership, this obviously has not happened at all. They received quite a bit of backlash for not covering the tornado in Dayton last Memorial Day that caused lots of damage, injured some people, and even killed one woman. It wouldn't surprise me if happens again this year, with another dangerous storm.