Real TV!
This isn’t about reality television, but about having television be a reality in my life again for the first time since I was 17 or 18 and still living on Thrush Lane.
The candidate in me needs to be watching local news. The wife in me is afraid that Frank will turn on the TV more often than I care to hear it.
We have signed up for the most basic of options. It’s called Tech TV, an option that I believe is federally mandated and aimed at low-income households (with tax, it’s $11.08 a month). But, cable companies aren’t obligated to advertise it or even offer it when asked about all the options, so no one knows about it. They steer you to the higher-priced packages (”150 channels!”), but have to provide it if the customer asks specifically.
I learned about it when I asked a friend, “How much do you pay for your TV each month?” Because we’re so rural here, you need to have some kind of cable plan even to pick up the local stations (ABC, CBS, NBC) out of Bangor. Other people talk about spending $40 or $50 or $60 minimum for different packages.
For this $11 — totally an amount I can live with — we also get a Canadian news station, Public Broadcasting and the local access station. That’s all I need in my life. The fewer, the better.