40-years ago I was on a tower in the middle of the West Virgina hills putting up an antenna for state of the art TV reception. That is, I was installing a TV antenna. In WV, with few TV stations and lots of low mountains the only way you got TV was by having someone like my dad and his assistant—aka me—install up to 100-foot tall towers and antennas on top of them. That was then. This is now.
Today, most people get their TV from cable or satellite. But, as their costs have sky-rocketed, a lot of people have been turning to the Internet for televisiom. That’s great, but over-the-air (OTA) TV never went away. In fact, since OTA TV shifted over to digital from analog in 2009, it’s gotten better than ever.
In 2012, instead of offering a single channel, most OTA TV stations actually offer two or three different “channels.” In addition, most stations broadcast their network programs in HDTV. And, unlike, your local cable or satellite company, they don’t charge you a thing for the extra “service.” Best of all OTA is still free.