I mean, I’m not going off a belief, I actually lived this.

Yes, the clear reception vs bunny ears was awesome, but that was also limited on televisions like this, and I’m talking specifically about the content.

I’m talking about the late 70s and early 80s when they were commercially available to the masses and the cable wars began.

The late 70s were absolutely the early days of commercial cable tv.

This is my recollection as well; I was a young adult at the time.

Cable was ABSOLUTELY supposed to be ad-free. Ad-free, and local access so that anyone could have their own show. That was the tradeoff to get people away from the big three (ABC, CBS, NBC) at the time. There were literally no ads.

But it didn’t last long at all. Local stayed ad-free for much longer; anything national came with ads embedded. Even the very first day of MTV had ads.

And before anyone screeches at me about what link said what, forget it. I’m not interested in reading text about how the 60s and 70s were supposed to have taken place written by people don’t even know what it means to unplug or hang up a phone, or why anyone would even do that, or what green stamps were, or what happens when you lie on the floor with your head between two speakers listening to Pink Floyd, lol.

LillyPip is factually correct. You should be listening to them instead of trying to retcon history for them.