Heaven: Having the Time to Watch T.V. and Having Enough Money to Afford Cable

Janie Hammonds November 3, 2008

Television Viewing time: 9:00 P.M. - 12 Midnight

I don't have cable therefore I have a very limited channel line up.

3 KIII, parent co., ABC, owner-Disney
6 KRIS, parent co., NBC , owner-Evening Post Publishing Sys.
10 KZTV, parent co., CBS, owner- Eagle Creek Broadcasting
16 KEDT, parent co., PBS, owner- S. Texas Public Broadcasting
21 KTOV-LP,parent co., MNT, owner-GH Broadcasting
28 KORO, parent co., Univision, owner-Entravision
38 KUQI, parent co., FOX, owner-High Maintenance Broadcasting
41 KCRP-CA, parent co., Telefutura, owner-Entravision
45 KXCC-CA, parent co., Spanish Independent, owner-Pappas Telecasting
47 K47DF, parent co., Independent, owner-Evening Post Publishing
68 K68DJ, parent co., TeleMundo, owner-Evening Post Publishing

This list looks really impressive when I such little time for television however, four of these are Spanish (I don't speak Spanish) and all of the stations don't come in all of the time. The ones that do come in are never without "snow".

Most of the television viewing I do is at my boyfriends apartment. I am usually there 3-4 nights a week but I have my own house. I'm staying there this week, therefore he had control of the remote (RoadRunner Cable). We watched Boston Legal, Kiii news, 3 1/2 Men, Everybody Loves Raymond and Fraizer. If I had been at my house I wouldn't have watched Boston Legal but usually do watch the other shows. My viewing pleasure would have been much different if I possessed control of the remote. I had just sat down to a forensic show when the remote was confiscated. I would have watched something on a learning channel such as Discovery, A & E, Animal Planet or have looked for a good movie.

On the local channels the programming is extremely limited. They show the same sit-coms everyday, multiple times a day and when they aren't showing they are advertising them. People who watch nothing but Seinfeld or George Lopez 24/7 need to get a life. News, celebrity gossip shows, judge shows, game shows and infomercials pretty well sums up local television. News and infomercials dominate the line-up. This is during the week; weekends are another matter. On weekends, infomercials dominate programming with the same infomercial on different channels. Sunday, Jack LaLanne infomercials were showing at the same time on two English speaking channels and one Spanish speaking channel selling his "Power Juicer". Two other channels had the same car lot infomercial playing and the same car lot was one of the advertisments on a channel that had regular programming.

The process of journaling T.V. might be reliable in some households. I know a lot of people who are "hooked" on certain T.V shows like CSI for example. It wouldn't work in my household because although I watch little television, I keep it on most of the time even when I'm not home. I may be cleaning house, playing my keyboard or some other activity but I still keep it on for the noise. I leave it on when I'm gone because then my chihuahua doesn't seem to feel so alone. I don't select the programming for him but I do leave it on a Spanish channel (It's part of his culture). I also leave the television on at night because I have insomnia it helps me to go to sleep and stay asleep. Sometimes, however, I prefer to just put on a DVD movie.

Television journaling would make more sense to be more like a survey than marking a T.V. log like the Neilson journal. This template might work better if for instance it had a section for why you chose it and/or if it was even worth watching. It also might make more sense if there were a section for people to write in what they would prefer to watch but it isn't offered. It wouldn't work for my boyfriend to partake in television journaling because he usually flips channels so fast that it is impossible to even know what is showing. Perhaps people who flip channels don't do it searching for programs to watch but because the flashing light created as they flip through channels is hypnotizing and therefore reduces stress (or creates it). I wonder if there has been a Neilson study on this phenomenon?