We finally did it. We shut it off!

I don't really know why we didn't do it sooner. I guess we just didn't know if it would work. It might be also that I feared the change would be unacceptable to Mrs. Griz; but when she made the suggestion, it was time to give it a try. And it worked.

I'm talking about getting rid of cable TV. We've had cable or satellite TV for a good many years, though it wasn't so when I grew up. TV was free except for the cost of buying the set and paying for the electricity to run it, but we received only one station -- and, yes, it was all in black and white. There was no fighting over what to watch between my sister and me. It was only if we watched, and we didn't watch all that much.

Of course, a lot has changed since the '50s and '60s. But when I first heard of cable TV and the possibility of receiving more than 100 channels, it was hard to believe. If I recall right, the old TVs only had 13 channels on the dial, and most folks didn't receive but a few. And, no, my family didn't take advantage of cable for a long time. I don't recall getting cable TV until my own children were growing up, and then the package we purchased was pretty minimal.

But, in more recent years, even the basic packages included hundreds of channels. The growing problem, though, in addition to the ever-rising cost, was that there was actually less worth watching than when I was a kid and we received only a single station.

I've thought that for some time but didn't dare shut off the TV service since Mrs. Griz liked certain programs and likes to have the TV on, more for the noise than the actual programing. Me? I enjoy the peace and quiet with the TV off and considered the money spent on our cable bill a bit of a waste.

Mrs. Griz is a fan of the TV weather. Even though I can look up a complete weather forecast in seconds, she prefers to hear it on TV and likes to leave the TV on at night, at least until after the weather is over even if she sleeps through it.

How do I know? Well, I've tried to turn off the TV before the weather a time or two when I knew Mrs. Griz was fast asleep; but even though she might have been snoring just a little, she always woke up and told me she was still listening for the weather.

Anyway, when she suggested we get rid of cable TV because the programming is just becoming more and more trashy, I jumped on it. Of course, she still wanted to be able to listen to the weather so, before I canceled my cable subscription, I needed to find a way for her to tune in to a local station.

I had asked about it before but was told that we lived too far from the local broadcast stations to receive TV with an antenna -- at least without putting up a large tower and a motor to turn the antenna toward broadcasting towers. A lot of folks used to have TV antennas mounted atop 30-foot towers and with a motor drive to turn the antenna using a control switch in the living room. I didn't want to go to all that much trouble, so I figured I'd start small and work my way up to what I needed to receive free TV.

My first attempt was a digital antenna (similar to the old rabbit ears we used to have on top of our TV set years ago) which cost me about $15 from our local hardware store. I hooked it up to the TV in our bedroom so Mrs. Griz could hear the weather. To my surprise, we received five stations without even amplifying the signal. Mrs. Griz was happy, and the picture quality turned out to be better than we had been getting before. I do have to be careful not to walk or stand in the wrong place lest I interfere with the signal.

I tried a small, flat antenna for the TV in the living room, and put it in the window with good results. We could still get a few local stations if we needed them and, with Internet, could stream other shows and movies if we felt the need.

And, now that Mrs. Griz is happy with free TV, I'm really happy because of the monthly savings. I only wonder what took us so long, and why did the programming have to get so bad before we finally said enough to paying for what we would rather not watch anyway.

Randy Moll is the managing editor of the Westside Eagle Observer. He may be contacted by email at [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of the author.

Editorial on 09/17/2014