From 1949-Captain Video no less
The march of progress is often at the expense of something.
Buggy whips are a good example- When Henry Ford rolled the first model t off the assembly line if you owned a buggy whip factory you probably could see the handwriting on the wall. And when CD’s came out if you sold needles for record players your days were numbered too.
Now the latest casualty to the blinding rush of technology. TV Guide.
The little ubiquitous magazine will disappear in its current form on October 17th. The plans are to relaunch it as a sort of people magazine with fewer actual TV listings and more stories about the idiot box. The size will also increase from its digest form to a big glossy magazine.
Now TV guide has 140 local editions. In October it will have east coast and west coast. If you want to know what is on Channel 16 at 6 on Saturday morning (it’s Newswatch 16 Saturday morning) you’ll have to use another source.
And that’s the point. There are so many different ways to find out what’s on TV that the little magazine from Radnor Pa (Which has a Griffin on its Official seal, but no TV guide) has lost two thirds of its readership. No small deal, it has gone from 9 million subscribers to 3 million.
The advent of satellite programming guides, TIVOs, on screen guides from cable channels and the internet have made TV guide as useful as a Buggy whip.
Maybe less so. At least you can use a Buggy whip for recreation of a sort.
