![]() ![]() ![]() We'd have half-a-dozen engineers maintaining the place a bunch of I.T. ![]() "We had three studios with full tech crews. "It cost a lot of money to run that place," Jaeger said. "It became apparent that we couldn't spend at the level we were spending and so as more markets were added and the dollars had to be distributed, everything started notching down a little bit in terms of local programming," Williams said.Īdditionally, maintaining all the computers and production studios was a very expensive operation. Williams said that the expansion of QUBE affected the programming budget. QUBE eventually expanded to other markets across the country, and that put the sustainability of the business to the test. "Back then, it might be a dollar for a movie or five or ten dollars for a premium event like the Sugar Ray Leonard and Roberto Duran fight," Jaeger said. WOSU Former QUBE crew member Jim Jaeger holds up the two full-page ads placed in the Columbus Dispatch on launch day, December 1, 1977. Jaeger said when viewers watched a movie, concert, or sporting event for a set amount of time, the computers would log it and bill the account. This included a channel of adult-rated films that courted controversy at the time. QUBE also created the first version of pay-per-view with their set of Premium channels. The teen talk show called Columbus Goes Banannaz featured celebrity interviews and one of the most popular shows was Soap Scoop, which gave a daily synopsis of the plot lines of all the network soap operas. On one notable occasion, then-Mayor Tom Moody appeared on the show after the Blizzard of 1978 and got feedback from the audience on the quality of snow removal in the city. The flagship daily news program called Columbus Alive! would poll viewers on the issues of the day. "But they hired him away from Channel 10."ĭuring his show, Flippo would ask viewers to participate in games, offer their opinions, and answer trivia questions.Īnother popular show was Talent Search where-decades before American Idol or America’s Got Talent-QUBE customers voted for local acts. "When they found out it was a clown in a blue suit covered with pompoms, they freaked out," Jaeger said. Jim Jaeger, who worked on QUBE's tech crew from 1977 to 1984, said that when Warner was looking for talent, they wanted the top TV personality in Columbus. Marvin worked for decades as Flippo, hosting children's shows and movies on WBNS. Employees got to work installing large banks of computers and a new production studio at their headquarters at 1201 Olentangy River Road.Ĭourtesy of Jim Jaeger QUBE program guide with Flippo the Clown on the cover.įlippos Magic Circus was a kid's show hosted by Bob Marvin, a.k.a. In the Spring of 1977, Warner Cable started hiring staff in Columbus. Years before the widespread use of home computers or the internet, QUBE created a truly novel form of two-way communication. That included more channels, better reception, and in the case of QUBE, a console that gave subscribers the ability to "talk back" to their television set. Cable television, which was first created to reach rural homes, opened up new possibilities. ![]() One WOSU listener wrote into Curious Cbus to ask "How did QUBE start in Columbus and what happened to it?"įorty-five years ago, most TV viewers could expect 3 or 4 channels with an antenna. But even more impressive was the remote control that let viewers interact with local shows in real-time. Warner Cable would now offer an unheard-of 30 channels. In 1977, a bold new way to watch television launched in Columbus. ![]()
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