TELEVISION WOES….A few weeks ago, in an effort to serve me better, the LA Times decided to stop including a TV guide in their Sunday paper. That sucked, but one has to roll with the punches, doesn’t one?
So Marian and I investigated the alternatives. The Register, our local Orange County paper, has a TV guide on Sundays, and although it’s not as complete as the one we’re used to, it’s OK. But do I really want to subscribe to the Register just to get one little magazine each week? Or pay a buck and a quarter and have to remember to buy a paper every Saturday evening?
TV Guide is cheaper. Only 59 cents a week, delivered to my door! Very colorful too. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have complete daytime listings during the week. I figure I can live with that, but it also turns out that it doesn’t have any daytime listings on the weekend, the very time when I actually need them. Why? I have no idea.
The LA Times still has TV listings in the daily paper, of course, but only for primetime shows. You’re out of luck for everything else.
Then there’s Cox cable: like most cable companies, it provides onscreen TV listings. But only if you subscribe to digital cable for whatever extortionate rate they’re charging these days. I don’t.
What other options are there? I can look up stuff online, which would be great if I had a computer sitting next my couch. But I don’t.
Am I crazy? (Yes, probably. But I mean: am I crazy to think that it’s nuts to make it so difficult for people to get complete TV listings?) Is there some simple answer to this mess that I’m overlooking? It seems completely deranged to me.
And why am I telling this to all of you? Beats me. I just need to vent, I guess. Thanks for listening.
