December TV blues? Getting an antenna can help!

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December brings celebrations for the multitude of people who celebrate holidays this month. It brings travel, it brings vacations, and it sometimes brings snow. The one thing December very rarely brings is good television.

Streaming helps drown out the rerun blues, but even with the tens of thousands of programs out there, it’s very easy to get bored with TV this time of year. So-called “quality TV” is great but there’s also a place in life for good-old-fashioned entertainment, something that keeps you engaged with very little effort. Netflix has a new season of Fuller House but once you’ve spent five hours bingeing on that, what’s left?

You probably didn’t realize it but there’s a whole universe of free TV alternatives available right now. All it takes is a TV antenna.

Cable and satellite providers generally give out about a quarter of the channels you can receive with an antenna. Sure, you do get the major networks, but you’d be surprised what you’re missing. There are channels full of old comedy, drama and game shows; local news, educational and cultural programming, and it’s all waiting to be discovered.

It starts with an an antenna, and there’s no place better to find one than Solid Signal. We carry all the major brands and there are literally hundreds to choose from. Of course you can go to a lot of shopping sites and find a good selection, but only Solid Signal gives you real people who can answer the phone and actually recommend something for you based on their experience. Other sites, if they recommend anything at all, are using simple computer logic that doesn’t take you into consideration. If you don’t want to climb up on the roof we’ll find an option so you don’t have to. If you have trees around the property we’ll help you find a way to put your antenna above them. We have real, experienced people, not bots and programs.

Cable and satellite companies don’t carry these extra channels because it would cost them a lot more money and most of the year, the ratings are probably pretty low. If you watch these other channels you’ll notice the commercials for legal and medical services, the sort of things that TV stations play when they can’t get high-dollar advertisers. Of course that doesn’t matter much if you’re just looking for some fun entertainment.

Watching old TV is a window into another age. It’s usually a pretty inaccurate one, because TV shows show us what studios thought we wanted to see, not what was really out there. Even so it’s fun to watch old game shows where people dressed in tuxedos and evening gowns and sounded like they were at some sort of intellectual debate. It’s a pretty stark contrast to reality TV the way it is today. Old cop dramas can be racist, sexist, classist and totally unacceptable in about a million ways, but when Jim Rockford talks, there’s something a little comforting in it during the times he’s not insulting every underprivileged class there is.

My favorite, not surprisingly, is old sci-fi, because the world of the future used to be a bright, exciting place full of space travel and pleasant aliens and exotic locations. That stuff probably couldn’t be further from the truth, but it’s nice to think of a time when we all thought science was moving in the right direction.

If you’re curious about what antenna TV brings, there’s still time to call the fine folks at Solid Signal at 888-233-7563 for a customized recommendation. You’ll love seeing what you’ve been missing!

About the Author

Stuart Sweet
Stuart Sweet is the editor-in-chief of The Solid Signal Blog and a "master plumber" at Signal Group, LLC. He is the author of over 10,000 articles and longform tutorials including many posted here. Reach him by clicking on "Contact the Editor" at the bottom of this page.