Watching Suns games

[Superbone]

I bought it the day Best Buy made them available in So Cal. Back then, it wasn't all Directv though. Initally, a Hughes spinoff called USSB provided the access to most of the channels we recieved through the DBS whereas Directv offered only the premium channels. It wasn't until the late 90's that Direct bought out USSB and combined all the channels into their service.

As I recall, it was availble first to highly rural areas that had no (or insufficient) cable access. I think they went national sometime around mid-94 but only in a handful of markets for about 6 months before making it available everywhere.

Thanks for that history. I was in Oakhurst, CA (central Cal; North of Fresno; near Yosemite) in the early 90s for my first job outside of Arizona. I was lucky to rent a house that had one of the original satellites pre-DirecTV/Dish. You had to move the dish to find programming via remote. You could find the live feeds that were commercial-free where you could hear everything that was said by the broadcasting crew during the commercial breaks.

I turned one of my friends I worked with that grew up in that area into a die hard Suns fan. Of course, that was during the Barkley years and our Finals appearance against the Bulls. I just got in touch with him recently for the first time in a long time and he still had all his Suns gear. Good times.

 

[AzStevenCal]

I bought it the day Best Buy made them available in So Cal. Back then, it wasn't all Directv though. Initally, a Hughes spinoff called USSB provided the access to most of the channels we recieved through the DBS whereas Directv offered only the premium channels. It wasn't until the late 90's that Direct bought out USSB and combined all the channels into their service.

As I recall, it was availble first to highly rural areas that had no (or insufficient) cable access. I think they went national sometime around mid-94 but only in a handful of markets for about 6 months before making it available everywhere.

Edit: I just looked this up and I have it reversed. DTV had the regular channels and USSB offered the premium channels.

 

[Superbone]

Edit: I just looked this up and I have it reversed. DTV had the regular channels and USSB offered the premium channels.

Ah, that makes more sense.

 

[Yuma]

Wow. So you must have started before me then. I think I've had DirecTV continuously since the mid 90s (I wonder if there's a way to look that up?). It is finally coming to an end. Good for you for putting up the fight! Yeah, those mile limits are too far. I've been forced to endure the Lakers and Clippers broadcasts for the last 23 consecutive years. And that's like 10 games a year. No more!

Back in the old days the number in your account number was a sequential number assigned to people as they signed up. Later down the road, IDK if they kept that up or not. I had a super techie boss that was getting one before they were really a house hold name. I had an Uncle that won money in the AZ lottery and had a big dish. He got all kinds of channels. So when my boss told me about a small dish, I was in. Back then they would show stuff going on in the broadcasts if there were no commercials. I heard Bill Walton bully a fellow announcer during a commercial break once. He's not always a jolly guy.

 

[Superbone]

Back in the old days the number in your account number was a sequential number assigned to people as they signed up. Later down the road, IDK if they kept that up or not. I had a super techie boss that was getting one before they were really a house hold name. I had an Uncle that won money in the AZ lottery and had a big dish. He got all kinds of channels. So when my boss told me about a small dish, I was in. Back then they would show stuff going on in the broadcasts if there were no commercials. I heard Bill Walton bully a fellow announcer during a commercial break once. He's not always a jolly guy.

Those severe back issues will do that to you. I read that he was close to committing suicide at one point but that he has got some relief in his later years.

 

[Hoop Head]

Apparently the first round will air on Channel 3/AZ Family