TECH TALK
By Tak Sato
Music has been an important part of my life. Luckily, what my brain remembers from before I went deaf are tunes from my favorite decade — the 80s — and those old tunes are in my Spotify playlist. It doubles as part of the reference/baseline when I have my cochlear implant tuned by University Hospitals and Advanced Bionics audiologists.
As a high school student in the ‘80s, both American and British rock bands, pop groups, and singer-songwriters were popular and accessible to me in Japan. I looked forward to listening to Casey Kasem’s American Top 40 on the Far East Network on weekends.
FEN was a radio station for American soldiers stationed in Japan. I was likely introduced to FEN by one of my classmates whose dad was stationed at the Yokosuka naval base. Can you envision the young me wearing headphones attached to the iconic Sony Walkman cassette player, listening to my mix tapes? (Editor’s note: Yes, absolutely.)
Changing Habits
When I came to study at Cleveland State University in the mid-’80s, I was introduced to sitcoms like “Barney Miller” (probably reruns by then), “Family Ties” and others piped into my legal guardian’s TV set through their rooftop antenna and the cable TV system. Initiation into American TV programming helped me acclimate to American culture and my exciting new life in Cleveland.
Antenna reception of the Big 3 networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) started in the early ‘40s, followed by cable TV systems in the ‘80s, and satellite dish as competition to cable TV in the ‘90s.
The Big 3 broadcast networks are still around in 2025, alongside the fourth way many of us watch TV: streaming or broadcasting through the internet, also known as the cloud.
TV viewers now can take advantage of video-on-demand (VOD) streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, and live TV streaming options like YouTube TV and Hulu+ Live TV, as long as they have an internet-connected device. Those include smart TVs, dumb TVs made smarter with an inexpensive adapter, and desktop and laptop computers, including Chromebooks, smartphones and tablets.
Did you know that recent surveys repeatedly show that many Gen Z, or Zoomers, don’t own TVs and instead stream on the devices they already own? Compare that to people 55 and older who have multiple TVs around the house (yes, I’m talking about you with a TV over your soaking tub and in the kitchen).
There’s something else that has endured the evolution of broadcast reception over the decades: commercials. Commercial-free, or interruption-free, programming has been a staple for premium cable/satellite TV channels (HBO, Showtime, Cinemax) since their inception. With an eye on making more money, streaming services now offer multiple pricing tiers. The most expensive, naturally, have no commercials.
Call me Mr. Cheap, but I selected the free tier that plays a short commercial in between every two songs at the Spotify music streaming service. It has a library of over 100 million tracks that users can choose from. My mind daydreams when the commercials come on; as a plus, they get zero dollars from me.
On the VOD and select live TV side, anyone can save on the cost of streaming fees by trying tubitv.com, pluto.tv or play.xumo.com. These streaming services are all supported by commercials. Hundreds of channels stream episodes of popular and under-the-radar shows, from “Murder She Wrote” to live news and more, all day long. Check them out.
Want to Save Money?
Tips to Get Started
- You can, but you aren’t required to, create a free account when streaming from Tubi, Pluto or Xumo.
- Mobile phone carriers often give subscribers a free monthly allowance for a streaming service as a benefit, but it depends on your plan. Read the fine print.
- Many streaming services give college students a discount; always ask.
