The Illusion of Choice in the Information Age
Todays choices in television and visual media are greater and more bountiful than the original "golden age" of television ever had. The first golden age of television existed in the United States from the late 1940's through to the 1950's. During that time, you needed a large antenna to capture over-the-air stations broadcast across the nation. Your "rabbit ears" would pick up broadcasts from the Columbia Broadcasting System, the American Broadcasting Company, or the National Broadcasting Company.
These companies first got their start in radio. The Radio Corporation of America (RCA), started the National Broadcast Company in 1926. Radio grew so rapidly that NBC split into two broadcasting companies. One would eventually be sold off and renamed the American Broadcast Company. The Columbia Record Company invested in a radio network that would eventually be named CBS. After televisions were invented, programming changed from radio to television.
In Brownsville, you could receive CBS on KGBT's Channel 4, ABC on KRGV's Channel 5, and NBC on KVEO's Channel 23. Living on the border with Mexico, you could also receive a handful of Mexican broadcast television. I remember being able to receive the Mexican stations on channels 2, 3, and 7. In my later years, I remember other Mexican stations on channels 11 and 13.
Although Fox became a network in 1985, Brownsville wouldn't get a Fox affiliate until the mid-1990's. Fox operates under the KFXV call letters and is affiliated with its sister stations KXFX-CD, and a handful of other stations including Univision and The CW. All sister stations are owned by Entravision Communications. If you're a cable customer, you can find Fox on Channel 6.
In the early 1980's, cable television became widely available in Brownsville through a company called Heritage Cablevision. In addition to local channels, with NBC being moved to Channel 8, you now could watch ESPN, MTV, the 24-hour cable news network out of Atlanta, CNN, its sister network TBS (which showed Atlanta Braves baseball games and pro wrestling, something any young boy would like to watch), and a network out of the Chicago area called WGN (which showed Cubs baseball games and The Bozo Show, also interesting programming to watch).
Heritage Cablevision became Time Warner Cable, and a few years ago, Time Warner Cable merged with Spectrum. If you're a cable customer today, you can lose your mind trying to choose something to watch over hundreds of channels, ranging from single digit local channels, to channels numbering three, or four, digits.
If you're not a fan of cable television, you can have a direct broadcast satellite company provide television to your home. Back in the late 70's and early 80's, we all knew at least one friend who had a huge satellite dish in their yard. The dish could be pointed at different satellites that would offer strange, seldom seen programming. Today, the dishes are a fraction of the size and are fixed in place. Companies like DirecTV and DISH Network offer programming similar to that of Spectrum.
Some companies and networks have come and gone, while others have merged. There used to be a small, independent cable company operating in Brownsville called Valley Wireless Cable. You could always tell a Valley Wireless customer because of the strange mini-barbecue grill shaped antenna that would stick out above their roof. PAX-20 was a new network that emerged during theblate 90's, a time when networks like the WB and the UPN popped up. PAX-20 was a Christian/family-friendly network being broadcast in Brownsville by members of a broadcast company started by the Zavaleta family.
PBS, the country's Public Broascast channel, used to operate in Brownsville under the KMBH call letters, and was run by the Catholic Diocese of Brownsville. The station went dark for a couple of years and eventually began broadcasting when it was acquired by Entravision, the same company that operates Fox, Univision, and The CW. You can still find the cable broadcast on Channel 10. It now operates under the KCWT call letters.
If you don't like any of those options, you can choose any number of streaming services that will show you live television or any other show specifically made for those services. You can take your pick from YouTube TV, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Apple TV, and others I'm certain I'm forgetting about.
Print media has suffered in the last generation, falling victim to the internet and social media. Brownsville has had multiple newspapers at several points throughout its history. In the mid and late 1800"s, there were a handful of newspapers. The Brownsville Daily Herald would be renamed The Brownsville Herald and is still published today, albeit in name only. In the 1970's and 1980's, a bi-weekly newspaper called the Times of Brownsville was published. One of Brownsville's original bloggers, Jerry McHale, published a newspaper called El Rocinante. His publication would eventually morph into an online version before evolving into today's McHale Report.
The University of Texas at Brownsville in partnership with Texas Southmost College used to publish The Collegian. UTRGV publishes a newspaper, but in classic UTRGV fashion, I'm certain it mostly covers what goes on in the Edinburg campus rather than the Brownsville campus.
Along with the various versions of television and print news sources, Brownsville is also well endowed with several reputable, and questionable, bloggers. I have written several articles about the Brownsville Blogosphere. Because of the lack of legitimate local coverage by reporters at the sort-of Brownsville Herald, many people turn to the bloggers for their local news.
The irony of all this is you would think with all these local news outlets and options, the community would be well-informed.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
I've written about this in the past, but it bears repeating, news sources in the region are very limited. As I mentioned, the local print media has now merged with the other two major newspapers of the Rio Grande Valley. The Herald has been mashed together with The Valley Morning Star and the McAllen Monitor. The three newspapers that were once Valley Freedom Newspapers were blended together by AIM Media. When you visit The Brownsville Herald's website, it redirects you to an amalgam of all three papers called MyRGV.com (with Brownsville getting the lowest billing, of course).
Fox, The CW, PBS, Univision, and several Valley radio stations are controlled by the same media conglomerate, and the Fox evening news broadcast is heavy with McAllen news, and they even report on Laredo news, leaving Brownsville behind.
Recently, the KVEO station left Brownsville and merged with KGBT to form a CBS/NBC dual affiliate. Both stations are being run by the same management team. In short, that means you're essentially getting the same broadcast and same stories from the local NBC station as you are from CBS.
The ABC affiliate is the only one in the Valley that isn't part of a local grouping of news stations, although they are owned by the same company that owns the ABC affiliate in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
The world got smaller, but our information sources are being consolidated and run by the same handful of corporations.
It may look like you have options, and you may be thinking you're looking at information and news through different methods and channels, but there's only a handful of people deciding what information you're being presented.
Perception isn't always reality.
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