Saturday, July 25, 2015

The big stick

‎Say hello to the transmitting tower behind the CTV studios here in London. By any definition, it's an impressive piece of engineering, one that makes me a little nauseous every time I try to look at it from the parking lot.

Sadly, these staples of the information age landscape‎ aren't as dominant as they once were. If you subscribe to cable or satellite television service, as most of us do, then you're not getting your signal through a tower like this one.

Even cable and satellite are slowly giving way to online and mobile content delivery. It's a connected, on-demand, app-driven world that leaves little room for sky-piercing icons of TV's golden age. Free, over-the-air TV that blasts out to a community via a giant antenna is fading to black.

Which makes me a little sad, because when I step out into the chilly pre-dawn air and head to the studio, I can always count on the friendly blinking lights to point me in the right direction. Somehow, the skyline won't be nearly as comforting after they're gone.

Your turn: When you look up in your sky, right now, what do you see?

2 comments:

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

In Columbus right now there's a little blue with a lot of white and grey puffy clouds.

I plan to be in W.V. in 5 or 6 hours, though. We'll do a redo!
~

Gilly said...

I looked up, and all I can see is unrelenting grey overcast. And a lot of trees waving briskly in a wind that is threatening to get rougher. After all, its only the end of July! Where the English summer has gone to in this part of the UK I do not know!