Jeremy Smith

Commercial Production Manager

I was born in 1975, and as a result, I’ve been a part of one of the greatest transitions to ever take place in modern communications. As a child of the 70’s I grew up watching an early 70’s JC Penney black and white television with “rabbit ears” and dials for changing channels. I remember watching hours of cartoons, classic late 70’s shows and playing championship matches of Pong on the old JC Penney set. I remember our first wood-grained console, color television, and later the Atari 2600, Intellivision and Nintendo gaming systems. After all, why play pong in color? I didn’t understand at the time, but the video game revolution was our first opportunity to use the television set for something other than passively watching “pictures fly through the air,” as veteran broadcaster Tom Snyder was fond of saying.

We got our first VCR in 1984 and my career in video production began. My family finally broke down and got cable in 1988. I was overjoyed as now I didn’t have to watch MTV on VHS tapes provided from my uncle who already had cable and would tape six-hour blocks of MTV for me to watch. This being said my mother generally referred to the television as the “idiot box” and my siblings and I were constantly encouraged to get off the couch and do something tangible, even though we now had at least 75 channels.

Along came CD’s, the Internet, and DVD’s. Who could have imagined the dramatic changes these bold new mediums would bring in such a short time. CD’s and DVD’s brought new digital clarity to music and films. The Internet allowed the interactive model of the gaming industry to meet a sea of unfiltered information and personal connectivity never before possible.  Now, regular people had the opportunity to interact internationally with access to raw information, previously only available to the established news media.

Shortly thereafter HDTV began making its way into our lives with Austin area broadcasters transmitting the first local HD streams in 2001-2002. We are now experiencing the latest revolution in home entertainment with Video On Demand and Digital Video Recorders. The family television set today allows greater control of content and schedule than ever before. Gone are the days of having to watch a particular program on someone else’s schedule. Viewers also have a greater opportunity to sample programs and other content never before available. 

Over the air television is now commonly referred to as wireless broadcasting and broadcast signals are now referred to as digital streams.  Sounds a lot like wireless internet nomenclature doesn’t it?  Digital Multicasting has arrived with broadcasters now offering multiple streams per local station.  Portability is on the way with a variety of companies already in development of handheld, wireless broadcast receivers giving viewers access to free over the air content in their cars, on their handsets and just about anywhere else that can receive wireless signals. 

The existing broadcasting infrastructure is also a perfect platform for sending and receiving signals from a wide geographic area.  Eventually the interactivity currently experienced on the Internet and with Video on Demand will also be available from broadcasters, wirelessly, and receivable from anywhere.  Soon, we as local broadcasters will not only provide the clearest digital picture available, we will also offer the finest, most versatile, interactive content available anywhere, and it’s better than you may have imagined. 

I still have the old JC Penney black and white set, only now it has a digital set-top convertor box.  It displays surprisingly clear black and white digital television images.  Not bad for a 36 year old television.  If our 70 year old system of free, over the air television can be as relevant in a quickly changing world as the old JC Penney is after all these years, there’s no doubt in my mind that we are just now entering the golden age of local broadcasting.