Someone had asked about cable service in Wrightwood...So, I pulled this out of my own 'memory cap,' which is surprising-- considering how old I am.
I believe it was in 1960, when visionary, and very cool, Mr Heinz Steinman decided to attach two bare wires along the structures of Holiday Hill Ski lift in the fall time. He later inserted old coax cable, since the bare wire kept interrupting the signal.
Yes, there was signal way back there. It reached the Holiday Hill Ski Lodge, a few buildings in Big Pines, and a number of houses on the west side of town on Flume and Cardinal. The swaying of wooden ski lifts didn't help the bare wire connectable, dadburn it. So, in went the coax line, the old type that had sections to them. It was strung along the cables that pushed the chairs up and down on the chair lift.
In a way it was a pretty decent idea, for the towers and the cable helped protect the coax from the weather. At least the coax last longer than the wire. However, off and on the sections of the coax wiring gave way (shattered as Mr. Steinmann put it) to the pounding of wind, heavy rain...and snow. TV reception kinda twinkled in and out of existence after awhile.
For the rest of the town, we knew that sooner or later Mr. Steinmann's idea would work, and soon the cable would reach us. Before that time came around, we made due with the outdoor antenna. Yup, that cool Windgard VHF-UHF thingamajig, whose reception depended basically on four things: no wind, no hard weather, no trees branches in the way...and no squirrels dancing on it.
If there was a squirrel on it, or a pesky raccoon, you chased it away or threatened with a shotgun. If the other three things were present, someone in the family usually had to go outside to bang and twist the antenna around to improve the reception.
Sometimes the one that always had to go outside and fix the darn antenna, got lucky...because suddenly the electricity went out. Which sometimes happened for four reasons: hard weather, a stiff wind, a tree branch falling on the line, or a squirrel electrifying itself on the power line.
Because of the terrain at Holiday Hill and the snow level, winter storms and ice wreaked havoc on the coax cable lines, and the plan was discarded as unfeasible. During that time, and for over a year, Southern California Cable TV Corp surveyed the work that Mr Steinmann had done, and found a better location where the signal source would not be subject to winter conditions or malfunctions. The Corp. had planned this new system for over a year.
In October of 1961, the Cable TV Corp. decided to put all their planning into operation. They purchased Mr. Steinmann's rights in a business agreement with him. Mr. Steinmann had already done considerable preliminary work and had obtained all the proper easements; county franchise and pole line agreements with California Interstate Telephone Co, all at a considerable expense to him. All this was purchased by Southern California Cable TV Corp..
In March of 1962 all agreements had been signed and the necessary bonds had be posted. It was not until June of that same year, that the cable company had completed all their engineering surveys and plans. The first permits to construct the system was issued in October of 1962. About three months later the system was up and running, but not perfect. What can we say? Those four problems discussed earlier were hard to overcome.
In the early days, electricity and phone lines were sometimes put up on tree limbs, as well as attached to power poles. This new cable company promised not to use trees to install their cable. They also believed that unsightly poles in a mountain community should be kept to a minimum, so they planned to use existing utility poles as often as possible.
The lines that were constructed were as reliable as they could be, and the construction didn't seem to be done in a hasty fashion. And for years the company, which was located in Ojai, Caifornia, followed through with update equipment to keep the cable working.
Southern California Cable TV Corp offered a free trail for awhile...after that the going price was this: $10 for connection and $6 a month for service. It a customer paid annually, the cost was $5 dollars a month. It was cool...and sometimes we got more than five channels. And the rest is history.
