The year is 1998, and a new satellite tv company opened for business with a promotion that I couldn’t resist, and wasn’t even close to what the cable company was offering. I jumped on board, and got to see so many TV channels that I never new existed.
Growing up, our family watched tv with rabbit ears antennas and could pick up 3 or 4 local TV channels. Eventually, we then signed up for cable tv, which offered dozens of channels from all around. In 1998 our telephone company began offering satellite tv services and sent us an invitation with free installation and discounts on equipment. So we took advantage of the deal. The dozens of cable channels that I knew, now expanded to hundreds of channels from all around the world, including one channel that I was instantly hooked on. Game Show Network. An entire TV channel dedicated to airing classic game shows. It wouldn’t be until a year later that I learned that this channel aired 24 hours a day when our satellite company unlocked the channel after 6pm. Before that it was sharing space with an adult movie channel.
I was already interested in game shows, since our local channels already offered new episodes of Chain Reaction and Supermarket Sweep. But Game Show Network introduced me into a whole new world of game shows that I never knew existed from the 1950’s – 1980’s. I then began on my journey to learn as much as I could, and even created a website and launched the domain classicgameshows.com, where I could post updates on Game Show Network’s schedule, highlights and screen caps of episodes airing on the channel and news surrounding the game show industry.
After a few years of bringing news and highlights to the Internet, the host that provided the domain to me went out of business, and my domain went down with it. Which was about the same time that Game Show Network began eliminating the classic content from their channel, and I didn’t have the same passion for the the newer shows as much as the classics. It wasn’t until a few years later that I got back online, and by that time, my domain was already taken by another company.
I didn’t have much to talk about, since “Classics” were reduced to an hour per day, and the variety of shows were limited to Match Game or Pyramid. I enjoy those shows, but the lack of variety didn’t help with my passion for the oldest and most random game shows. Until the launch of Buzzr.
I then wanted to show my appreciation of their channel by posting in several discussion groups and creating a successful video channel featuring their content. After an issue with a 3rd party content owner, not involving Buzzr or Fremantle, who were supportive of my fan sites, and had no issue of me promoting their channel. I decided to bring my content to my own website once again.
By this time, my original domain was now owned by an online advertisement site, with no sign of it being given up any time soon, so I obtained the Canadian equivalent classicgameshows.ca and began once again my passion of sharing information and news regarding the classic game show industry. With BuzzrTV in full swing, and online streaming sites promoting classic game shows on their services, including bringing The Price is Right out of the vault, and 24 hour channels for Family Feud, Supermarket Sweep, Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune. It just felt right to share my passion with everyone once again.
Today, I was updating my site, and decided to check out my old domain name to see if it was still selling soccer shoes, and noticed that the site didn’t load. I checked with their domain host, and learned that the name had expired and was available now if I wanted it. So I quickly jumped at the chance, and was able to acquire my childhood domain name, that started all my passion for classic game shows while watching Game Show Network, and now Buzzr.
It is once again a great time to be a Classic Game Show fan!
Thanks for watching!
