Happy New Year, television fans. Things have been quiet so far in 2026 here at Television Obscurities, with this being my first post of the year. Behind the scenes, however, I’ve been busy. I’m still hard at work getting videos back online. In most cases, this means pulling out a VHS tape and freshly digitizing the video content I need, then editing it, uploading it, and embedding it.
Many of my videos were not the best resolution and quality so I’m taking the time now to do my best to obtain the highest resolution and best quality possible. Unfortunately, it’s a time consuming process and there’s a very good chance it will take the rest of the year to get all the videos back online.
Don’t worry, that’s not all I plan on doing in 2026. I may have forgotten to post about the short-lived and obscure TV shows celebrating anniversaries this month and last month, but you can look forward to a new list in February. Next month will also see the return of The Month in Home Media column I used to publish. It’s part of a new effort to support physical media here at Television Obscurities. To that end, the column will expand to cover a wider variety of “classic” TV shows. You can also look forward to more weekly Video Vault and Audio Vault posts again in February as I get back on track with scheduling content.
Thanks largely to my paying Patreon members, last year was the first year Television Obscurities didn’t lose money. I used some of the money the website earned in 2025 to upgrade my Dropbox subscription, which means there’s plenty of storage to keep Television Obscurities properly backed up.
I also subscribed to Newspapers.com for the first six months of 2026. I’ve used this resource off and on but haven’t had a paid subscription in many years. My first goal is to try to find more information about TV stations on the air during World War II, which is a research focus of mine.
There’s a lot to look forward to in 2026, assuming I can stay on task and life doesn’t get in the way.
Thank you for all of your efforts. Last April I moved out of a one-room apartment, which had one good feature – free cable TV. I now live in a larger apartment, refuse to pay the high cost of basic cable TV, so I limit my viewing to PBS Passport, local streaming news, and whichever old shows I can find episodes of on YouTube. I. look forward to your content on classic shows, so I can see if there’s a way to sample them online free of charge.
You should check out the free streaming stations like Pluto as well. And you can also get broadcast stations using a TV antenna for free.
Patrick, thank you for your suggestions. Alas, I live in a first floor apartment (in a 2 story house) with no right to stick an antenna on the roof. Between me and the nearest TV stations, 50 miles away, are the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains, so a tall antenna is needed for TV reception. Meadville PA has one of the country’s first TV cable companies, established in the early 1950s, because TV reception is so bad. Back in the early 1950s you paid $3 a month to get 3 stations from Erie and Pittsburgh (Back then Erie only had one station, that broadcast shows from both NBC and DuMont,) Now basic cable has dozens of stations, and costs way more than $3 a month! I’ve thought of looking into streaming services, but currently only PBS has shows that interest me.