When I was a kid, we lived in the country and we had an antenna on the roof of the house that looked almost exactly like the one pictured above (available at Ace). It was huge and always swayed precariously during midwest thunderstorms. With that giant aluminum monstrosity of an antenna, we received four channels. NBC, CBS, ABC and PBS. I think all four of them signed off with the Star Spangled Banner at night. That was it, the end of the broadcast day, time to go to bed.

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I loved visiting my friends that had cable or a satellite dish. Of course, everyone now has either cable or a dish or high speed internet for hundreds of viewing options. After decades of being a cable TV subscriber, we switched to Sling this year (along with a handful of other apps) and we've been pretty happy about it, with one exception. Local channels.

Our family's need for local NBC, CBS and FOX really kicked into high-gear when football season began. Even with an NFL Ticket subscription, there are still games that are blacked out. The ONLY way to watch them is from the on-air broadcast. Of course, we didn't have any antennas. Who does? Making things more difficult, I live in a spot where it's really hard to receive FOX. This crazy-eight style, indoor antenna (positioned in PRECISELY the right spot in our living room) is the only one that worked.

Michael Foth ~ Townsquare Media Billings
Michael Foth ~ Townsquare Media Billings
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But wait.. the kid wants to watch local channels on the TV in her room too. She cleverly taped this antenna model above her window.

Michael Foth ~ Townsquare Media Billings
Michael Foth ~ Townsquare Media Billings
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I have to buy yet another antenna so we can watch "The Voice" on the bedroom TV. It seems pretty funny that literally decades after we all ditched antennas... we now have to hook up antennas. One cool thing, if it's been a few years since you've watched "antenna TV," there are quite a few channels. We get like twenty-some. It's great to be able to watch the local news again. An added bonus? We can still watch TV when our Spectrum internet (frequently) drops out.

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