I don't know what it was like where you lived, but in the early to mid 90s, even if you were not subscribing to a particular premium or pay-per-view cable channel, if you turned to that channel on the dial, the audio part of the programme would come through perfectly and you could listen to it. It was just the picture that would be heavily scrambled and distorted. And occasionally, the picture would even clear up enough for you to make out the images on the screen.

I would use this feature quite a bit with pay-per-view wrestling events like Wrestlemania and stuff. They used to cost $40 and up for you to order and watch them, far too much for a 3-hour tv programme. But even if you didn't order the actual event, if you turned to the channel it was on, you could still find out what was going on by listening to what the commentators were saying. In this way, you could listen to the event like it was a radio broadcast.

Another thing I would use this feature with, besides wrestling events, was pay-per-view porn movies! That probably sounds pathetic, wasting your time watching porn movies where you can't even see what's going on most of the time. But hey, I was just 13-15 years old! And like I said, the picture would occasionally clear up enough for you to get a good look at what was happening.

But it was usually just the audio that'd come through, though. The sound usually consisted of cheesy synthesizer music or people moaning in a very embellished, unconvincing way. One thing I noticed was that my local pay-per-view cable company started putting on more graphic, hardcore porn movies as time went on. When they first started showing porn in 1993, it was all tame, softcore movies where the people didn't speak and the only sound consisted of music in the background. But by 95, it had gotten much more hardcore, with close-up penetration shots and lots of heavy moaning and profanity.

In the late 90s, they modified the way cable tv worked so you couldn't even get any picture at all or listen to the audio if you weren't a subscriber to the channel. It came to an end, but I suppose it was kind of fun while it lasted.

Wow, you must be like my clone or something, I did the exact same thing

I used to watch the Blurry PPV Channels for the WWF and WCW PPV's back in 1999 all the time and I would also watch the Porn Stations (Adam & Eve Channel and the Spice Channel)

Actually mine was like that untill atleast 2001, I still remember watching Wrestlemania 17 with the Blurry PPV station. My most memorable time though was watching WCW Spring Stampede in April 1999 when Diamond Dallas Page won the WCW Title for the first time (Sorry to bore you Non-Wrasslin Fans)

lol, I also remember being Pathetic enough to Record the Scrambled PPV Station one time when I taped WWF Fully Loaded 1999

I hated it when they stopped doing it, now when I turn it on one of those stations, it's all snow and I can't hear the station

I used to watch the scrambled pay per view channels all the time.  I even tried to use one of those dials that tune your antenna to unscramble it, but it never worked  :\'(

Actually mine was like that untill atleast 2001, I still remember watching Wrestlemania 17 with the Blurry PPV station. My most memorable time though was watching WCW Spring Stampede in April 1999 when Diamond Dallas Page won the WCW Title for the first time (Sorry to bore you Non-Wrasslin Fans)


Did your one stay like that until 2001? Lucky you. Where I lived, it stopped around 1997/98.

We had this channel in the 90's in Canada, called the Pay-Per-View preview channel and at night they would show previews of porn movies that were coming on pay-per-view, and I used to stay up to watch the previews! :P When I look back now, I'm like what was I thinking?! Because I'm not into porn now and I wasn't really into it then either, just curious ;D.

Wow, you must be like my clone or something, I did the exact same thing

I used to watch the Blurry PPV Channels for the WWF and WCW PPV's back in 1999 all the time and I would also watch the Porn Stations (Adam & Eve Channel and the Spice Channel)

Actually mine was like that untill atleast 2001, I still remember watching Wrestlemania 17 with the Blurry PPV station. My most memorable time though was watching WCW Spring Stampede in April 1999 when Diamond Dallas Page won the WCW Title for the first time (Sorry to bore you Non-Wrasslin Fans)

lol, I also remember being Pathetic enough to Record the Scrambled PPV Station one time when I taped WWF Fully Loaded 1999

I hated it when they stopped doing it, now when I turn it on one of those stations, it's all snow and I can't hear the station
I used to do that late 90's till 2003 for wrestling it was blurry my favorite PPV was fall brawl the money maker for this PPV was war games

I remember my first glance at POV, it was the pay preview channel at the hotel, I even tried convincing my parents to let my watch it. My first actual view at a pay per view film, was "Dances With Wolves".

The first I could ever remember was when I went over to a friends birthday part around January/February 1996 and we turned on the Blurry PPV Channel to watch "Mortal Kombat" the Movie