Quote:
Originally Posted by old_tv_nut
Teletext use was expected to mainly be on-screen, with printing used infrequently, much like a modern internet service. In Chicago, where Zenith was located, the service from Atlanta was broadcast. For a while, there was a long-haul trucking jobs listing service, and it was intended that teletext receivers would be installed at major truck stops so independent truckers could bid/apply for runs (I'm not sure exactly how it worked). Another service was intended for home use and had things like news summaries, horoscopes, recipe of the day, and so on. I had a Zenith rear projo with Teletext at home, and would call the service sometimes to request a particular recipe to be posted, or answer the day's puzzle. The broadcasts in Chicago also contained test pages of repeating characters that made the clock recovery particularly difficult. One of these was titled something like "Page for Gary." Gary was an engineer at Zenith working on Teletext. The page stayed up long after the attempts at commercial service died, until Teletext was removed entirely.
PS: Teletext coding was at a low data rate, intended to be relatively ghost-resistant without requiring a ghost correction circuit in the receiver.
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As a teletext junkie, I want to correct some misconceptions. WTBS did carry the Chicago-based service, Keyfax, for a time from 1982 to 84. I'm not sure on who inserted it, but thanks to an ex-Turner employee, I can confirm they had nothing to do with the next teletext service they had in their VBI, Electra. Electra originated in 1983 as a local service in Cincinatti OH, created by Taft Broadcasting and carried over their then-flagship, WKRC-12. It began to be carried over WTBS' national satellite signal in 1985, and was put in the signal by Satellite Syndicated Systems/TEMPO Enterprises, the people in charge of uplinking WTBS to cable companies. They also added their own service, Tempo Text, which carried stock quotes (or sports, depending on the source). Ultimately, both services were discontinued by 1993 thanks to a lack of interest, Zenith not making TVs with teletext decoders anymore, and Taft-- by this point renamed to Great American Broadcasting, and soon afterwards renamed again to Citicasters-- undergoing lots of corporate shakeups meaning no funding (ironically, during said reorganizations, they sold their Hanna-Barbera animation firm to.... Turner).
There were also two different services carried via the Discovery Channel, Infotext (which revolved around agricultural news and such, as well as AP news and sports), and Datavizion, a family-oriented service which carried quizzes, games, etc. as well as a satellite TV guide.
Now, apparently it is possible to extract teletext from S-VHS, so hopefully there are some S-VHS tapes of WTBS from before 1993 that could have pages extracted from them.