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SNC – The Satellite News Channel

From Toni V – Mr. Pop – While Ted Turner tried to invade MTV’s turf with his own video music channel, didn’t someone invade Turner’s turf with an all-news channel?

Mr. Pop History – Early cable TV is filled with by-gone channels such as CBS Cable (18 months), Turner’s Cable Music Channel (5 weeks), ARTS and others.

One of the most fascinating (in my opinion) is SNC – The Satellite News Channel. Beginning in 1982, SNC was gone by 1984. Operating out of low-rent, low profile studios in Stamford (CT), SNC broadcast a sort-of headline news service where stories turned over quickly, much like CNN2/CNN Headline News. SNC (many called it “Snick’), was co-owned by Westinghouse and ABC, and was modeled after Westinghouse’ all-news radio stations. It even modified the famous “You give us 22 minutes and we’ll give you the world” logo into 18 minutes. I always found that intriguing.     

But, back in those days, cable operators had a sort of “rule of one” where they believed only one channel could own a category. With limited channel space, it was hard to get over this obstacle and that was a big part of SNC’s problem. You couldn’t blame cable operators – they only wanted winners. For all-news, CNN and Headline News did just fine.

Come back soon, as I answer, to the best of my knowledge, another one of your pop history/culture questions.