When you pay for cable TV, but the best thing on is always the music in the background

Terry Mackin
·3 min read

“Fifty-seven channels and nothin’ on …” – Bruce Springsteen

Music plays non-stop in my home.

Sometimes loud; sometimes low.

It comes from an old-fashioned iPod that is plugged into a vintage radio-speaker, resting on my fireplace step.

The vintage speaker reminds me of the evolution from vinyl albums to 8-tracks to cassettes to digital.

Lived them all.

But I have been listening to the same music, though.

Music is the background noise in my home. From Tweedy to Prine to Springsteen to Ellis Paul to Gin Blossoms to Bottle Rockets to Tom Petty to Poco. I live in a musical time warp. New music to me is anything after Y2K.

One reason music plays in my home is that I forget to turn it off and it becomes my background noise.

Music is playing when I am home or not. Late in the day, when I get home from work, it’s good news when a favorite song greets me. Like a baseball walk-up song but backwards. How’d the old iPod know I was coming home?

I was welcomed home by Van Morrison’s “Bright Side of the Road.” I felt like I should skip on down the road and buy lottery tickets.

John Hiatt’s “Have a Little Faith In Me” welcomed me home another night. It had been a challenging day. I needed it.

Probably the biggest reason that I play music non-stop is that I don’t watch TV often.

Fact: I chose my cable provider by whether it offers Bally Sports and I can watch Cardinals or Blues games. Seriously.

I have never seen an episode of “Yellowstone.”

Binge watching? Once I watched three episodes of “Family Feud” in succession. That was plenty. Easily distracted on the third episode. Steve Harvey was funny but seemed annoyed, or maybe I was?

I’ve not counted my available TV stations, but it seems like there are thousands.

Springsteen’s song is right – there’s nothin’ on.

At least not something that I want to watch for more than 15 minutes.

It’s a personal choice. In general, I’d rather read, write or listen to music than watch TV. Or daydream. Wander around in my head awhile.

So if there is not a game on TV, I might watch an Andy Griffith rerun.

“Hogan’s Heroes,” too

I watch local news, occasionally.

I don’t watch 24/7 news stations because it’s usually a lopsided viewpoint and I think it’s bad for my health.

I love the ESPN “30 for 30” documentaries. I don’t think I have seen one I didn’t like. The best show on TV.

I will watch “Antiques Roadshow” occasionally. I am not sure why. My old junk is sentimental but likely worthless. Mostly stuff from my parents and grandparents that my kids don’t want and I can’t pitch yet.

I will watch the Golf Channel on weeknights and live golf on weekends. Golf on TV is mesmerizing. It always makes me feel warmer. I watch basketball, football and baseball. Hockey too, but only the Blues.

I don’t flip around channels much.

I’ll watch commercials, but Jake from State Farm and Mayhem are getting annoying.

When the game’s over, I usually turn music back on.

Let’s hear some Tom Petty, “American Girl.”

Or Don Henley’s “Boys of Summer.”

John Prine’s “Sam Stone.”

Maybe Uncle Tupelo’s “Still Be Around.”

I have more than 150 inches of available TV screen space in my home. I pay a monthly cable bill. Hundreds of available TV stations. But some of my best TV nights are when it’s turned off.