It's just TV

Ever since it became clear that the long-rumored switch of network affiliations between WAND and WICD was going to happen, I've been bothered by the same question:

Who cares?

After all, it's just TV.

Nevertheless, there are folks out there treating this like it's a really big deal. And I keep running into those folks.

It seems, if I'm to believe what I've read on the Web and elsewhere, that WICD, the local NBC affilliate from somewhere around the first ice age, and WAND, Decatur's ABC affiliate, will switch networks on Labor Day. WAND gets NBC. WICD gets ABC.

To quote my nephew: Big whoop. And this matters because ... ?

On Sept. 5 I'll still be able to see all the same programs I watched or ignored the day before. They'll just be two clicks up or two clicks down on my remote. Maybe if I didn't have cable it would matter. But it's my experience that most people either have cable or a dish. (I have a non-cable TV in my garage and it gets both stations adequately through it's little antenna.)

I don't watch much of either network, anyway. I gave up on WICD's news during the last presidential election when the station decided to air as news an hour-long W-imbecile campaign propaganda piece. You don't get to recover news credibility that's been so easily surrendered. I don't watch the Decatur news because, well, I don't live in Decatur.

About the only things I can think of that I regularly watch from either network are: Monday Night Football on ABC, which now moves to ESPN, I believe, so that's a non-issue; and a little bit of the Today Show in the morning with my Rice Krispies. OK, so now Today (and Katie's legs) will be on cable channel 10 instead of 8.

So what?

OK, this may matter to the affected stations; this may matter to the station personnel. It may matter to the stations' respective ratings.

But does it really matter to anyone else? Then why do I keep hearing about it in near-apocalyptic terms?

And so it goes.