McFarland Cable Channel History
McFarland Cable came into being in the late 70's. Cable television networks were in their infancy with around 13 channels. In the early days, WMCF Cable would share channel space with other cable system programming. The original programming originated out of the McFarland Lutheran Church basement.
Over the years, the Community of McFarland has been provided cable service from the following cable providers:
- Complete Channel
- TCI
- ATT
- Charter Communications
In the early 80's the first "live" government meetings were sent out to the community on channel 12. Prior to that programming was played on a delayed basis. The cameras were black and white and 3/4" VCR was the equipment used for playback and recording. Amiga was the computer used for video titling and production.
In the 90's the Station upgraded with a video toaster 4000 and Panasonic Editing Decks. In the mid-90's WMCF cable moved towards automated playback of programming and a new PC-based Character Generator.
In early 2000 the Station began moving toward digital production. The Station slowly acquired some digital cameras and upgraded its production equipment, as well as acquired its first nonlinear editor.
What's next for the evolution of Cable 12? Server playback of programming will be the next advancement of technology. This will involve capturing or encoding programming in a computer-based format and then scheduling it for playback.
September 30th, 2008 Charter communications moved McFarland channel 12 to channel 98 analog and digital channel 982.