The worse old days of L.A. TV

In advance of this week's FCC vote on media ownership, L.A. Times business writer James Bates remembers when Los Angeles TV channels stopped at 2-4-5-7-9-11-13 and the only Dodgers games shown were from San Francisco. His essay works in old L.A. TV hands Lloyd Thaxton, Dick Lane, Joe Pyne, Earle C. Anthony and Mad Man Muntz, recalls early pay experiments like the Z-Channel, and concludes that "L.A. always has been a surprisingly desolate media landscape considering that Southern California is to American entertainment culture what Olduvai Gorge is to early man." If he argues anything, it's that the FCC rules won't matter much -- there's nothing good on anyway.