Channel 191

I moved from California to Georgia when I was about eight years old. I was a regular kid, playing sports and trying my hand in every hobby there was at the time (including Beyblades). But it wasn't until around age 11 that technology came knocking at my door. You see, there was this channel...

Channel 191 (Dish Network). I sat there in amazement as I saw a guy installing something on his Xbox, putting games on the hard drive, and playing them without the disks. To this day I attribute my love for technology and gaming to this one moment in time and space: An episode of “The Screen Savers” with Kevin Rose softmodding his Xbox with EvolutionX.

I softmodded my Xbox, I bricked it. I secretly swapped it out with a friend's Xbox who didn't have a power cord. I bricked that one too. I came upon a third one and...Success! 80GB softmodded Xbox with a shit load of anime. I was on my way. My hunger for tech was always satisfied by the ever present TechTV. It gave me the push I needed to later build my first computer at age 14 and repair PSP screens (I kept sitting on mine). By then, I was fully entrenched in the "Geek Lifestyle" (do I smell trademark?).

TechTV changed my life. Period.

The Screen Savers, X-Play, Filter, and Icons, among others. These shows were what shaped me, what brought me home everyday after school to plop down on the couch and watch. I absorbed everything that they broadcasted, although most of it I vaguely remember.

But wait: who are you? G...4? What is this G4? Merger? What is “merger”?

Just as fast as TechTV came into my life, it was taken right back out. Things were changing. Shows were seeming a bit off and new hosts were coming in that I didn't like all that much.

And then people started leaving. Kevin Rose, Leo Laporte. I stuck around with Sarah Lane even after they changed the name to “Attack of the Show” (OMG WTF). But when she left and two all new hosts had pretty much taken over, the channel was lost. G4TechTV soon gave way to G4TV--the most disgusting, SpikeTV-esque television programming to ever crawl out of the Comcast hole.

Cops? Cheaters? Random Japanese game shows? What happened? Before I knew it, the channel had morphed into some hideous, non-Tech monster that makes me cringe every time I scroll over it in the TV Guide.

TechTV vanished and along with it some memorable shows and people. But there was some good to come of it, with Kevin's Digg and Leo's TWiT.

I guess this could be taken as some kind of weird farewell post to a long gone television channel, but I feel it necessary to thank those who helped in making me the person I am today. Every time I think back on how I got to this point in my life, TechTV instantly stands out as the deciding factor.

So thank you TechTV hosts and staff; you were the catalyst that turned me into the loner, sun-hating technophile that I am today :)

Adrian