March is only a day away and it can't come too soon for me.

That's because Time Warner cable promises to make life easier for me.

Every few years the cable giant moves channels around to make things easier and more convenient I appreciate that.

I can remember way, way back when TV consisted of only a few channels that would fade in and out because nobody had cable so we all had antennas.

In the dark recesses of my mind, I can recall our television (we only had one, of course) coming back from the repair shop but with a twist: The technician added a UHF receiver. Early TV only allowed for channels 2 through 13, but that was expanded to 14 and over by this new wrinkle called ultra high frequency television. For the most part, it was a lot of snow on the screen, even in summer.

I can still remember the first show I saw on this UHF thing, �Kukla, Fran and Ollie,� a kids' puppets show. It was on WSEE Channel 35 in Erie, the only UHF station around. (Why can I remember that but not where I put the sync cord to my MP3 player?)

As it is now, Channel 35 was a CBS affiliate. The other Erie station, WICU Channel 12, kept switching from being an ABC affiliate to NBC. Since there were only two stations in Erie and three networks, some programs of the orphaned network would be split between 12 and 35.

Or you could take your chance on atmospheric conditions and try to pull in the three Cleveland channels, 3, 5 and 8.

It was a traumatic childhood, trying to watch �Barnaby� on Channel 3 and his � Popeye� cartoons. Just when Popeye was about to give it to Bluto or Brutus (his name changed among episodes) the station would turn to snow and you had to wait a few minutes for the picture to clear.

Then in the late 1960s Conneaut became the first community in the county to get something called CATV, or community antenna television. What it meant was there was one big antenna and for a price you could connect to it and instead of getting maybe four of five channels between Cleveland and Erie, you could fill the VHF dial with channels. Yes, not just Cleveland and Erie, but a couple of Youngstown stations and for an international flavor, a station out of London, Ontario.

But it came at a steep price, $4.50 per month.

The years went by and soon I was off to college where TV watching was kept to a minimum, not only because of the workload but because college students couldn't afford TV. I had my K mart AM-FM portable radio with cassette, thank you, and listened to the �CBS Mystery Theater� over WAKR radio in Akron.

Shortly after returning to Ashtabula County, the newest owners of CATV, now simply called cable, offered a new service, premium television, something called HBO. For a mere $6.95 more you could watch movies a few months after they were at the theater. And wow, the cost was less than the price to take the family to see one movie out.

Cable at the time was still relegated to channels 2-13, but a simple box with a button in the middle was needed for this HBO thing. You hooked it up and if you had the HBO box off, you got all of your normal channels, including local access on channel 6. Push the button in and the only channel available was HBO on that same channel 6. But boy, the language that suddenly came out of your television. And topless women too! On TV!

Over the years, the cable company changed hands and required you get a cable box to access dozens of channels. A thing called cable-ready TVs came out that allowed you to get rid of the cable box, well, until digital cable came about.

If you lived in Conneaut 11 years ago, you got TCI Cablevision with only about 40 channels, including premium programming. In Ashtabula and Geneva, you did better, with maybe 65 channels. The upshot was, the Conneaut Telephone Co. got into the cable business too in order to offer more channels.

And now we are at the cusp of March 2010 and TV is made easier again.

Way back when, you just had to remember �Kukla, Fran and Ollie� was on that new UHF station and if you wanted to see Popeye slam Bluto, you simply waited for the picture to straighten up on Channel 3.

Today TV is so much simpler. Instead of pushing a button and getting topless women on channel 6, we learn HBO in a few days will be available at channel 1603, or Cinemax at channel 1622.

It sort of rolls off your tongue.

Want to watch a classic, old movie in high definition? Just remember Turner Classic Movies is at channel 1276. Maybe you can think of a rhyme to help you remember the channel:

When watching Humphrey Bogart in the sticks

Remember to turn your TV to 1276.

Or how about�

Bare breasts you may see

By turning your TV to 1603.

Yes, we've come a long way since the 1960s when that community antenna got us a dozen channels, or even a dozen years ago, when the cable box stopped at channel 38.

Today, we get programming all the way up to channel 1701, which is the pay-per-view HD channel.

Hopefully Time-Warner will help us easily deal with the next big phenomena, carpal tunnel remote control.

Lebzelter is special sections editor. E-mail him at bobleb@starbeacon.com.