Today in 1977, an experimental Television cable service called QUBE had its first day of test operations in Columbus, Ohio. One of the first cable TV systems, and the first television service with any interactive services, QUBE had an outstanding for the time 30 channels. It could probably best be described as a beta run for how TV would work in the following years. That being said, it was a financial failure, but given all that was learned from it, does that really matter?
Also, there was a breakout channel original to QUBE that is still around to this day. Station C-3 was called Pinwheel, and was QUBE's dedicated children's station, and likewise one of the first dedicated children's programming channels. The main show on the station was a children's variety show of the same name. In 1979, the next stage of the Pinwheel station was launched, detached from QUBE, on a national scale. Now called Nickelodeon, The pinwheel tv show was it's primary series on the network for the first few years, but then the 80's and later the 90's happened and the rest is history
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