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Movements, leaders, victories and the continuing fight for equality.
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Katherine Johnson’s mathematical calculations helped guide some of America’s most important early space missions while she confronted the racial and gender barriers faced by Black women in twentieth-century America.
MORE →Reflects the personal views, recollections, and perspective of the author, Mike Davis.
This is a personal recollection on the Move fire on May 13, 1985
 | This article needs more citations. (July 2014) |
| PrimeStar | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Industry | Direct broadcast satellite broadcasting |
| Founded | November 1990 |
| Defunct | September 30, 2000 |
| Fate | Acquired by DirecTV |
| Successor | DirecTV |
| Headquarters | Denver, Colorado |
| Website | Primestar.com |
PrimeStar was an American direct broadcast satellite broadcasting company formed in November 1990 by seven cable television companies including Comcast Corp. and TCI Communications Corp.[1] PrimeStar was the first medium-powered DBS system in the United States but slowly declined in popularity with the arrival of DirecTV in 1994 and Dish Network in 1996.
PrimeStar was a medium-powered DBS-style system utilizing FSS technology that used a larger 3-foot (91 cm) satellite dish to receive signals.
Broadcast originally in analog, they later converted to digital technology. The system used the DigiCipher 1 system for conditional access control and video compression. The video format was MPEG-2.[2] Primestar's satellite receivers were made by General Instrument.
PrimeStar was owned by a consortium of cable television companies who leased equipment to subscribers through the local cable company.
The company was in the process of converting to a high-powered DBS platform when it was purchased and shut down by DirecTV. The Tempo-1 and Tempo-2 DBS satellites acquired by PrimeStar from the defunct ASkyB were renamed DirecTV-5 and DirecTV-6, respectively.
The system initially launched using medium-powered FSS satellites that were facing obsolescence with the onset of high-powered DBS and its much smaller, eighteen-inch satellite dishes. In a move to convert the platform to DBS, PrimeStar, originally based in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania before moving to the suburbs of Denver, Colorado in 1997,[3] bid for the 110-degree satellite location that was eventually awarded to a never-launched direct broadcast satellite service by MCI and News Corporation called ASkyB, or American Sky Broadcasting, named after News Corp's British Sky Broadcasting, also named as a combination of the merged companies British Satellite Broadcasting and Sky Television.
The ASkyB company sold the incomplete Tempo 1 and Tempo 2 DBS satellites to PrimeStar in the process of going out of business.[4] PrimeStar launched Tempo-2 in 1997 but it was not used for many years. PrimeStar stored the other satellite, Tempo-1, until the company and the two satellites were purchased by DirecTV.[5] DirecTV eventually launched the Tempo 1 satellite after years of delays as the DirecTV-5 satellite in 2002.[6] Meanwhile, ASkyB's license for the 110-degree satellite location, and an uplink center, was resold to EchoStar, the parent company of Dish Network. The 110-degree satellite is now named EchoStar West 110 and is the most commonly used satellite, along with 119 as both can be received with a single wide-format parabolic dish, providing signal to North America.
PrimeStar Partners sold its assets to DirecTV in 1999 and after briefly being known as PrimeStar by DirecTV all subscribers were converted to the DirecTV platform in 2000. The PrimeStar brand and its FSS broadcast platform was shut down. Meanwhile, Tempo 1 and Tempo 2 satellite remained and were renamed DirecTV-5 and DirecTV-6, respectively, and moved to several locations to serve DirecTV customers.
During Primestar's years as a competing satellite television provider, it originally had a 95-channel lineup. However, beginning on April 20, 1997, Primestar announced it would add 65 channels, for a total of 160 channels. However, due to a lack of capacity on the FSS platform, many channels only aired for part of the day or week (e.g., MuchMusic USA aired weekdays from 2:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. ET, and weekends from 12:00 to 5:00 p.m. ET[7]). Primestar, also at this time in 1997, grouped their channels by category, (e.g., "NEWS", "FAMILY", "SPORTS", "MOVIES", etc.), and added a color-coded button on the remote for each category. When pressed, it would bring the user to the beginning of that category, (e.g., pressing the orange "FAMILY" button would bring the user to Nickelodeon which was first in that category). Primestar called this feature "Hyper-Surfing". (Earlier remotes that lacked the buttons could instead use repetitive channel numbers to bring them to the desired category.)
Old PrimeStar satellite dishes are popular among hobbyists for free-to-air (FTA) satellite broadcasts on the Ku band transponders of FSS satellites.
The dishes are also popular for wireless computer networking as high-gain Wi-Fi antennas. The antennas are also used by amateur (ham) radio operators to transmit two-way amateur television.
Source: Wikipedia. Article content is retrieved live through the MediaWiki API.
PrimeStar was an American direct broadcast satellite broadcasting company formed in November 1990 by seven cable television companies including Comcast Corp. and TCI Communications Corp. PrimeStar was the first medium-powered DBS system in the United States but slowly declined in popularity with the arrival of DirecTV in 1994 and Dish Network in 1996.
Two different NASCAR races have been known as the Primestar 500: Primestar 500 (Atlanta), held at Atlanta Motor Speedway in March in 1997 and 1998 Primestar 500 (Texas), held at Texas Motor Speedway in March 1999
The 1999 Primestar 500 was the sixth stock car race of the 1999 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the third iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, March 28, 1999, in Fort Worth, Texas at Texas Motor Speedway, a 1.5 miles (2.4 km) permanent tri-oval shaped racetrack. The race took the scheduled 334 laps to complete. Nearing the end of the race, Hendrick Motorsports driver Terry Labonte would make a late-race move to pass Robert Yates Racing driver Dale Jarrett for the lead. With three to go, the caution came out for Jimmy Spencer, handing the win to Labonte. The win was Labonte's 21st career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his only victory of the season. To fill out the podium, Jarrett and Joe Gibbs Racing driver Bobby Labonte would finish second and third, respectively.
The 1998 Primestar 500 was the fourth stock car race of the 1998 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 39th iteration of the event. The race was originally scheduled to be held on Sunday, March 8, 1998, but was postponed to Monday, March 9 due to rain. The race was held in Hampton, Georgia at Atlanta Motor Speedway, a 1.54 miles (2.48 km) permanent asphalt quad-oval intermediate speedway. The race took the scheduled 325 laps to complete. In the late stages of the race, Joe Gibbs Racing driver Bobby Labonte would manage to pass for the lead with 47 to go and take his sixth career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his first victory of the season. To fill out the podium, Robert Yates Racing driver Dale Jarrett and Penske-Kranefuss Racing driver Jeremy Mayfield would finish second and third, respectively.
Before the 1921 destruction of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, Black residents had created a remarkable center of business and community life. The district included stores, professional offices, entertainment venues and homes owned by Black citizens. Understanding Greenwood means learning what was built—not only what was burned.
MORE →The Greenwood District.