Question About Cable TV

I survived many years without cable. I’ve always had a tv in the house, but it was for watching dvds and, once a week, the Simpsons. I figured if I wanted information about a breaking story that I couldn’t get from the radio or the net, it would be a big enough story that it would be on the local stations too.

But once you get married, you compromise. The Ex-GF wanted cable. She likes to watch CSI. And she likes to watch poker too. So we have cable.

And on days like today, where its raining outside, I take advantage of it. Instead of jogging, I bounce around indoors, and I generally do it with the tv on. So I’ve made what is probably an obvious observation. The channels are repeated. You can see CSI on Spike TV (they’re the old ones, but they’re new to us). Spike is on channel 76. Its also on channel a hundred and something. And its somewhere else too.

Why? (Forgive my ignorance about TV if the answer is obvious, but I really don’t know. And I don’t think the reason is HDTV – two versions of a station would do it, but we seem to have three of several of them unless I’m missing something.)