re: for those born after say 1970 dont understand.

Do what? I was born in 1972. I vividly remember getting only four channels and one was PBS. All you had for baseball was the NBC Saturday GOTW, later in the summer you'd get an ABC Monday Night Baseball game, and then both ABC and NBC would have games spread throughout the week on either a Tuesday, Thursday, or Friday.
Only a few college football games on only Saturday. Early in the year ABC would have a Saturday Night game. NFL only Sunday and Monday Night with an occasional Thursday Nighter. Being a huge Reds fan, if I missed the game on the radio(700 WLW out of Cincinnati comes in great at night here in Central MS), or the score on the news that night, Id have to wait until the local paper came the next afternoon to find the score. You need to change your age range a little. My Daddy was a huge TV lover. He always had the best and most modern antenna. At night we could get all major channels in MS(Jackson, Meridian, Hattiesburg, and Biloxi) plus New Orleans and Mobile. Good stuff.