Truth is stranger than fiction in the TV wasteland. Not that it hasn’t always been, just that recent twists and turns between the people who make TV and the people who watch it suggest we’re on the verge of a new set of rules to govern the relationship between broadcasters and viewers.

All sorts of odd things are going on that nobody wants to talk about. Less people are watching commercial TV than at any time in the past 20 years. Fewer TV sets have been sold this year than last year. Pay cable TV networks are flourishing at the expense of free TV broadcasts. Adventurous broadcasters are experimenting with 24 hour all-news and all-sports channels. Sales are soaring in the home video player and pre-recorded cassette market. And of course, corporate TV executives are staying up late trying to figure out how to re-establish the supremacy and advertising b&se rates they’ve maintained for the past 30 years.

This chaos in TV land suggests that TV isn’t'a bad idea, Once we figure out how to use it to our advantage. It seems that in the next decade we’re going to be in the midst of a broadcasting revolution based on the principle that viewers demand a freedom of choice that is more than choosing between the pap offered by NBC, CBS and ABC.

There are a number of electronic gadgets for sale which mirror the upheavals between broadcasters and viewers, holding out hope that we’re not all hypnotized zombies ready to buy and believe without question anything the networks and their sponsors dripping with disclaimers feel we should. Perhaps the most revolutionary of these gadgets are TV satellite receivers.

A few years ago the lunatic fringe of electronic hobbyists began experimenting with direct reception from the repeater satellites hovering in orbit above us. They found that it was possible, even easy, to put up a giant dish, in their backyards and tune in TV transmissions. At the time, this was illegal. Since then the Federal Communications Commission seems to have ruled in their favor. I say seems to because while it may now be legal to do this, there’s every possibility that it may not remain so for long.

The satellites used by the TV networks, cable movie networks, and other broadcasters are stationary, hovering in a fixed position above a certain location on the planet. Signals from one earth transmitter are sent up to the satellite, then captured and rebroadcast by the satellite down to a second point where the signals are received and broadcast to local TV outlets. It turns out that anyone with a 10-foot receiver dish pointed up at the satellite can receive the transmission from the satellite. So all you neetj is a big backyard and several thousand dollars to tune in on the signals coming from the satellite—signals which include all those cable TV movies and network broadcasts without the local commercials.

There are a lot more people with satellite receiver dishes in their backyards than those who broadcast the signals want to admit. Satellite receiver kits are available: one company even has a 24-hour number for those who want information, and, get this, the latest American Express gift catalog features a 12-foot diameter satellite receiver dish complete for a mere $12,500. Prices are still high, but the cost of these dishes and their associated electronics has been going down over the past few years, and there’s no doubt they will continue to do so. ,

The end result will be a small dish receiver that will allow anyone to pick these signals out of the air without commercials and without paying for them. Technology conquering, technology and leaving the broadcasters gasping on the way to the FCC to get them to make this illegal so they can continue to make their billions of dollars from supplying us with soap suds and violence.

Next to satellite transmission and reception, the other new TV gadgets are mundane, but no less entertaining and revolutionary for those who have tired of normal TV habits. For instance, a company named Sampo now has a TV set with three screens—one big 19” color, two 5” b&w’s—so you .can watch three TV shows at once, or two TV shows and your front door with a $250 monitor camera. Another TV manufacturer is putting out a model that allows, you to plug your phone line into your TV and your TV will buzz when you get a phone call; you answer with your remote control box, and talk to your TV set to take your phone call—the sound coming out of the TV speaker, your voice picked up by a microphone built-in into the TV.

The most exciting new TV development is the combination of the video player and the projection TV. Showing video movie cassettes— like those rented by Fotomat—through a video projector, turn your TV into a small movie theater. This is really a great experience, $nd a fine way to entertain yourself with TV electronics without having to suffer through the lies of broadcast TV.

The first video projectors cost $3,000 and more. But recent developments in fast plastic lenses and the projector screens have made it possible to enlarge the normal TV picture to about four feet and give the viewer a reasonably bright picture for much less money.

One new video projection system, called UltraVision, sells for $499.00. For that you get a lens mount and projection screen—you supply the color TV set. The set has to have two slight modifications (mainly so the picture is switched backwards so it winds up on the screen forwards).

Like other innovations in TV use, watching video cassettes on a video projection screen creates a change in viewing habits. The same difference that exists between playing a record or listening to records on the radio—namely no commercials and the ability to listen/watch when you want to, not when somebody else schedules it. If you’ve grown up watching movies and other TV programs in 12-minute segments, the experience may require a reworking of your attention span, but the genuine entertainment derived from being in control of your TV set is worth it.