So this was common? It confused the crap out of me back then and I kept it to myself. Haven't even thought about that time of my life much until seeing this old tv triggered the memories.
My family had one of those old massive satellite dishes as well so growing up I got to mess around with that. Many of the channels weren't intended to be viewed by the public. So you'd see things like news reporters rehearsing and getting their act together. Another day it's a marathon of Inspector Gadget without commercials. Free PPV and live events. Watch a hockey game, they cut to commercial, but you don't get the commercial, you get the announcer asking for another beer and complaining about his chair...
Yes! My uncle had one of those! I remember he would always have seen all the new shows hours early because of that thing by switching to the East Coast feed. Ahhh the days when communications weren't encrypted.
I remember the uh, dirty movies, as they were known, were 'scrambled' but sometimes you could make out the naughty bits. Things sure have changed...