Tempo (Jayverse)
Tempo Television is a cable television network that broadcast in the United States since 1979 as the Satellite Program Network before Rebranding to Tempo Television in 1985 and is still owned by Mutual Broadcasting, Inc.
History
SPN was created by Ed Taylor, an associate of Ted Turner and the head of the Southern Satellite Systems company. The network, which began in 1979, was the second-oldest cable-only network. In 1985, SPN was acquired by Satellite Syndicated Systems.
Satellite Program Network
Among the programs broadcast on SPN were Video Concert Hall, an early music video show (before the launch of MTV); News from Home, a program for Canadians in the US, hosted by early CNN news anchor Don Miller; The Shopping Game, a Nicholson-Muir game show produced in Nashville and hosted by Art James; The Susan Noon Show, featuring celebrity interviews; Nutrition Dialogue, hosted by Dr. Betty Kamen; Sewing with Nancy; The Paul Ryan Show, another celebrity interview program with the actor/interviewer of the same name; and Moscow Meridian, a current-affairs program produced by Soviet authorities and hosted by Vladimir Posner. Reruns of old situation comedies and movies, mostly from low-budget studios, rounded out the schedule.
In 1984, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) paid SPN to broadcast some college football games of the Division I-AA playoffs, following a Supreme Court ruling (NCAA v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma) that halted the NCAA's practice of negotiating television contracts for its members.
The Rebrand to Tempo Television
In March 1986, Satellite Syndicated Systems changed its name to Tempo Enterprises, and SPN and SPN International were changed to Tempo Television and TEMPO International, respectively. Tempo Television was a 24-hour national cable network serving all contiguous states, including Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico.
Using a counter-programming philosophy, Tempo Television fulfilled viewer needs by dividing its program schedule into various dayparts including international programming, finance, sports, leisure and classic films. Market studies clearly indicated that this unique programming approach attracted and retained upscale audiences who were looking for entertainment that was informative and substantially different from the standard options.
In 1987, Tempo secured the Rights to the Showstopper American Dance Championship (now Showstopper Finals) from Myrtle Beach, SC with Glenn Scarpelli stepping in as Host, also that year Tempo joined forces with SETN to televise rebroadcasts of NASCAR Winston Cup Series, However it was a Success and Tempo secured rights to Miss Choir Drill USA in 1988 and decided to keep outdoor and sports programming (including WAC Conference College Football including the Hawaii Rainbows) and moved all International Programming to the Travel Channel and Finance Programming to FNN and Classic Public Domain Feature Movies (except on Late Night Saturday and Sundays which lasted until January 1990) Making Way for Music Videos which featured mostly Top 40 and Adult Contemporary and 1980s Mainstream Pop Songs with a lost of Rhythmic Jams mixed in as well as Rights to the Saturday Night Music Machine which ran on Detroit Television since 1983.
In 1991, Tempo acquired the Rights to Dance Party USA and aired it's first episode in July 8th with Princess (Heather Day) and Bobby Catalano hosting show along with Cathi Casumpang from another new Show on Tempo called One House Street (which is produced by the Same People who brought Dance Party USA).
In 1993, Following the Success of FTL Newsfeed which is shown on Sci-Fi Channel (which is owned by Paramount Pictures and Mutual Broadcasting), Tempo spun off FTL Newsfeed to a 30 Minute Sportcast consisting of fictitious sports reports that were supposed to have come from 150 years in the future which is titled CommLink SportsDesk anchored by Linda Cohn (as a Clone of Herself) and Chip Herman (Played by Joe Casaliggi) however the broadcast continued after FTL Newsfeed ended it's run on the Sci-Fi Channel in December 1996 and still currently airs today as of 2019 anchored by a clone of Keith Olbermann (played by Keith Olbermann himself) and Melanie Morrison (played by Missy Morrison) respectively.