the growth in viewership stalled. Viewers com-
plained of repetitious programming. In response,
cable companies instituted original programming.
HBO and Showtime produced series and original
movies for television. Nickelodeon commissioned
original animated series for children. MTV added
so-called reality series. The pressure to maintain
growth was unending.
Television viewers with cable access were no lon-
ger dependent on network evening news broadcasts,
whose audience declined steadily. Viewers preferred
up-to-the-minute news that could be tuned in at any
time. Large corporations took over the networks
and enforced cost-cutting measures in the network
news operations. The networks jettisoned foreign
bureaus. CNN, with an expanding international
presence, became a primary source for news around
the world. Critics described CNN as “crisis news net-
work,” because audiences increased during crisis
coverage, a type of coverage at which twenty-four-
hour news channels excelled. During slow news cy-
cles, however, CNN still had to fill its airtime, and
critics complained about the network’s tendency to
do so with less weighty lead stories reminiscent of
those found in the tabloids.
Television viewers developed new habits of pro-
gram selection that were troublesome to commer-
cial television broadcasters. Channel surfing, or
channel grazing—switching from channel to chan-
nel to avoid commercials or select different pro-
gramming—became a common habit as more chan-
nels became available. Advertisers could no longer
count on their commercials being seen by the major-
ity of a channel’s viewers. However, the ability to
narrowcast on specialized channels combined with
the reduced expense of placing commercials on ca-
ble television helped convince advertisers not to
abandon television advertising. Indeed, as they rec-
ognized the growing power of cable television, they
accelerated spending in cable markets. From 1980
to 1989, advertising dollars spent on cable increased
from $53 million to $1.5 billion.
Further Reading
Auletta, Ken.Media Man: Ted Turner’s Improbable Em-
pire. New York: W. W. Norton, 2004. Personal por-
trait of Ted Turner.
___.Three Blind Mice: How the TV Networks Lost
Their Way. New York: Random House, 1991. Details
the factors that led to the precipitous decline of
broadcast network viewership. Excellent behind-
the-scenes descriptions.
McGrath, Tom.MTV: The Making of a Revolution.
Philadelphia: Running Press, 1996. Inside story
of MTV from its inception through 1992.
Roman, James.Love, Light, and a Dream: Television’s
Past, Present, and Future. Westport, Conn.: Praeger,- Perspective on different eras of television.
Vane, Edwin T., and Lynne S. Gross.Programming for
TV, Radio, and Cable. Boston: Focal Press, 1994.
Excellent information on ratings and networks.
Nancy Meyer
See also Bakker, Jim and Tammy Faye; Children’sColorization of black-and-white films
films;Flashdance; Home shopping channels; Ma-
donna;Miami Vice; MTV; Music videos; Televangel-
ism; Turner, Ted.CAD/CAM technology
Definition Employment of computers to aid in
industrial or architectural design and to guide
the automated manufacture of parts or
commodities
Developments in CAD and CAM technology in the 1980’s
streamlined the manufacturing process by expediting the de-
sign, analysis, testing, documentation, and manufactur-
ing of products and parts. CAD and CAM also utilized
databases and innovative networking systems, such as
Ethernet, in order to increase the efficiency of all elements
involved in the process, including engineers, suppliers,
managers, craftsmen, factor y supervisors, materials han-
dlers, factor y layout, and machines.
CAD (computer-aided design) technology allows
designers to develop precise plans and schematics
for everything from snack foods and pharmaceuti-
cal pills to mechanical parts and buildings. CAM
(computer-aided manufacturing) technology helps
automate the realization of such schematics by pro-
viding instructions to automated machines that
carry out repetitive assembly and manufacturing
tasks. These technologies were born from computer
graphics research in the 1950’s. However, as late as
the mid-1980’s, the practical application of these
technologies faced many obstacles: Two major and
closely related problems were the expense of com-
puter technology and the lack of incentive for man-168 CAD/CAM technology The Eighties in America