Watercrest Apartments are very close to the TV transmission towers for
Houston - if your apartment faces West you can see
them in the distance near Missouri City. This means you can
receive TV channels free with a small antenna in your apartment - my
antenna is a small non-amplified
square antenna taped to the back of my TV set connected to the
TV's "Antenna" input*. Reception from an antenna can provide an
alternate source of TV programming when cable is unavailable.
* If your cable box already uses the "Antenna" input you can
buy a splitter or switch to hook up two cables at a store's TV department.
With the migration to Digital Television completed at the end of 2018 only newer televisions will receive the television channels. Use your remote to switch your TV input from "Cable" (or HDMI) to "Antenna". Most TVs can be set from a set-up menu to search for and program channels it finds. Your Digital TV will find various sub-channels for each with completely different programming.
Here is a list of the channels available in HoustonAlthough different cities are listed, most broadcast from the 'antenna farm' near Missouri City not far from us.
Disclaimer: I still use cable but many viewers use off-the-air TV supplemented with paid streaming services such as Netflix
