As I have mentioned in the past, the arrival of cable television came early to Medford, Oregon...around 1971 or so, when I was in second grade. It consisted of channels piped up from the San Francisco Bay Area, Sacramento, and down from Portland. It was wonderful and kept my dad and I glued to the TV set at all times.
The first actual "cable" stations that I can recall was, I think, CBN (Christian Broadcasting Network) which I watched religiously (hee, hee, hee) as they showed reruns of BACHELOR FATHER, THE JACK BENNY SHOW, THE MANY LOVES OF DOBIE GILLIS, and MY LITTLE MARGIE.
A few years later USA started up and I recall it showing old horror and sci-fi movies and maybe some of the Irwin Allen TV shows of the 60s.
In the mid to late 80s TBS and TNT were great channels with tons of old, old, old movies, as well as AMC.