My friends: After a long week of travel, I was looking forward to a laid-back Friday night ritual, where Kim and I would sit in front of the tube and watch…The Tube. Sadly, I punched in channel 207 and received the symbols ‘???’ on the screen. Inexplicably, I must have punched in the wrong channel combination. Nope.

The Tube has been taken off the air, forever.

More after the jump.

The Tube was founded in 2005 as a vision of what Old-School MTV was: only videos, all the time. This vision was truly realized: the videos were comprised of fifty years of music. Every night we tuned in was a truly pleasurable experience. We watched for hours at a time, reminiscing about bands and songs, testing each other’s knowledge, and looking to the future of the industry. No more.

Sadly, we will be subjected to more of the same vapid, mindless programming you would see on MTV or VH1. Despite the quality you see on VH1 classic, it doesn’t possess the sheer breadth of music programming The Tube once did.

Wikipedia entry is here. Their website is here.

Sigh.