The rooftop antenna was a metal tree. It stood on the roof and it caught the signal from the air and the signal traveled down a wire and the wire went through the wall and the television showed you the world. The antenna was the connection between the building and everything that was happening somewhere else. Without the antenna the television was furniture.

Every antenna pointed a different direction. The antenna pointed at the transmitter and the transmitter was on the Empire State Building and every antenna in the city pointed at the Empire State Building. The antenna made the Empire State Building the most important building in the city for a reason nobody talked about. The Empire State Building was the broadcaster. Every roof in the five boroughs was listening.

The father went up to the roof to adjust the antenna and the kid stayed downstairs and watched the television and yelled up through the window. Turn it left. Turn it more. Go back. Stop. That was the communication system. The father turned the antenna. The kid watched the picture. The picture improved or it did not. The father and the kid were a team and the game was finding the signal and the signal was always moving because the wind moved the antenna and the antenna moved the picture.

I had a rooftop antenna on East Seventh Street and the pigeons sat on it. The pigeons affected the reception. The pigeons on the antenna were an unintended broadcast interruption. I yelled at the pigeons from the window and the pigeons did not care because the pigeons had been on the roof longer than I had and the antenna was their perch and I was a tenant.

The antenna is gone. The cable replaced the antenna and the satellite replaced the cable and the internet replaced the satellite. The signal does not come from the air anymore. The signal comes through a wire in the ground. The rooftop antenna was the last piece of technology that connected you to the sky. The wire in the ground connects you to a company. The antenna was free. The wire is a subscription. The sky never sent you a bill.

See also: Water Tank, Tenement Window