A new era in local TV is due to start when Grimsby's Estuary channel is launched on Freeview later this month, the first of 19 US-style local stations across the UK.
In the past, local channels have failed to attract audiences and advertisers - so why should it be any different this time round?
Audiences may remember the news bunny, the bikini-clad weather forecaster and topless darts, but L!VE TV failed to attract viewers in enough numbers - despite broadcasting hyper-local content.
Gary Hudson, a managing editor at the short-lived cable network in the late-1990s, said: "Local TV didn't work, either in terms of audience numbers or revenues, when most people only had a choice of five channels.
"So why should it work when people now have a choice of 500?"
Apart from news and gimmicks, Mr Hudson remembered sports phone-ins and sponsored programmes, including a DIY show with a wooden flooring company.
Audience figures were in the "tens of thousands", but the station was starting to make money when it was closed by Trinity Mirror in 1999.
Mr Hudson, an ex-BBC Midlands Today correspondent added: "People always say they want more local TV and radio and [then] don't watch or listen to it."