Source: https://bsky.app/profile/funnysnarkyjoke.bsky.social/post/3lmkfwebeuc27
In fact you can use your smartphone to change the channel on nearly any TV. In the comments on that post some people talk about how to do it. Basically you need a smartphone with either builtin IR or use a USB-C IR blaster or if your phone has a 3.5mm headphone jack you can also try one of those but I’m not sure if the 3.5mm ones are as commonly supported.
Every time I stay at a suburban/rural American hotel they have Fox on in the dining area at breakfast. Last time was ~6 months ago in central California.
Crazy, didn’t think it was still happening
Oh man, I worked at a hotel during overnight shift a few years ago, and the head desk lady would go apeshit if I turned the front lobby TV to CNN. She would throw the most childish fit you could imagine, it was so fun to poke at her. Every morning, even after she told me never to change the TV again, I’d change it. She’d hide the remote, I’d bring my own. She tried taping over the IR sensor, so I’d manually change it with the buttons on the side.
She died of cancer a few years after the hotel was turned into a nursing home.
I guess it makes more sense when the low level worker gets to run it.
But I remember when Obama was president, VA hospitals would be playing it, but they stopped pre-trump and I’ve never seen it since