I grew up in Mississippi, where the first systems were sold in 1994. At that time, they still called it a test market! One local store sold the first 250 systems, and 500 people were in line, starting at 5 AM. I actually met the man who got the first one, and installed it for his friend. D* paid back the area later on, by putting up locals up about a year or two earlier than anticipated.
The waiting list was several months long, making people jump to Primestar in droves. Back then, you even had to buy Primestar. I think it was $799! I once met a guy who also said he did their first install, for who is now a huge D* HSP, Bruister & Associates. P* was huge in the area, and it would stay that way until it merged with D*. You can still see a few old dishes in some places.
BUDs were still big, too. Most of the local satellite dealers had a D* dish alongside their BUDs, and had the RCA laserdisc in-store kiosk. In fact, it was advertised as laserdisc-quality picture! Most of them dumped D* for E* when it came out, due to the bounties they got. Later on, most were killed off by the lower profit margins of both D* and E*.
