system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why does (did) static on TV look like that white snow?

Back in the days before streaming, if there was no signal, TV would be a dynamically changing, usually black and white, blank image. How did the lack of signal translate from the antenna/cable input into that image? (And why was it called "static" if it wasn't actually static--not changing--anyway?)
gpt
When you tune any receiver to any particular frequency, it's going to pull in the strongest signal. Older analog TVs would show the station when it was close enough, but the farther away the source, the lower the signal strength. If that signal couldn't overcome other signals on that frequency, including the cosmic background noise (radio bursts, microwave background noise, etc...) then the electron gun that shoots the signal at the phosphors on the CRT screen will fire with that background noise. Thus, it looks like 'static'.

The same thing happens with digital TV, but you end up with bars and skips due to list data instead of a fuzzy signal. And, you don't get static because there is no data signal for the receiver in the digital tuner to lock in on.