What does "cable" mean here?

Yeah, cable TV. It wasn't widespread during Reagan's terms.

Thanks!

By "no cable," the author means no cable television.

The text is, however, factually incorrect. The first cable television systems were created in Pennsylvania in the late 1940s, because so many people were unable to access open broadcast television stations because of the mountainous terrain. The same system began to be used in New York in the 1950s, and for the same reason--much of New York state is mountainous, and people living in mountain valleys were just out of luck for getting open broadcast signals. The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) stepped in to protect the revenues of privately owned broadcast networks by prohibiting cable television services in cities. However, in 1972, the FCC began writing new regulations, bowing to the inevitability of cable television systems--those regulations required the cable television service providers to carry public television programs and government access television programming, as well as local public interest programming. In 1976, the FCC lifted all restrictions on cable television systems in cities--in the 1940s, the radio networks began broadcasting in large cities, but by the 1970s, quite small cities had television stations. There was a huge move to block cable television by locally owned television stations, but it was fighting in the last ditch--cable was coming and nothing was going to stop them.

Even before the advent of large cable television systems (other than the ones such as those established in mountainous regions in the 1940s and -50s) there were four networks, not three--CBS (Columbia Broadcasting System), NBC (National Broadcasting Company), ABC (American Broadcasting Company) and PBS (Public Broadcasting System--government supported, ostensibly for educational purposes). Additionally, there were large, independently owned television stations in major cities such as New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, and increasingly, in smaller cities. The "Superstaion" in Atlanta, Georgia, owned by Ted Turner and now called TNT (Turner Network Television), actively supported cable systems, because Turner was wise enough to know that cable systems would be willing to buy content, and he was ready to sell it. When he was fined by the FCC for not providing news services, he created the Cable New Network, CNN.

The article is tendentious and, i think, rather silly. There was nothing for Clinton and Bush to endure, and you can be sure their advisors looked for ways to exploit new media.

By the way, CNN was founded in June, 1980--before Ronald Ray-gun was elected President. Cable television was already here, and spreading rapidly.