We have no issue with the amount of stations we get from cable; there seem to be hundreds where nothing is on! I only watch the local ones, and HGTV, CNN once in awhile. Got rid of the DVR, HBO, all the movies, etc. We have one TV with a box, or something and one with a cable card. We have 3 other TVs in the house that we get HD over the air, with indoor antennas (in 2 bedrooms and in our loft space).
We originally got Direct TV because at the time, the town I lived in only had Comcast for TV and we still had dial up internet. We wanted to watch the bike races, so we got the dish. Up until then, we had an old fashioned antenna in our attic (seriously, this was in 2001). When Comcast finally came in with high speed internet, in 2004, we switched the whole thing to Comcast. Then we moved in 2005, and we just kept what we had.
There were not a lot of trees in our old neighborhood; it was a typical development where they all got cut down. Not sure why the satellite didn't work well.