Posted on 02/17/2009 5:08:03 AM PST by raccoonradio
Some TV stations will cut their analog signals today and move to digital-only broadcasting. Others will take advantage of a grace period passed by Congress and wait until June 12.
In theater superstition, a bad dress rehearsal is supposed to foretell a good opening night. If so, the U.S. might be in good shape when it turns off the last analog TV broadcasts in June, because the lead-up to the smaller-scale turnoff Tuesday has been confusing to both viewers and TV stations.
...snip...
A patchwork of 641 stations across the country, mainly in thinly populated areas, are still turning off their analog broadcasts this week or have already done so. The most populous markets where many or all major-network stations are cutting analog include San Diego and Santa Barbara, Calif.; Providence, R.I.; La Crosse and Madison, Wis.; Rockford, Ill.; Sioux City, Iowa; Waco, Texas; Macon, Ga.; Scranton, Pa.; and Burlington, Vt.
"I think this whole delay is ridiculous," said Robert Prather, president of Gray Television Inc., an Atlanta-based company that owns 36 stations. "It's just going to cause confusion among consumers. There's no reason in the world for it that I can understand."
(Excerpt) Read more at mail.com ...
Many circulars for stores like Radio Shack were printed in advance and said Feb 17 was the cutoff date. In many cases it isn’t.
For some cable customers, you may need a special box to pick up the extra channels some stations provide. Last yr I got a dvd recorder without a tuner and needed to rent a box from Comcast cable to get recep for the recorder. The stations like Boston’s WGBH World, WGBH Kids, etc., show up on my box (I have a non digital TV). They will show up on a digital TV hooked up to cable, or the new converters, but I think they won’t show up on a non-digital TV hooked up to cable but with no box. At first Comcast charged $4/mo. for box.
Now $2/mo.
many TV companies are upset because they will now have to keep those analog xmtrs on. And keep renting the tower sites. Yes it may not be “green” but people can’t be deprived from seeing THE ONE.
In Boston the analog xmtr for WFXT/25 (Fox) is on its last legs and is probably barely putting out power. PBS station WGBX/44 may want to pull analog plug early,too, as their analog xmtr is “aging”.
http://www.fybush.com/nerw.html has a rundown of who’s turning off and who isn’t in the northeast. but even that is subject to change
List of stations ending analog transmission tonight
My sister lives in a fairly rural area, with a long, private drive, and they never got cable. Didn’t want to put up a dish, so just broadcast, with an antenna. She was shocked at the reception quality after installing the converter, and the extra channels. For instance, UNC-TV, public broadcasting, has three channels on “26,” 1, 2 and 3. A dedicated children’s channel, even. She had no idea it even existed.
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