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Digital TV Hot Line Gets 700,000 Calls Over Switch
Yahoo News ^ | 6/12/2009 | RYAN NAKASHIMA

Posted on 06/13/2009 1:08:42 PM PDT by Dallas59

LOS ANGELES -

Nearly 700,000 calls were received by a federal hot line this week from people confused about the nationwide switch from analog to digital TV broadcasts that occurred Friday.

The Federal Communications Commission said Saturday that about 317,450 calls went into the help line, 1-888-CALL-FCC, on Friday alone, the day analog signals were cut off.

About a third of the calls were about federal coupons to pay for digital converter boxes, an indication that at least 100,000 people still didn't have the right equipment to receive digital signals.

(Excerpt) Read more at tech.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Society
KEYWORDS: digital; dtv; tv
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To: Dallas59

“The largest volume of calls came from the Chicago area, followed by Dallas-Ft. Worth, New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore.”....LOL!!!!!


21 posted on 06/13/2009 1:27:02 PM PDT by acoulterfan
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To: Dallas59

These are the same 700,000 rocket scientists who tell the pollsters that “global warming” exists, Obama is doing an excellent job with the economy and that we are losing the WOT.


22 posted on 06/13/2009 1:27:17 PM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (Why is the yellow-bellied coward, David Letterman, afraid of Governor Sarah Palin?)
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To: Dallas59

I dropped cable years ago, and have relied on broadcast ever since. I just use it for background white noise anyway, not many shows interest me all that much. I’m sitting here right now with the stupid public service thing playing over and over, on the only channel that still picks up, starts out with stupid electronica Muzak, then the dweeb with the nervous tic, then en Espaniol, wash, rinse repeat.

I guess I’ll break down and hook up the infernal box that’s been laying on a shelf for a year, after this last signal dies, lol. I’m getting some sort of weird satisfaction, watching it go, myself.


23 posted on 06/13/2009 1:29:14 PM PDT by RegulatorCountry
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To: acoulterfan

Boxes are available at the local Flea Market on Jacksboro Hwy!


24 posted on 06/13/2009 1:29:31 PM PDT by Dallas59 ("You know the one with the big ears? He might be yours, but he ain't my president.")
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To: RegulatorCountry

Your not missing much...Weather radar is available 24/7 on 35 channels.


25 posted on 06/13/2009 1:30:25 PM PDT by Dallas59 ("You know the one with the big ears? He might be yours, but he ain't my president.")
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To: Dallas59

Unfortunately sticking a satellite dish out the apartment window isn’t an option where I live and TV isn’t worth the $500 a year to me.

I’ve lost the local ABC affiliate for some reason and have gained about two dozen junk channels - 8 PBS channels including one that seems to play nothing but jazz videos, six Spanish language channels, a PC looking cartoon channel and a lot of other junk most of which seems to be in Korean.


26 posted on 06/13/2009 1:31:54 PM PDT by InABunkerUnderSF (California -- Ya es como México)
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To: Dallas59

I bought the converter for the 1 TV I have that’s not on cable.

Made a 4 bowtie uhf antenna. Tested it some weeks ago and got wonderful reception.

Yesterday I turned on the set after the switch and zonk!

A few stations are passable but one in particular, the CBS affiliate is ‘no program’ or ‘weak signal’.


27 posted on 06/13/2009 1:32:10 PM PDT by Vinnie (You're Nobody 'Til Somebody Jihads You)
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To: Dallas59

Do this have something to do with my TV no longer working?


28 posted on 06/13/2009 1:33:28 PM PDT by Doe Eyes
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To: InABunkerUnderSF

I have mine on my Sharp LCD/ Monitor. Regular TV just got a 1000X worse. TV would come back if to a degree if Natgeo, Discovery, Animal Planet and so on would broadcast a watered down version on broadcast television. Anything would be better than what’s on now.


29 posted on 06/13/2009 1:36:12 PM PDT by Dallas59 ("You know the one with the big ears? He might be yours, but he ain't my president.")
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To: 17th Miss Regt

LMAO!


30 posted on 06/13/2009 1:36:52 PM PDT by SonnyBubba
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To: nmh
How can so many people be so STUPID?

Are you referring to TV or how they vote?

Any person, to which this came as a surprise, is too dumb to be allowed to own a TV.

This is more proof that we have become an Idiocracy. The movie may have been conceived as absurd, but it is hitting more closer to reality that we'd like to believe.

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0387808/

31 posted on 06/13/2009 1:38:41 PM PDT by ChildOfThe60s (If you can remember the 60s........you weren't really there)
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To: RegulatorCountry

Try turning the antenna and re-scanning in 45 degree increments. Old school but that’s what worked for me.

Don’t know exactly where you’re at but if you’re around the junction of I85 and I40 according to the FCC you should be able to pick about 7 channels.

Here’s their web site, just plug in your zip code:

http://www.fcc.gov/mb/engineering/maps/

I mean if you can’t trust a government agency to give you straight information.... Never mind.


32 posted on 06/13/2009 1:42:19 PM PDT by InABunkerUnderSF (California -- Ya es como Mexico)
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To: Dallas59

MOnths and months of advertising. Not a single person can say they didn’t know. Well, I guess the stupid Obama voter types didn’t.


33 posted on 06/13/2009 1:44:23 PM PDT by CodeToad (If it weren't for physics and law enforcement I'd be unstoppable!)
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To: Non-Sequitur; nmh
Oops, I forgot the visual aids to my comment...


34 posted on 06/13/2009 1:45:04 PM PDT by ChildOfThe60s (If you can remember the 60s........you weren't really there)
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To: Dallas59
These 700,000 Idiots don't have a right to watch T.V.especially after being warned for a year and a half that regular broadcast would end.If their T.V.’s are blank that's their problem.

The taxpayers should not be jumping through hoops to placate these dummies.

35 posted on 06/13/2009 1:52:22 PM PDT by puppypusher
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To: raccoonradio

He needs to rescan his channels. The converter will not see any digital channels that where moved until he does so.


36 posted on 06/13/2009 1:52:28 PM PDT by dangerdoc (dangerdoc (not actually dangerous any more))
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To: Dallas59

I have a Mac hooked up to my 27” TV monitor. By going to www.blinko.com I can (when it works) get Fox, Fox Business, CNN, Discovery Channel and a really cool pan sequence of the Marathon Key City Marina. The only annoying part is that I have to use a wireless mouse as a remote which, being Blue Tooth, has to be within 10 feet of the Mac to be reliable.

Fox and Discovery are enough for me but I too would like The History Channel, Animal Planet and NatGeo. Internet TV is now about where broadcast TV was in the early sixties. Given time, competition and improved bandwidth it will get better but until then we’re stuck with either broadcast, which just got worse, or paying for the cable provider’s obscene business model.


37 posted on 06/13/2009 1:56:48 PM PDT by InABunkerUnderSF (California -- Ya es como Mexico)
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To: InABunkerUnderSF

I’m northwest of there, closest to the intersection of NC 68 and NC 150.

Prior to the original switch, I could pick up 13 channels well enough to bother, and eight clearly. Prior to yesterday, that was down to 10 at least marginal, and five clearly. Today, it’s just one, clear as a bell, playing the announcement over and over.

Haven’t connected the converter box yet, but will keep your advice in mind when I do. As I mentioned, I’m getting some strange thrill out of watching it fade into oblivion.


38 posted on 06/13/2009 2:00:07 PM PDT by RegulatorCountry
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To: Dallas59

85% of those calling are members of ACORN.


39 posted on 06/13/2009 2:02:03 PM PDT by Lockbar (March toward the sound of the guns.)
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To: Dallas59

700,000 zero voters.


40 posted on 06/13/2009 2:03:40 PM PDT by taillightchaser (!)
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