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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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Well...I was ready....DirecTV.

2.8 million people isn't much compared with the rest of the country. Me thinks that alot of those "missing" coupons went to food, booze, drugs and other things...IMO.
1 posted on 06/13/2009 1:08:42 PM PDT by Dallas59
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To: Dallas59

How can so many people be so STUPID?


2 posted on 06/13/2009 1:09:24 PM PDT by nmh (Intelligent people recognize Intelligent Design (God).)
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To: Dallas59

HOW is this difficult? Haven’t we been hearing about this for, oh I don’t know, over a year?!


3 posted on 06/13/2009 1:09:35 PM PDT by AUJenn
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To: AUJenn

There was a local report about the switch here in Dallas. This elderly lady, bless her heart, had a hard time understanding how to hook it up.


4 posted on 06/13/2009 1:10:55 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: nmh
Obama got 69 million plus votes.

Next question?

5 posted on 06/13/2009 1:11:51 PM PDT by 17th Miss Regt
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To: nmh

They will pay to have someone come and connect it for you.

govt waste


6 posted on 06/13/2009 1:12:06 PM PDT by GeronL (http://libertyfic.proboards.com <----go there now,----> tyrannysentinel.blogspot.com)
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To: Dallas59

How many 911 calls?

LMAO


7 posted on 06/13/2009 1:13:11 PM PDT by Electric Graffiti (Yonder stands your orphan with his gun)
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To: Dallas59
So the Idiocracy already has 700,000 citizens.
8 posted on 06/13/2009 1:13:25 PM PDT by Petronski (In Germany they came first for the Communists, And I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist...)
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To: Dallas59

One of my part time jobs took me to an Assisted Living home on Friday. The switch and the “My TV isn’t working” was the prime topic of conversation.


9 posted on 06/13/2009 1:13:52 PM PDT by Clay Moore (Obama: A good example of why stupid people shouldn't vote.)
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To: AUJenn
HOW is this difficult? Haven’t we been hearing about this for, oh I don’t know, over a year?!

Why, don't you know? The answer is simplicity itself...it is the same reason that THEY voted Obama into office last year. What is the answer? repeat after me...

THE MASSES ARE ASSES!!

There now...wasn't that easy?

10 posted on 06/13/2009 1:14:00 PM PDT by hoagy62 (Obama: slowly sucking the positive attitude out of the US since 11-4-08)
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To: nmh
How can so many people be so STUPID?

Two words: Tee. Vee.

11 posted on 06/13/2009 1:14:08 PM PDT by Redcloak ("Oh, bother!" said Pooh, as he chambered his last round.)
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To: nmh
How can so many people be so STUPID?

Take two seconds and speak with an 0 voter and you will, well you already know.

Waiting for congress to come up with a new program to turn in your old tv and receive a $1000.00 credit toward a new tv for certain areas of the country.

What a country.

12 posted on 06/13/2009 1:14:18 PM PDT by VicVega (Join Jihad, get captured by the US and resettled in the best places in the world. I love the USA)
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To: Dallas59
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.

Great, now I suppose everyone's gonna have to switch back until these idiots can figure it out. They've only had a year and an extension already ......

13 posted on 06/13/2009 1:14:50 PM PDT by usconservative (When The Ballot Box No Longer Counts, The Ammunition Box Does. (What's In Your Ammo Box?))
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To: Dallas59

There was a YouTube video spoofing the “digital TV help”
informercials. An old lady is seen going through a bunch of
steps to install it then asks, “Will this help me pick up
Jack Benny?”

A friend of mine has an old set and no cable. He got the
converter box months ago. Trouble is, as of today he can
no longer receive WHDH-TV 7 Boston (the NBC affiliate that
was in the news recently for a plan, since ditched, to
not carry Jay Leno’s new show). They were broadcasting on digital Ch 42 but went back to ch 7 today...more than a
few people also couldn’t pick them up.
Maybe my friend needs to “re-orient his antenna” to pick it up (either he’ll get it or not...)

http://boards.radio-info.com/smf/index.php?topic=146906.0

>>Every other Boston station still comes in after the transition. But not WHDH. As upset as many around here are, just think how WHDH must feel. It’s sure going to cut into ad revenue when nobody can view the channel anymore. The over the air signal is pretty much gone if you live more than 20 miles from the tower. I sure hope they do something to fix things.

one response:
>>I think they should have stayed on Channel 42. That 42 signal was quite adequate. I noticed the significant loss of signal strength between Channel 7 and 42. Unfortunately, this is the way things are. Channel 7 will need a bit more power to equal that of 42 or analog 7. Who knows?


14 posted on 06/13/2009 1:15:24 PM PDT by raccoonradio (This is Massachusetts. We're stupid.)
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To: Clay Moore

My Pop could have cared less as long as he got KDFW Fox 4 on his “tube” TV.


15 posted on 06/13/2009 1:15:39 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: nmh
How can so many people be so STUPID?

Barack Obama is president and you have to ask that?

16 posted on 06/13/2009 1:16:32 PM PDT by Non-Sequitur
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To: Non-Sequitur

You’re right.

Shouldn’t have asked.

I slipped up.


17 posted on 06/13/2009 1:19:14 PM PDT by nmh (Intelligent people recognize Intelligent Design (God).)
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To: AUJenn

It has been in the works for over 15 years and warnings have been plastered all over the TV for at least two years.


18 posted on 06/13/2009 1:19:36 PM PDT by Red_Devil 232 (VietVet - USMC All Ready On The Right? All Ready On The Left? All Ready On The Firing Line!)
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To: 17th Miss Regt

I try to forget that ... it’s depressing.

He’s the WORST and most VILE President we have ever elected.


19 posted on 06/13/2009 1:20:35 PM PDT by nmh (Intelligent people recognize Intelligent Design (God).)
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To: Clay Moore
One of my part time jobs took me to an Assisted Living home on Friday. The switch and the “My TV isn’t working” was the prime topic of conversation.

You have seen nothing yet. Jails, prisons, state homes, VA facilities, and numerous other state run enterprises have just started to notice. This boondoggle is going to cost us a lot. Some of us in the industry tried to help in scheduling and establishing priorities, but the politics got in the way. Free TV is going to cost us dearly. Now the Rural Broadband Initiative is cranking up. Administered by the federal bastion of efficiency and freedom. The United States Department of Agriculture. Free rural broadband is going to cost even more. Wi-fi, 3G, and LCD displays in every pot.

20 posted on 06/13/2009 1:23:35 PM PDT by AH_LiveRight
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