- Associated Press, “Confusion expected as analog TV broadcasts end“
- Philadelphia Inquirer, “Today, digital TV is in, analog TV is out“
- TV Guide, “Digital TV Transition Is Here; Surveys Say 2 Million Homes Still Unprepared“
Washington Post, transcript of Commerce Secretary Locke’s White House briefing on DTV transition.
On a serious note, the long-delayed switch from analog to digital television is a good thing, freeing up valuable frequencies for more efficient and useful communications services, including cell phone and law enforcement tranmissions.
The transition, however, provides a powerful case lesson as to how the federal government can foul up things. The stimulus bill passed in February allocated $650 million more to implement the program and pay for additional consumer coupons to buy digital converter boxes. And there were the delays.
What a mess. On to health care reform!
P.S. And there are still 118 stations broadcasting on analog via the “Statutory Analog Nightlight Program.” CBS will still serve Roseburg with an analog signal. For a month. Whew. (List of stations.)
June 13th, 2009 on 1:01 am
switching over to digital TV is like pulling off a band-aid… just do it and get it over with
June 12th, 2009 on 11:16 am
I don’t think there will be riots, but there will be a lot of temporary workers dealing with angry phone calls. On the flipside it has created some jobs, see here for more: http://www.newsy.com/videos/stepping_into_digital