New Poll; Ready for digital TV?
Each Sunday I change the poll question that appears on the upper right of the main page. This week I want to know if you are ready for the change to digital TV. I know Congress has extended the deadline from February 17th to June 12th but about a third of the “full power” stations will stick to the 17th –Tuesday! The balance will make the switch between March 14th and June 12th.
Two stations in the St. Louis market will make the change at midnight Tuesday: WRBU (46) and KDNL (ABC30).
From KDNL’s website:
For the past year, television stations, including this station, have notified viewers of the February 17, 2009 analog shutoff date through on-air announcements, informational crawls, full-length programs, and their website. As a result, in order to avoid additional confusion due to the date change and as permitted by the recently enacted legislation, this station has notified the FCC that we would like to cease analog operations on February 17, 2009, as originally planned, and the FCC has consented to this station’s plans for early termination. As required by the FCC, we are currently airing announcements throughout the day to inform our viewers that we will terminate analog broadcasting on effective at 11:59PM on February 17.
So if you are still analog you can watch Scrubs & Deal or No Deal on Tuesday but if you want to watch Lost, Grey’s Anatomy, Ugly Betty, Barbara Walters Special or Oscars within the week you’d better get busy or call a friend who is digital prepared.
I have not had a TV since moving to my loft in November 2007 so come the 18th my life won’t be any different than today. Although I’ve enjoyed the break, I am planning to purchase a small (26″) HDTV soon – I miss CBS Sunday Morning and 60 Minutes
So take a minute and answer the poll above in the upper right corner of the main page. Add any comments you have below.
I have worked with the DoC on DTV. I think we are ready now.
I find it amazing that after a year of notices and ad’s that people still haven’t done this yet. Then again some people were shocked last year when they found out highway 40 was closing. WOW.
I’m not amazed about people not being ready yet. A certain percentage of population will not change anything unless they have no choice. What I’m amazed about is that the government acts as if this is a priority. Please, how can we change to a green society or any other changes for that matter if we can’t even make this switch happen.
The biggest argument is that important announcements are sent via the TV. This is a poor arguement simply because in a state of emergency their is a good chance that you will not have electricity. Just ask the people in the bootheel if a TV was any good to them without electricity.
The people who aren’t ready yet will not likely be ready in June either. It’s a waste of time.