Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Digital Delay? Not For All.

I jolted awake this morning at 7 am to the sound of my cell phone blaring in my ear.  My mom was calling me in a panic.  Today, ABC's local affiliate, KSFY, transitioned to their digital signal.  KSFY is one of the only two TV channels we receive at home (we have never had cable TV!), so she was understandably concerned.  



I walked her through how to set up the conversion box and navigate through the on-screen menus.  This was difficult over the phone, and she is not very good with technology (sorry mom!) so it took awhile!  I was confused and wondered why the transition had taken place.  I thought that President Obama and Congress had pushed back the transition date from February 17th to June 12th, so hopped onto gizmodo.com and consumerist.com to investigate.  Apparently, 641 stations nationwide are transitioning to digital today anyway, but mostly in small, rural markets.

Some urban areas are also transitioning, however.  From the AP, via consumerist.com, "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."

More information can be found at these links from Gizmodo and Consumerist.

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