43
Digital TV switch kicks in fairly smoothly in Valley
YOUNGSTOWN — The first day of the analog-to-digital television changeover went relatively smoothly for WKBN-27 and WYTV-33.
“It went pretty good so far,” said Tom Zocolo, chief engineer for the stations, at about 5 p.m. Friday. The two stations had cut their analog signal at around noon.
WFMJ-21 did not cut its analog signal until 11:59 p.m.
Zocolo said his stations had gotten about 40 calls. “Not nearly the volume we were expecting,” he said. They had several people trained to help callers.
Most of the problems were related to the converter boxes. “I tried to walk them through it, but it takes anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes so I couldn’t do too many,” said Zocolo.
Many callers were referred to the FCC’s digital TV help number: 1-888-CALL-FCC (1-888-225-5322).
“It’s the best way to get help,” said Zocolo. “They can also get you in-house assistance. They have contractors in many cities, including Youngstown, who will come to your house and get it working for no charge.”
You must already have a converter box, said Zocolo, because the contractors will not bring you one.
Callers can also request a $40 coupon for the purchase of a converter box at the FCC number.
Procrastination appears to have played a role in most of the callers’ problems.
“A lot of the calls I’m getting are from people who are hooking up their converter box for the first time today, even though they had it for a week or a few months,” said Zocolo. “They didn’t hook it up until now, because they didn’t have to.”
Close to 1,000 television stations across the U.S. cut their analog signals Friday, marking the final sign-off for a 60-year-old technology. The FCC estimated that more than 1 million unprepared homes were stranded without TV service.
Sets hooked up to cable or satellite service were unaffected. Only non-digital-ready sets that use an antenna to capture an over-the-air broadcast signal, and do not have a functioning converter box, were affected.
Around 15 percent of U.S. households don’t have satellite or cable, and they tend to be poorer. Nielsen Co. said minority households were less likely to be set for Friday’s analog shutdown.
Another cause of confusion is that many stations were moving to new frequencies Friday. That means that even digital TV sets and older sets hooked up to converter boxes need to be set to “re-scan” the airwaves. New TVs and the converter boxes have menu options, accessible through their remote controls, to enable a re-scan.
Some people might also need new antennas, because digital signals travel differently than analog ones. Though a weakly received analog channel might be viewable through some static, channels broadcast in the digital language of ones and zeros are generally all or nothing: If they don’t come in perfectly, they are blank or they show a stuttering picture that breaks apart into blocks of color.
The shutdown of analog channels opens part of the airwaves for modern applications like wireless broadband and TV services for cell phones. The government reaped $19.6 billion last year by selling some of the freed-up frequencies, with AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless the biggest buyers.
The shutdown was originally scheduled for Feb. 17, but the government’s fund for $40 converter box coupons ran out of money in early January, prompting the incoming Obama administration to push for a delay. The converter box program got additional funding in the national stimulus package.
Research firm SmithGeiger LLC said Thursday that about 2.2 million households nationwide were still unprepared as of last week.
In February, the number was 5.8 million.
Material from the Associated Press was used in this story.