WKBN-TV and Fox Youngstown completing transition to digital

Residents who don’t have either Time Warner Cable or Armstrong Cable will not receive two local television stations for most of today.

That’s because the antenna used to broadcast WKBN-TV and FOX Youngstown will be turned off so that it can be moved. The shutoff will begin at around 8 a.m. and should last about 12 hours. It should be back on by 8 p.m., said Gary Coursen, news director for the stations.

A crew is going to remove the 4,000-pound analog antenna from the top of the tower, lower it to the ground, and mount the 3,000-pound digital antenna in its place, he said.

Armstrong and Time-Warner customers will have no disruption in service because the cable networks are fed their signal through fiber-optic lines before it reaches the tower, according to a statement from WKBN. The two companies serve the vast majority of Mahoning Valley cable customers.

But viewers who watch the stations through antenna, satellite or other cable subscribers will not be able to receive them today.

The project is the final step for WKBN-TV and FOX Youngstown to complete the transition to digital broadcasting. WKBN and all television stations switched to digital broadcasting in June as part of the national transition mandated by Congress.

Read more in Wednesday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com