What a Surprise…Analog/Digital Switch Doesn’t Cause Panic
It’s sure a good thing they kept delaying the inevitable every 6 months for about 10 years. Surely, people were going to freak out when the day finally came to turn off analog signals and switch strictly to digital.
In shocking news…nobody really cared.
Television stations said that calls from confused customers were minimal. TV stations averaged just 130 calls each a crossed the nation. Pandemonium. We can thank the great government for spending so much of our tax money on “warning” everyone about the switch for the last decade I imagine.
Television stations are largely prepared for these calls and are doing everything possible to ensure a successful transition,” said Jonathan Collegio, the NAB’s vice president for digital television.
In Los Angeles, some stations reported even fewer calls. Asian-language station KSCI-TV Channel 18 turned off its analog signals at 11 a.m. Friday and fielded about 100 calls by midafternoon. Most of the callers asked for information on how to get a converter box and how to apply for the $40 government coupon for it, said Bill Welty, KSCI’s vice president of engineering.
Public-television station KCET-TV Channel 28, which had turned off its analog signal Thursday night, had just 16 calls by late Friday afternoon.
“There was that moment when we turned off the signal and held our breaths,” said Bohdan Zachary, KCET’s vice president of broadcasting. “But it’s been surprisingly quiet.”
Converter box demands were also much lower than expected. Certainly lower than the best diet pills, as they should be in this country…
Read more if you care. Obviously if you have the internet you probably don’t have to worry about analog anyways so the only reason to care would be to woner who in the world still does.
