Now that we are less than two years away from "the big switch-off" (2-17-09), we are starting to see newspaper articles and hear some rumblings about the Digital Transition.

What are stations and other media doing in your market, to inform the public and to educate their viewers about the impending demise of their OTA analog signals?

Maybe we can all compare notes, and pass along the better ideas.

Moved to Reception Hardware forum.

Local HDTV forum is only for local issue discussion in your local area threads.

All of the Big 4 networks here (WRAL/WRAZ, WTVD, WNCN) are promoting their HDTV stations/ subchannels (news and weather) fairly heavily. The Sinclair run stations are broadcasting, but I haven't heard much else about them. And the WUNC network advertises their digital subchannels as well. I dare say they are doing MORE than the minimum PSA's about it.

If anybody in this area is unaware of the upcoming transition, they live under a rock / aren't watching any TV from local channels.

Every couple of months, WRAL does a news story about how the analogs will be going away - about time for another one to show up soon.

The one thing they could do better is to point out in these stories that you don't need an HDTV to watch them - point out the DTV boxes coming out / already on the market, the fact that you can now buy TVs that have the digital tuner built in. Heck, I've even got a 14 inch CRT TV that has both NTSC and ATSC tuners for the bedroom.

Here is the New York area the major WABC talks about the HD cam on the chopper or the new HD weather maps but that I know of I have not heard anything about them saying about the switch from analog to DTV.

ABC station did a 3-part "sweeps" story about HDTV, showcasing its signal and their new high-def newscast this winter. And, how people are getting the signal OTA. Otherwise...nothing else significant from them and everyone else. WGN says you can pick up "The Tube" on channel 9.2 and WTTW says you can watch WTTW-Digital (HD) on 11-1. But no PSA's that I have seen. Ditto from Rockford, IL.

Anyone giving out brochures? "Digital TV"pages on their websites? Any "themed" campaigns (like, with a designated spokesperson or character)?

I remember some station offering to buy antennas for new TV owners.

In Milwaukee they've got an informative, "HDTV" half-hour special that they've been running every once in awhile for the past couple of years on their PBS-HD channel where they make mention of it. They just showed it again last week.

Kind of pointless to show it on a digital channel, though, as you'd already have to know about DTV to have seen it. I'm not sure if they show it on their main PBS channel, as I don't receive that. Probably the reason they show it on the HD channel is because the show itself is in HD.

Not a whole lot. One that strikes me as odd every time I see it is my local CBS, WHIO, promoting their weather channel on "Time Warner channel 708". No mention at all of where it really comes from....

We DVR most of what we watch on network programming so they, and the other local stations, may run commercials but we don't see 'em.

Anyone giving out brochures? "Digital TV"pages on their websites? Any "themed" campaigns (like, with a designated spokesperson or character)?

I remember some station offering to buy antennas for new TV owners.


Never seen anyone hand out anything about it... I think they better start now then wait till the last second.

Not sure how much is going to change from between now and 2009.

Anyone giving out brochures? "Digital TV"pages on their websites? Any "themed" campaigns (like, with a designated spokesperson or character)? Brochures ? Where would they hand them out ?

As far as their websites, to one extent the people who will be affected by the shutoff likely aren't internet-savy and don't have access to websites, so I don't count that.

For what it's worth though, my local CBS, WHIO (http://www.whiotv.com/), has a typical looking website (I've seen this exact same layout for many stations) and does have an "HDTV" link.

My local NBC, WDTN, has no obvious links on their main page. A search for "hdtv" turns up (4) results. One is the recent "rabbit ears" story, another is an article from "How Stuff Works", third is a glossary, and the fourth is a generic article that they appear to have simply added their call letters to in various sentences (http://www.wdtn.com/dsp_story.cfm?storyid=57494). Search for "WDTN-DT" on their site though and you get nothing....

The local ABC and FOX, WKEF (http://www.wkef22.com/) have nothing either. Well, they do have a bit if you click the link for "MyTV Dayton". This "bar" of links doesn't show in Firefox, by the way. The info from the page is again very generic and simple. It makes NO mention of the main ABC's digital channel.

If the stations want to make this known, they need to run promotions or information spots on their analog channels today !! Face it though, it will lead to confusion, misinformation, phone calls to the stations, etc, etc.

On April 25, KUSA's website had a notice on its homepage that KTVD (which it also owns) was off the air due to transmitter problems. I emailed KUSA and asked why the web notice didn't state that the digital signal was unaffected and not doing so did little to contribute to the transition to digital TV. The reply I received, from KUSA's general manager, was that digital viewership was so low that it would be confusing to viewers to mention the digital transmission when the analog transmission was down.

I'd guess that management at stations doesn't want to "bother" with the digital aspects yet, at least until they have to. Then there's that issue of the gov't forcing them to do this....

I had e-mailed one of the local engineers and he was very pro-digital. I've read from people here that the engineering staff is annoyed that they have to spend time and resources working on the digital side. They only do it 'cause they have to.

We can all do something very simple: Nothing. Sit back and enjoy our digital TV today. Come Feb 2009 when the TV world ends for millions of people, we can sit back, laugh, and continue watching TV.

Haven't seen anything "new" regarding promotion or mention of OTA DTV/DTV transistion yet from the broadcasters in the area ... One of them (KET/PBS) probably already has it "covered", but hopefully whatever the otherswill/might do in the future will begin soon+will involve more than running PSA's from NAB or FCC/etc ...

Follows are some comments on what it has been like here so far however ....


One that strikes me as odd every time I see it is my local CBS, WHIO, promoting their weather channel on "Time Warner channel 708". No mention at all of where it really comes from....


At first(maybe for a couple of weeks when they first began advertising it), during that promo, the graphic didn't mention it, but the audio mentioned it was available OTA on 7.2 as well. They soon changed it to just mention of the cableco channel as you mention, however. Also, on the 7.2 channel itself, they frequently show(or did, I don't watch it much) in a crawl that it's available on TW 708 AND Digital OTA on 7.2. I did hear one mention of the digital station, including specifically that it was available OTA in a local news(sports) report once ...

A cincinnati station (WLWT/NBC) does(or did, haven't watched much TV lately) frequently promote their "weatherplus" multicast subchannel during the weather report as being available on "digital broadcast 5.2" as well as the TW cable channel. The last time I looked at their website a few months regarding "HDTV info", it was still saying programs such as "American Dreams" were available in HD from them+NBC ....


The local ABC and FOX, WKEF (http://www.wkef22.com/) have nothing either. Well, they do have a bit if you click the link for "MyTV Dayton". This "bar" of links doesn't show in Firefox, by the way. The info from the page is again very generic and simple. It makes NO mention of the main ABC's digital channel.


MyTV is subchannel from the Dayton Fox affiliate(WRGT) of course, and there's no mention of their "main" channel (Fox/Fox HD) either, really.

However, They do also (or at least did it's been a while since I've checked) frequently promote the MyTV subchannel on air (and rebroadcasts of the WRGT local news on it) in the crawl at bottom of screen, including giving the TW channel # as well as mentioning it's OTA digital availability+OTA "remapped" channel #. That crawl is constantly on air during their local newscasts, including on the analog stations, on both WKEF and WRGT.

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One of the local PBS (Well KET/PBS specifically) has run a KET production "abc's of DTV", a 30 minute program regarding DTV -- Including mention+explanation of OTA DTV and analog shut off date/etc. It has run occasionally on their various digital multicast services, but it has also run at least several times on their analog as well(which is same programming as KET1 digital), and is available for viewing via their website. It's probably been the best thing I've seen in the area regarding Digital transistion, although I did see once where one of the other PBS member stations(WCET-DT) in area did go into quite a bit of detail once regarding the transistion on a local program they do ...

Then, there's the "Cringely crash course" on DTV than runs nationally on PBS HD channel almost every early morning at 5:30am -- Nothing much specific in there about OTA, as I recall. However, although it's been around for quite a while, I think it's still a pretty good overview of DTV/HD for folks ....

Really, probably the best explanation of OTA DTV (and HD), the transistion+that analog OTA is "going away" believe it or not I've ever seen on the air was on TBN, with Paul Crouch, JR demonstrating OTA DTV with a Samsung STB+a silver sensor+HD display while sitting in the studio. This was a couple of years ago, and while for instance he certianly mentioned multicasting+what TBN was doing with it at the time, he also talked about+said good things about the HD programming from networks such as CBS ...

As for websites for stations in my area -- rather than explain it, here are links to The ones I'm aware of currently that have some mention of DTV :

http://www.whiotv.com/station/4175305/detail.html -- This one does in fact specifically mention the signal is available OTA .....

http://www.thinktv.org/digitaltv/digitaltv.html - Note : in the sidebar, where it says "what is digital television?" - They used to have their own info there, but notice that it now links to FCC's "DTV consumer facts" page ....

http://www.ket.org/dtv/ -- This is probably the best one in the area, note: The "ABC's of DTV" program I mentioned earlier is also available for streaming/viewing over the web here ...

This one doesn't talk much about the transistion except in some of a "Q&A" section with answers from a station engineer, and isn't frequently updated, but is unique in the area in that the website is all, and only about their DTV station :

http://www.wcpodt.com/

Here's another one from One of the PBS's :

http://www.cetconnect.org/digital/index.asp


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WKRC (Cincinnati) used to have a very nice DTV section on their website that even explained to folks how to properly "aim" a typical outdoor VHF/UHF combo antenna ... They've long since removed it, however .... They also ran a local news story a couple of years ago on OTA DTV, including telling folks how to get it with "rabbit ears" .... One of their news anchors, after the story, it seemed to me made a comment which I thought was very "dismissive" of the whole idea of receiving any TV OTA, however .....

I assume there have been other mentions of it on local news reports as well ... For instance, seem to Recall when a few of the Cincinnati stations first put a DTV signal on the air back in 98, (and for HD from them for the Glenn shuttle launch - for which as I recall they'd set up some "viewing oppurtinites" such as at malls/etc ) there were stories about their new DTV signals, HDTV and such ... Recall one of the news anchors jokingly saying something about their DTV transmitter only putting out about 10 watts at the time .....