DTV Transition Date Delay - It's final. Again. June 12, 2009. - Page 50  

And if not - hopefully she will find someone to help her - why do most people have a sense of entitlement for everything - that people should automatically help them and do everything for them - I think our country could use a big dose of personal responsibility!

what about all the money spent on advertizing and signs for the 17th will that all be torn down and new june 12th be put up. how much will that be and who's paying the retailers. will they have to have signs saying well the date is now june 12th however some stations may go full digital before then

Some wonderfully-informed congresswoman was on the floor of the House today talking about how we need to delay this to June because if we don't, our emergency responders won't be able to talk to each other. Someone else then pointed out how confused she is and basically stated that most of the Congress doesn't know what the hell they're doing/voting on.

Most of my stations in the Baltimore-Lancaster-Philadelphia area (6,8,9,10,11,12,13,15,17,33,35,43,49) are staying on their current frequencies, therefore they can begin fulltime DTV broadcasts without interfering with other analog stations. It's unlikely they will wait.
That rule will likely be "suspended" between 2/18 and 6/12 to allow for interference, since it will be only temporary.
If I was that station manager, I'd start broadcasting on DT-24 and deal with the consequences later. A station cannot remain off-the-air for 6 months and still survive, and it's not the station's fault Congresscritters made a stupid decision.

What about the New York City stations. Will they switch on the 18th. I would really like channel 13 to be broadcasting in its analog spot at full power. Right now most people can't get it.

I see my stupid Republican Representative voted stupidly again! Shuster isn't racking up any positive points for the next time he's up for election.

He was sweating the election after the "Stimulus Bill" last Fall. Speaking of which, how are they supposed to spend the money they've allocated in this Bill if the new "Economic Bill" doesn't pass?

Damnit, and I was looking forward to WPLG-DT moving to physical channel 10 and upping power from 15KW to 30KW. Another 3dB of signal would mean better reception for everyone.

But no, our government is stupid. I find it mind blowing that the Republicans are the ones who seem to have a clue this time. It's normally the opposite.

yeah june 12th yup.......oh wait wait we need to delay it again lets try september....

there will always be people who aren't ready

Is EVERY politician, corrupt AND stupid?

It's TV!, People! How much MORE money are we going to waste...OVER TV?
The solution is simple, either spend $40's to get a box at radio shack, $600's to get an OTA capable TV, rent a box from the cable company, or go dark. You're choice.

Of course, all this wouldn't even be needed, if cable companies didn't feel the need to encrypt everything other than 2-13....but god forbid we see X-Men, or Match Game in the clear on a digital signal...the world might end... Personally, I hope all the stations are allowed to ignore this stupid move by our 'elected' 'politicians' and turn off the analog system anyway, just like Verizon did. Every station on their setup is already switched to digital..

It's going to take another revolution to get this country on the right track again...

Agreed.

I did notice that if I just wanted basic TV, my local Walnmart had a 20" RCA SD (4x3 format) CRT TV with digital and analog tuners for a little under $140.

a bit frustring as I've been OTA digital ready since 2001 or so. I was glad that those conversion ads would finnaly stop. but it seems they will continue for a few more months now

FCC commissioners release statements re: today's vote

From Acting Chairman Michael Copps:

"I welcome Congressional passage of the DTV Delay Act. It has long been clear to me--and it’s even clearer since I became Acting FCC Chairman two weeks ago--that the country is not prepared to undertake a nationwide transition in twelve days without unacceptably high consumer dislocation. The additional four months provided by the law affords urgently-needed time for a more phased transition, including a consumer-friendly converter box coupon program, stepped-up consumer outreach and support--particularly for vulnerable populations--and dealing with coverage, antenna and reception issues that went too long unaddressed. We’ve got a lot of work to do, but thanks to great leadership in the Senate and House of Representatives, we now have an opportunity to do it better."


From Commissioner Robert McDowell:

“Today, a majority of the directly elected representatives of the American people, the U.S. Congress, has clearly expressed its desire to postpone the deadline for the cessation of analog full-power television broadcasts to June 12, 2009. I look forward to joining my two colleagues, Acting Chairman Copps and Commissioner Adelstein, in quickly implementing the will of the Congress. I know we will do all that we can to minimize the inevitable disruption and confusion this transition will cause. In the meantime, let’s all stay on message: if you need a converter box, get it today and hook it up today and start enjoying the benefits of digital television today."


Source: www.fcc.gov

Someone other than Saturday night live needs to do a parody on this issue...

Just to show people how stupid our elected officials really are...

Did they ever say where this magic number of 6 million came from, or did they just pull it out of their asses?

"May you live in interesting times"

They have set the precedent and now we can see that there will never be a final analog drop-dead date that congress can be credited, err, blamed for. I think they'll keep moving the goalposts with the intention of making the broadcasters out to be the villains. When 100% of the broadcasters are transmitting in 8VSB as a result of economic necessity, transmitter failure, or simply going out of business, will congress declare some useless analog cutoff date and self congratulate themselves on the DTV conversion's success.

Network news coverage of Delay Act passage in House, 2009-02-04:

ABC/Gibson: 18 seconds, 8 minutes in, anchor only, no tease
CBS/Couric: 18 seconds, 11 minutes in, anchor only, no tease
NBC/Williams: 2 minutes, 10 minutes in, teased in opening
PBS/Lehrer: 9 minutes, 45 minutes in, teased in opening

Only PBS mentioned that some stations may turn off analog on the 17th anyway.

Copps says 12 days. The dtv2009 counter says 13 days.

This part cracks me up. I thought the whole point was to delay so people could get their coupons first. The coupons nobody has funded yet.

Why mess up a good story with the truth?

WLWT 5 showed a new graphic tonight saying 14 days till transition.

Oh yeah... the one from California saying first responders will be FLOODED with 911 calls from people who's TVs went dark not knowing what happened! Haha! I wish I had recorded her intervention.

Umm.. that may not be too far from the truth..just like in the show Jericho..

Back to 127 days and counting.....

Sounds like none of the Minneapolis/St. Paul stations will be shutting down analog early from my correspondences with their reps. That's a shame.

I don't care if they don't shutdown analog so long as they get on their final DTV assignment... In some cases that does mean shutting down analog, but not all.

Back in the day (I'm only 36), if you needed help with something you'd ask your family or neighbors. I guess maybe nobody knows their neighbors anymore and family support has been replaced with government dependency. Combine that with a sense of entitlement and there's little wonder we're in this predicament with the DTV transition. Luckily in my hood, we all know each other and still watch each others' pets and borrow each others' tools.

I'm in the way-north Denver area and have a converter already. There's not a whole lot more I can do to prepare until the stations move to their final frequencies and power levels. In effect, this delay has delayed my ability to finish preparing for the transition. !@#$%&*

No wonder you're counting has started over, Mosquito, if nobody's shutting down. At least it may mean continued business.

Today, the last big station in Portland, OR indicated their intent to shut down analog on Feb 17. They aren't on the FCC database yet, maybe tomorrow. So other than one religious channel who hasn't said anything, all the full power stations are in this together, with a pooled phone bank hosted by PBS (OPB). It should not be confusing, since the message is consistent, and they are taking advantage of the news to reinforce the Feb 17 date, as originally planned. Two stations could have been blocked, except that the stations affected are also participating.

It's not as bad as it could've been.
6/12 is now the "deadline for cessation of analog" as the one commish said.
It's messy in some areas where an analog channel has to shutdown before a different station can change to that frequency.
Posters who are whining because the whole thing has been delayed 16 weeks are way off base.
I'll betcha by March 1st there will be just a handful of full power analog transmitters still on the air, aside from those NightLight stations...

Having said that, I think a lot depends on what our esteemed President Obama says in the next day or two.
If he signs the bill and then makes an impassioned plea to networks and stations to keep analog on the air till June, then that could screw it.
Let's hope his handlers don't pick up on what's happening, or don't care...

Yeah, but the business was expected to continue just due to the coupon delays. The real problem is we pulled out all the stops at the last minute for a truckload sale in anticipation of the 17th, and now that has basically been bypassed by this. There's now no more incentive for people to get off their butts until June. The Twin Cities is a weird market because we have really low cable and satellite penetration. We're somewhere around 75-80% transitioned at this point, so our sale was bound to be a success due to those numbers. Now we have to re-tool the whole thing. We're still the only place in town with legitimate stock of free converters and the top rated ones by Consumer Reports, but Congress' "fight for the little guy" may have squashed the little guy in my case.