491 Stations Plan to Go Digital Feb. 17, FCC Links and More in First 2 Posts

[Jeff0575]

My Local FOX station KBSI 23 made the switch last night and now i no longer have a OTA HD FOX station. No i only receive that station via sd via dish.

 

[tnsprin]

My Local FOX station KBSI 23 made the switch last night and now i no longer have a OTA HD FOX station. No i only receive that station via sd via dish.

I assume you meant you no longer have an OTA SD Fox station. OTA HD was always digital.

 

[BigStig]

FCC Okays 368 To Make Feb. 17 DTV Switch

Another 123 Can't Make Switch Unless Certain Conditions Met

Source And More: Multichannel news

That's exactly what has happened to my "local" CBS station. One I've been hoping would switch today because they're slated to move from the UHF band to VHF, which should allow me to finally get their HD signal (I'm just on the fringe of it). Now it's not going to happen until June.

According to the station manager, the FCC has told them that they can't switch to their new channel yet because a couple of other stations aren't ready. One is a PBS station, the other is another network station that's 300+ (!) miles away. The PBS may be ready in March, but the other won't be ready until June. He seems to be just about as frustrated with the situation as the rest of us, as his station has spent the money to upgrade but now can't reap the benefits.

And how again was this supposed to be a more orderly transition to DTV?

I just don't get it. I understand that 5%-10% of the population doesn't have a DTV-compatible tuner. Fine. Sorry for them. But that also means that 90%+ of the population is ready for and expecting the change. And from now until whenever DTV date is finalized, that 90% is going to be confused as to where and when their stations will be able to cut over. What a mess.

 

[tnsprin]

Well tomorrow will give us a hint on how much confusion there will be with the conversion. About 25% will convert tonight. In my area only 1 very minor station. But some areas still have all set to convert, but not necessarily to their final assigned frequency.

 

[dlsnyder]

Nothing in the Los Angeles area changing until June. I just happened to be on vacation this week and had been looking forward to the changeover. Now I have to wait until June. The changeover is on a Thursday, one day before our next Friday the 13th.

 

[dfergie]

FCC Unveils DTV Switch Guidelines for Stations

For those television stations that did not end analog broadcasting on Feb. 17, 2009, the FCC has set up the criteria under which stations may elect to continue their analog signals until the end of the extension period on June 12, 2009, or elect a date sooner than that if they desire.

On March 17, 2009 stations have to notify the FCC of their intentions of when they will cease analog broadcasts. This will be a binding notice, and cannot be changed once the election has been made by the station, unless there is a catastrophic transmitter or equipment failure or a natural disaster of some sort.

Source & More: TvWeek