June 12 - what will happen

[whit979]

Do you really want to know what will happen? Some old people in Kentucky and Alabama will see their TV stations vanish and they will call the TV repair man. Then when they are told about the conversion to DTV, the old people will claim that they knew nothing about any changes coming. Then they will call all their local TV stations to ask how come they were not notified.

Skynet, you nailed it. I live in Alabama and can confirm that this is exactly what will be happening. I imagine that broadcasters will field plenty of callers who will start off by saying, "I've been watching your station for ## years..."

 

[mleach]

I wouldn't exactly be broadcasting to everyone that Wal-Mart is my employer, either. But that's another issue for another board.

Walmart, unlike the broadcast industry, is actually hiring these days.

true but according to our local TV news they are cutting the hours of many of those who already work there and demoting some from full time to part time. Kohls is doing the same thing around my neck of the woods as my sister had found out today.

..hmmmmmm....sounds like what many of our local radio stations are doing right now. For a good many of them who haven't been cut yet..many of them have found themselves going from full-time to part-time status.

 

[WPPCProductions]

At this point ,lets get this over with.I have one or my converter boxes fired up over my late moms house,{soon to be mine} recieving two dtv channels for now.earlier this week I was at the local Wal-Mart to pickup 2 converter boxes for my best friend to get him set up incase his cable quits.The Wallingford CT Wal-Mart was in a middle of getting their renovation of their sales floor. the electronics dept was in pieces,so I have to wait until later this wek to go back to get the boxes for him.

 

[justthenumbers]

Viewers to the analog signal of KASW-61/Phoenix (along with sister station KTVK-3) currently see a continuous DTV alert - below is a screen shot:

http://i43.tinypic.com/20gxzl1.jpg

What other stations in other markets are doing something similar?

 

[dustintv]

Do you really want to know what will happen? Some old people in Kentucky and Alabama will see their TV stations vanish and they will call the TV repair man. Then when they are told about the conversion to DTV, the old people will claim that they knew nothing about any changes coming. Then they will call all their local TV stations to ask how come they were not notified.

Possibly...personally I found out that my great aunt and uncle in West Virginia have gotten a converter box for their one and only TV and are ready for the DTV conversion, and they are usually about twenty years out of touch. I'm still amazed they got their act together on this one.

 

[Rollo-Smokes]

I wouldn't exactly be broadcasting to everyone that Wal-Mart is my employer, either. But that's another issue for another board.

Walmart, unlike the broadcast industry, is actually hiring these days.

Point taken. But I personally couldn't work for a firm who pays their employees barely more than minimum wage, mistreats them, and doesn't allow them to unionize. 'Nuff said.

Back on topic: while it isn't an earth-shattering event (and it is on a Friday), it is an historic one nevertheless. Is there anyone among us who'll be capturing any sign-offs?

 

[MarcB]

Point taken. But I personally couldn't work for a firm who pays their employees barely more than minimum wage, mistreats them, and doesn't allow them to unionize. 'Nuff said.

Barely more than minimum wage? Here in CT the minimum wage is $8.00/hr. I just got a raise to $9.40/hr because I've been with the company for one year. (Previously I was making $8.90 which is what most cashiers who have previous expereince running a register is getting). Mistreats them? I don't think so. This is the first company that I've worked for where my superiors actually treat me like a human being. And further more UNIONS SUCK. I was part of one for the nearly 5 years I worked for Shaw's Supermarket. All the Union was good for was STEALING MY HARD EARNED MONEY. The UNION helped me keep my jobs on serveral occassions when I very well should have been fired, before I ultimately walked out on the company due to harassment from a boss and the union was too scared to do anything to her for fear of a lawsuit because my boss was Black, in a management position, pregnant, and a Lesbian.

 

[justthenumbers]

Back on topic: while it isn't an earth-shattering event (and it is on a Friday), it is an historic one nevertheless. Is there anyone among us who'll be capturing any sign-offs?

I'm going to try to do it for as many Phoenix stations as possible. The only way I think to do this is by hooking up rabbit ears to as many of my analog-tuner VCRs as possible, and setting the timer on each one to record a different station. Of course, I don't have enough VCRs to cover every station in the market.

Or is there a better/easier/more efficient way that's just not coming to mind?

I'm excited because once KTVK-3 signs off, I can hook up my VERY old pong-wannabe "Radotin Tele-Sports" mini system (picture linked below) -- for the first time since moving to Phoenix (which was a LONG time ago) -- and play it without interference (assuming it still works). It runs only on Channel 3. Of course, I'm sure I'll get tired of it after 5 minutes!

http://i39.tinypic.com/2nvrp5z.jpg

 

[alg2468]

I'm going to try capturing analog signoffs for the Boston, MA market even though I'm in the Providence, Ri market. I get a decent analog signal from the Boston/Worcester stations, as their is a significant overlap of each market's signals. Boston's ch. 2 (WGBH-PBS), 4 (WBZ-CBS), ch. 5 (WCVB-ABC), ch. 38 (WSBK-IND), and Marlboro's ch. 66 (WUFT - Telefutura) sign off around noon on the 12th; ch. 7 (WHDH-NBC) and 56 (WLVI-CW) sign off around midnight. The other stations in the market, as well as all stations in the neighboring Providence market have already shut off their analog signals.

 

[whit979]

I just flipped past a special on C-SPAN regarding the DTV transition. They actually had a representative on there from a civil rights group to talk about the transition. Apparently some people think that the DTV switchover could infringe upon some people's civil rights.

 

[mleach]

Point taken. But I personally couldn't work for a firm who pays their employees barely more than minimum wage, mistreats them, and doesn't allow them to unionize. 'Nuff said.

Barely more than minimum wage? Here in CT the minimum wage is $8.00/hr. I just got a raise to $9.40/hr because I've been with the company for one year. (Previously I was making $8.90 which is what most cashiers who have previous expereince running a register is getting). Mistreats them? I don't think so. This is the first company that I've worked for where my superiors actually treat me like a human being. And further more UNIONS SUCK. I was part of one for the nearly 5 years I worked for Shaw's Supermarket. All the Union was good for was STEALING MY HARD EARNED MONEY. The UNION helped me keep my jobs on serveral occassions when I very well should have been fired, before I ultimately walked out on the company due to harassment from a boss and the union was too scared to do anything to her for fear of a lawsuit because my boss was Black, in a management position, pregnant, and a Lesbian.

While I agree with everything you had said ( yes unions really DO suck )...however people will always bash Wal-Mart for one reason or another...why? Because Wal-Mart is bigger. Kohls Department Stores ( the one that says to "expect great things" ) they are actually far more anti-union than Wal-Mart could ever be as Kohls is known to fire anyone on the spot who DARES as much as "breathe" union...even if one is as much as "rumored" to consider starting a union at Kohls. I have seen that myself by working for them. But because Wal-Mart is bigger than Kohls, so as a result many folks tend not to hear about the anti-union stuff that takes place at Kohls but they are always on the look out when it comes to unions and Wal-Mart.

OK going back on this topic..so far I have yet to see this on here but are there a few TV stations out there who are going door to door in the rural areas to see if everyone is ready by June 12th? My cousin who lives in Hancock, Maryland was telling me today that someone from nearby Hagerstown, MD's WHAG-TV NBC 25 ( well they claim to be working for them anyway ) had stopped by his house this morning to see if he was ready for DTV. My cousin felt something was fishy about that however since Saturday is a non-business day at WHAG, he couldn't get anyone there to confirm this person or not.

Anyway he did NOT let the person "from WHAG" inside his home. Has there been any stories out there similar to this?

 

[MarcB]

I just flipped past a special on C-SPAN regarding the DTV transition. They actually had a representative on there from a civil rights group to talk about the transition. Apparently some people think that the DTV switchover could infringe upon some people's civil rights.

Say what? That's the dumbest thing I've heard in a long time and believe me working in retail I've heard them all.

 

[Jul]

Re: June 12 - what will happen (times of analog sign-off on Philly TV)

Does anyone know the exact times as to when each TV station in Philadelphia, PA will turn off their analog signal on 6/12?

 

[vchimpanzee]

The year 2000 turned out not to be so bad.

However, I think having two cutoff dates helped a lot. Maybe it won't be so bad this time.

 

[FreddyE1977]

Actually a lot of other countries are learning from our mistakes on this. Australia for example is rolling out digital on a regional basis, so that they can focus getting people squared away in one area of the country before moving on to the next.

 

[ajc_trw]

Re: June 12 - what will happen (times of analog sign-off on Philly TV)

Does anyone know the exact times as to when each TV station in Philadelphia, PA will turn off their analog signal on 6/12?

Some stations have mentioned just before noon.

Living in Dover, DE I'll have the opportunity of watching two DT switchovers. DT-34 will be handed from WYBE to WCAU while DT-38 (Baltimore) will go from WJZ to WMAR. I'm not sure how these stations will announce the hand over, but I'm sure they'll say something.

I mentioned Baltimore 38 as you may be able to pick it up as they're putting out a full megawatt. I can pick them up in Dover 56 miles away with a simple loop aerial on the ground floor. So I guess it's goodbye WPVI hello WMAR.

 

[eskipper411]

I will be doing an live stream starting at 11:00 am here in D/FW for the countdown clock feed and you probably might want to wait until 11:55 am for the DTVCam feed.
Link to stream:www.ustream.tv
search dtv stream

 

[bpatrick]

Do you really want to know what will happen? Some old people in Kentucky and Alabama will see their TV stations vanish and they will call the TV repair man. Then when they are told about the conversion to DTV, the old people will claim that they knew nothing about any changes coming. Then they will call all their local TV stations to ask how come they were not notified.

Possibly...personally I found out that my great aunt and uncle in West Virginia have gotten a converter box for their one and only TV and are ready for the DTV conversion, and they are usually about twenty years out of touch. I'm still amazed they got their act together on this one.

While I smell stereotyping (why pick on Alabama and Kentucky?),
there is one station in Kentucky that could come out one of the biggest
winners in the DTV conversion: WYMT, the CBS affiliate in Hazard. It
is on analog 57, digital 12, is carried on cable systems all around eastern
Kentucky and parts of West Virginia, Virginia, and Tennessee, and is
already dominant in its part of the country; imagine what the digital
signal will do. WYMT is already on 12-1, while sister station WKYT
Lexington occupies 12-2.

 

[ALRocker]

We aint got know tee vee here in Alabamer, just sum man named NICK SABEN. Rollllll Tide.

 

[Jul]

Re: June 12 - what will happen (times of analog sign-off on Philly TV)

Does anyone know the exact times as to when each TV station in Philadelphia, PA will turn off their analog signal on 6/12?

According to WPVI website, they will turn off the analog signal at noon. What about 3, 10, 12, 17, 29, 35, 57, 61 and 65? What are the times will each station turn their analog signal off for good.