Digital TV launch leaves some stranded

By Peter Svensson

updated 8:38 p.m. ET June 12, 2009

NEW YORK - TV shows were replaced by the hiss of static in perhaps 1 million U.S. homes Friday as stations ended their analog broadcasts and abandoned the transmission technology in use since the days of Milton Berle, Sid Caesar and Howdy Doody.

The vast majority of households that rely on antennas for their TV signals were prepared for the shutdown, but many people remained vexed by the challenge of setting up digital reception.

Hundreds of people began lining up about 3 a.m. Friday outside the Freestore Foodbank in Cincinnati, five hours before the agency began giving out 250 free digital converter boxes. The center had given all the converters away by 10:30 a.m., and many people were still in line.

Harvey Durrett, 48, said he got in line about 6 a.m. but was unable to get a converter, which costs about $40 to $60 in electronics stores unless the consumer has a $40 coupon from the government.

"I'm on disability, and I can't really afford to buy one," Durrett said. "I can't get anything on my TV now, so I guess I'll have to go to friends' houses if I want to watch anything."

Any set hooked up to cable or a satellite dish is unaffected by the end of analog broadcasts, but around 17 million U.S. households rely on antennas. Nielsen Co. said poor and minority households were less likely to be prepared for Friday's analog shutdown, as were households consisting of people younger than 35.

TV stations were free to choose when in the day to cut their signals, and many were holding off until late at night. That means the full effect of the shutdown will not be apparent until this weekend.

At WTTG, a Fox affiliate in Washington, the 11 a.m. newscast concluded with the signoff used when the station was a part of the old DuMont Broadcasting Network — playing The Star-Spangled Banner, followed by a test signal. Then at noon, the station showed an engineer pushing a red button to shut off the analog broadcast.

Video   Buh-bye, bunny ears June 12: Television the way it's always been broadcast in America was officially dead by the end of the day Friday. NBC's Brian Williams reports. Nightly News

TV stations, electronics stores and the government said most of the calls they received Friday were from people who had converter boxes, but needed help setting them up.

Fox affiliate WUPW in Toledo, Ohio, cut its signal at 8 a.m., making it one of the first stations to go. By 5:45 p.m., the station's five-person phone bank had received about 170 calls.

Chief engineer Steve Pietras said many callers had put off hooking up their converter boxes because they thought that digital broadcasting did not start until Friday. Like most stations, WUPW has been broadcasting digitally for years, alongside analog.

"That's kind of causing some last-minute jitters in a lot of people," Pietras said.

The Commerce Department reported a last-minute rush for the $40 converter box coupons: It received 319,990 requests Thursday, nearly four times the daily average for the past month.

In all, the government has mailed coupons for almost 60 million converter boxes. The limit is two coupons per household.

It takes nine business days for a coupon to reach the mailbox. Leo Jones, a 79-year-old retired school administrator in Ontario, Calif., was chagrined to learn this Friday.

His coupon will not get to him in time for the fifth game of the NBA playoffs on Sunday, when the Los Angeles Lakers could be crowned champions.

"I'll have to visit my neighbor," Jones said. "I would rather watch it at home."

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