TechnoBabble

Monday September 8 at precisely 12 noon, the United States officially began turning off analog transmitters and began to broadcast in digital only; if you live in Wilmington. Wilmington is the "test" market to see what would happen if a market didn't have analog TV anymore. Well the Sun didn't explode, the heavens didn't come down, the dead didn't rise and as best I can tell, people along the Azalea Coast still are watching television. A better picture, in digital.  Even the retired folks on fixed incomes.

Early word 24 hours into the future world of digital television is that things went off without a hitch. Some Elon University media students are manning a phone bank at Southeast Community College answering any questions that might arise and as of last night, they had taken about 90 calls and only one caller had no idea what was going on. Most calls consisted of people who didn't have their new digital TV's or converter boxes set up correctly or people living beyond the coverage area of a certain station. The Elon students have set up a blog about their experiences and you can read about it and see pictures they have taken at  www.wilmingtondtvtest.wordpress.com.

Now you may be asking what happened to the analog transmitters? For the next 25 days, the stations will be allowed to continue to operate their analog transmitters but only to provide a graphic that tells analog viewers their sets need to be upgraded and the programming is now available on their digital channels.

WWAY analog over the air on left TV. WWAY digital via cable on analog TV right.

After that, they will turn off their analog transmitters, but the FCC is allowing them to keep them ready to go back on the air if the area is threatened by a hurricane, but even this authorization will expire on February 17, 2009 along with the rest of us.

Speaking of the rest of us out side of Wilmington, we continue to count down until February 17, 2009 and get ready. We here at WGHP are awaiting equipment to convert our analog channel 8 transmitters to digital channel 8 transmitters. We want to go ahead and convert our auxiliary transmitter to digital as soon as possible so we can start testing it, but at this time, we have no idea when the equipment will arrive and we can begin the conversion. When that happens, I will keep you up to date on that.

On September 17 between 6 and 6:30pm, the North Carolina Association of Broadcasters are asking all stations in North Carolina to perform a "soft test" for digital. This is when we will break off the analog transmitter from the digital and for 60 seconds will broadcast a message that says if you are seeing this message, your TV needs to be upgraded to digital to help you identify if you are digital ready. Of course if you see that message and you are connected to cable or satellite, don't worry. You provider will do the conversion for you. This test is only for those with antennas connected to their TV's.

Also if you have a group that would like to have someone speak on the digital transition, give us a call here at the station and we will be happy to come speak!

Are you digital ready?