FCC says ‘not so fast’ to local station’s DTV switch

Officials at WBOC-TV, Channel 16, in Salisbury, Md. – the area’s CBS affiliate and lone remaining analog TV broadcaster – were ready to switch off their analog broadcast this Tuesday, Feb. 17, on the original schedule for the federally mandated digital television switchover, but they found out just five days beforehand that they would not be permitted to do so after all.

Representatives of WBOC, which also operates Fox 21, had said as recently as Feb. 11 that the station still planned to switch off its analog broadcast on Feb. 17, on the deadline broadcasters have been working toward for more than a year. Instead, WBOC officials announced last Thursday that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was forcing the station – and 122 others across the nation – to delay the switch until the new deadline of June 12.

“WBOC will continue to transmit its analog signal until June 12, the national deadline for the digital switch,” WBOC reported on its Web site on Feb. 12. “As a result of the FCC’s ruling, WBOC will be scaling back all of our on-air discussion about the DTV switch. In addition, WBOC’s DTV phone bank planned for next Tuesday has been canceled.”

Representatives of WMDT-47 in Salisbury had said last week that they’d been told that all area TV stations, including regional Public Broadcasting System affiliates, were still on target for the Feb. 17 cut-off, despite the delay passed by Congress on Feb. 4 and signed into law on Feb. 11.

But the FCC’s review of 491 applications to terminate analog service put a stop to the transition for nearly a quarter of those stations, many of which were already the final station in their broadcast area to still be broadcasting an analog signal.

“In contrast to the stations remaining on the air and those that have previously terminated analog service or complied with the Third DTV Periodic Report and Order procedures to terminate analog service before February 17th, we have identified 123 stations of the 491 intending to terminate analog service on February 17th whose early termination poses a significant risk of substantial public harm,” the FCC ruling reads.

Since one of the eight conditions stations must now meet to get permission to turn off their analog signals prior to June 12 is ensuring that at least one analog station remains on the air in their broadcast area, WBOC has no choice but to keep its analog signal on the air until then.

Coupon program to start up again soon

The ruling doesn’t bring back full TV service for those who haven’t gotten their DTV converter boxes or upgraded their televisions to ones with digital receivers, but it does help ensure that at least one local TV station remains as a source of information for those who didn’t get around to upgrading their equipment yet or who are waiting for the resumption of the federal government’s coupon program to purchase a digital TV converter for their analog sets.

The law that delays the transition for WBOC also extended the coupon program, which ran out of funding in the first week of January, leaving an estimated 4 million households now on a waiting list for their two $40 coupons per household.

Representatives of the agency overseeing that program, which will now run through July 31, said they expect the additional funding provided in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (the stimulus bill signed into law this week) to get coupons headed out to those on the waiting list in the coming weeks – likely starting in April.

Those who were previously sent coupons but ran afoul of their 90-day expiration period can expect to be able to apply for replacement coupons in the near future, as well, but the coupon program Web site at www.dtv2009.gov warns that they are not yet set up to take those requests for replacements. So, if you let your coupons expire, keep checking back for an update on that process.

Transition doesn’t impact many viewers at all

Again, the DTV switchover is only an issue for those who watch over-the-air broadcasts via an analog TV and set-top or rooftop antenna.

If you have a TV purchased after May 25, 2007, that wasn’t marked with a warning that it didn’t come with a digital tuner, your TV is already digital-ready and you don’t need a converter box. Rescan your channels on such a TV if you’re not getting all the channels you now expect.

You may also need a more powerful antenna to get all the stations you did before, especially if you live on the outer edge of the stations’ broadcast area, since digital signals don’t travel as far as their analog precursors did. Visit www.antennaweb.org online to learn what type of antenna you may need and what stations you can expect to receive with it.

Those who watch only television from a cable or satellite provider don’t need to worry either, even if they’re using an older, analog-only TV. If a cable company offers any analog service, it is required to provide consumers with their local broadcast stations in analog so that they can watch them on an analog TV without a cable set-top box. And satellite providers don’t provide local channels in this area at all, so there’s no change for satellite customers who aren’t also using an antenna.

For more information on the DTV transition, visit the Web site at www.dtv.gov.