Orlando Stations to Test Analog Switch-Off
Planned Turnoffs Designed to Educate Viewers
By Glen Dickson -- Broadcasting & Cable, 5/8/2008 11:29:00 AM EDT
On the same day Federal Communications Commission chairman Kevin Martin formally announced that Wilmington, N.C., will serve as the test market for the end of the digital-TV transition by having its stations switch off their analog signals early and go all-digital in September, 11 stations in the Orlando, Fla., market announced that they will try to help smooth the DTV transition by simulating the Feb. 17, 2009, analog turnoff at various points this summer.
The test program -- which mimics a simulated analog shutdown conducted by NBC affiliate KVBC Las Vegas last week -- will involve three test broadcasts between June and the end of the year, with the first test scheduled for June 25 at 7:59 p.m.
Participating stations -- which will heavily promote the tests in advance -- will turn off the video feed to their analog transmitter for one minute, thus disrupting service for viewers who rely on over-the-air signals. Viewers who watch the stations through digital-TV sets, or those who receive them through cable or satellite operators that receive direct feeds from the stations, won’t lose service and will instead see a congratulatory message telling them they’ve passed the test.
At the conclusion of each test, stations will notify viewers that if their screen went blank, they need to take corrective action, and will direct them to government Web sites and toll-free numbers where they can get information about their DTV-transition options, such as getting a digital-to-analog converter box.
Participating stations include WESH-TV channel 2 (Hearst-Argyle Television), WKMG-TV channel 6 (Post-Newsweek Stations), WFTV-TV channel 9 (Cox Enterprises), WCEU-TV channel 15 (Daytona Beach Community College District), WKCF-TV channel 18 (Hearst-Argyle), WMFE-TV channel 24 (Community Communications), WVEN-TV channel 26 (Entravision Communications), WRDQ-TV channel 27 (Cox), WOTF-TV channel 43 (Univision Communications), WTGL-TV channel 45 (Good Life Broadcasting) and WBCC-TV channel 68 (Brevard Community College).
“One of the biggest questions viewers have is, ‘Will this affect me?’ This test will answer that,” explained consortium spokesperson Richard Monn, WESH/WKCF-TV chief engineer. “To the best of our knowledge, the marketwide test we’re proposing has not been utilized or attempted by any other alliance of broadcasters in the country.”
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We''ve heard from someone smarter than you or I that street sales,personal selling and knowledge of the market don''t count. So we''ll pay fewer sales pros more money to sit at their computer and click-paste cost-per-point numbers and email em to their rep or ad agency for a predicted piece of the frozen pie. The technical engineer giants departed this industry in the 80s, or hung on with their tongues and hands tied until retirement benefits kicked in. The programming and promotional juices dried or died in the 90s. Now we see the latest CEO manipulations eliminating costly cash-flow squeezers such as national talent and the all-too-costly sales departments re-deployed to points unknown. Not much left for this industry to blame for poor performance beyond the old fear and greed theory, where fearing satellite radio and cable-internet have driven us to the fall-out shelters of digital transition and the elimination of content,quality and local involvement. Meantime,viewers and listeners are dying to sample these predicted mega-super digital audio and video sources the audience has been begging for according to someone''s tainted research in the midst of the 400-500 channels already out there in most markets already.
Based on ratings results the new wave of TV will be Cop-Talent-Chase Programming with alternative endings broadcast via Multicast Channels,some with PPV adult themes.
