After the Switch

The long-awaited and much-talked about changeover to digital television occurred this past Tuesday.

Remember, this was suppose to be the earth-shaking arrival of 21st Century technology and an end to the way people have gotten television since it signed on the air more than half a century ago.

If it was suppose to be the dawning of a new day, it fell terribly short of the hype and here's why: the government, some viewers, and some broadcasters simply weren't ready for an event they have known was approaching for more than a year.

Even if you live in a cave on a remote island somewhere you knew this was coming.

The biggest problem, the government's coupon program for converter boxes ran out of money thanks to an 11th hour rush of customers to get the boxes.
 
You'd think that someone should have anticipated that given people propensity to wait until the last day to do things.

The government pushed the implementation day back four months to June 12th and some are already beginning to wonder if it will happen then.

Still, hundreds of TV stations made the switch from analog to digital.
 
So, how did it go?
 
In South Bend, Indiana, cheers resounded in the control room as NBC-affiliate WNDU switched from analog to digital.
 
They are probably cheering because it meant they don't have to run any of those annoying commercials or crawls across the screen anymore.

While the switch shouldn't have impacted viewers with cable TV or satellite dishes, there is no word yet on how many people lost their TV reception altogether.
 
Meanwhile, in Fargo, North Dakota, NBC-affiliate KVLY got a ton of phone calls: hundreds of questions for the engineers and those calls didn't let up.

The night before, the stations' engineers teamed up with prairie public TV to staff a phone bank.

Between six o'clock and nine o'clock, the group answered more than 500 calls from confused viewers.

They also aired a half-hour show to explain how to use a digital converter box and who may need additional equipment such as antennas.
 
A tale of two stations: the best of times, the worst of times -- lessons the rest of us can learn as June approaches.

By the way, no matter how frustrated the DTV changeover makes you, don't be like the guy Thursday in Joplin, Missouri.

Police were called to his house after reports of gunfire.

Turns out that he was frustrated because he couldn't get his converter box to work.
 
He was charged with unlawful use of a firearm.