In regards to the upcoming end of analog television I was wondering if anyone here knows, or has had any thoughts of what the end will really be like.

Will they announce the end, or will it just happen when they get around to flicking a switch.:scratch2:

I think it would be proper to have the last show be a looking back kind of documentary on television, from its start until today.

Another cool idea would be for the networks to broadcast the spinning likeness of Felix (I think) the cat for the last hour. That was supposedly one of the first images broadcasted in the early days.

Another idea I had was an Andy Griffith marathon for the entire last day.:thmbsp:

I'm hoping this event is something with some formality as it would be a good thing to record on the VCR, while it still works...:yes:

...Another idea I had was an Andy Griffith marathon for the entire last day.:thmbsp:...



I was thinking "Topper", "The Thin Man", "Alfred Hitchcock Presents"...

John

I intend to set up a couple of sets on our two analog channels, KAIT 8 and KEMV 6 to see just what will happen that night.

Is there a scheduled time?

Were suppost to be following along in a year or 2 in Canada .
So much for DXing with a vintage TV .
Best I done was on the 1954 Crosley . KCRA Sacramento .
That was a great moment .

"This is how the World Ends, then...Not with a Bang, but with a Whimper..."

I Married Joan, My Little Margie, December Brides....

When you see the angry mob with torches and pitchforks in front of thr Funny Cookie Company building you will know the changeover has taken place.

A 12-hour marathon of the movie "Freddy Got Fingered..." :D

They should play the National Anthem before they convert to digital. Just like in the old days when TV stations signed off at night.

I haven't heard anything from KTLA in Los Angeles yet, but I have eMails in to some people I know there. KTLA has pride in their history as the first commercial TV station on the west coast, and they also had a prewar TV experimental station (W6XYZ) owned by Paramount Pictures. If I had to guess, I'd bet they'll do something special. The first face seen on KTLA was Bob Hope, so sadly that's not possible. But they DO have a newsman; Stan Chambers, STILL WORKING THERE who started in '47 when they went on the air! I hope he gets involved.

Charles

I have been planning to do some kind of event -- maybe stack a small b/w set on my color roundie, tune them to different stations, and use a video camera to record the moment.

If you had a pirate TV station, it would be funny to instantly replace the missing signal with a scene of you and a pal sitting on a couch with ragged jeans, singing the theme from "Wayne's World." The sad part is that nobody would be watching to see it! :)

Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
http://antiqueradio.org/index.html

I already took the day off from work, stacking 25+ sets up(gently):) on all available channels and watching them all go to static with my camera. I think we have until midnight on the 12th, at least a few stations here said that. I may be wrong but since most of the stations in my area are just the digital station repeated on analog, therefore any special programming for analog would be on the digital station too. They might just throw the switch and that's it, but I hope not. Let's at least show the National Anthem or a test pattern or something.......

I think Merrylander is right: some folks just don't pay 'tention to nuthin', and when the TV goes to snow they won't have a clue and when they finally find out, there'll be all kinds of uproar. I'll bet we'll all be buying them new TV's for free. Sigh.

Reece

Verizon and AT%T should buy them new TVs, they got 90% of the bandwidth.

Verizon and AT%T should buy them new TVs, they got 90% of the bandwidth.



Effing BINGO !!!!

I just saw a blip on one of our local news about the transition. It seems that one person had used the two coupons and bought converters, but both crapped out in short order. One was the RCA from Wal-Mart, I did not recognize the other brand. From what I saw in the blip, the retailers did not want to replace the failed converters. With this kind of stuff happening, we may see rioting in the streets.

I have the RCA mentioned above, it has frozen and needed re-starting a couple of times, but still works. However, I recommend paying the extra $10 and getting the Digital Stream one. These seem to have better reception, do not freeze and introduce less buzz in antique TV sound systems.

KAIT 8 is switching over at 7:00 AM on the 12th.

Is it me, or does switching to digital just seem useless?

Check out "the Zapping of America" by Brodeur . . . just continuing old traditions. :yes::thumbsdn:

Since at least two of the local TV stations in Cleveland will be transitioning to digital at ten o'clock in the morning on June 12, I don't know if I'll see the event live as I expect to be sleeping at that hour. However, I could (probably will) set my VCR to tape the transition of one of the stations, although I don't expect to see much except a runner at the top or bottom of the picture informing viewers that the station is terminating analog programming, as one station here in northeastern Ohio did when it switched to 100-percent digital a couple months ago. I won't notice the difference, regardless, as I have Time Warner cable, which is already using the digital signals from every local station (direct feeds from the stations to the cable headend, not picking up signals with antennas) and converting them to NTSC analog for folks such as myself with older sets.

I do wonder, however, what the local TV newscasts will look like after the transition. The NBC station in Cleveland has already dropped its "Channel 3 News" brand (did so some time ago) for its noon, six, seven and 11 p.m. newscasts, now showing a screen just before the newscasts which has a huge, 3-D animated "HD" with a small NBC peacock between the letters, followed by a huge numeral 3 with the NBC peacock next to it and "wkyc-hd" in huge lower-case letters below the whole thing. Channels 5, 8 and 19, however, still have their original branding: "NewsChannel 5" for channel 5, "FOX8 News" for channel 8, and "19 Action News" for channel 19. Whether these will change after the transition is anyone's guess, although I think it would be in the public interest to do away with these brands that show the station's analog channel--after all, those numbers won't mean anything after the analog signals sign off. With all signals being transmitted digitally from June 12 going forward, the stations' channel positions will be expressed as a number followed by a decimal point, e. g. WKYC-DT 17.1 (the channel on which WKYC-TV in Cleveland will be operating when its analog signal signs off). Subchannels, if any, will be expressed by the number immediately to the right of the decimal point.

Speaking of subchannels, I don't think many of Cleveland's major TV stations are, at this point in time, even carrying anything much other than a simulcast of their main signal on their digital subcarriers. I do know that channel 5, the ABC affiliate for this area, does not have any alternate programming (yet) on any of its subchannels; however, channel 43, the MyTV affiliate, is supposedly carrying THIStv on one of its digital channels. I'm not sure about 25, 55, or 61, although channel 23, now an ION-TV affiliate, which does not have any digital subcarriers to my knowledge, will convert to digital "on the fly" on 6.12, if it hasn't already done so.

Finally: I feel sorry for antique-TV collectors such as Doug (drh4683), as his TVs will display nothing but snow after 06.12 unless he subscribes to cable or satellite (with many outlets, as he must have 100 TVs or more in his house). Putting that many splitters on one cable line, moreover, will cause signal losses galore, with the sets nearest the head of the line getting the best picture while those at or near the end of the distribution system will probably get the worst reception. This may not actually happen with cable, but I do know it can (and often does) occur with MATV distribution systems using antennas if the amplifiers fail or are inadequate to begin with.

KAIT 8 is switching over at 7:00 AM on the 12th.

They're already showing the scrolling alert at the bottom of the screen on KAIT-TV. Nothing on KEMV here though.

The Top TV is connected to a DTV converter box. The bottom one is connected directly to the outside antenna.

http://mp3.afz.biz/~hemingray/akpics/kait_d_a

I was thinking "Topper", "The Thin Man", "Alfred Hitchcock Presents"...

John

I know you guys are talking TV but I'll throw this in. Back in about 1973 or so, one of the radio stations in the Cleveland area was switching to a "Brand New Country Music Format".To mark the event, they played Jerry Reed's "When You're Hot,You're Hot" for 24 hours straight. They would speed it up, slow it down, and drop in all kinds of strange noises and audio clips. If you could stay with it for awhile, it really became quite hilarious.

KAIT 8 is switching over at 7:00 AM on the 12th.

Newsanchor Diana Davis will probably end up looking like a Picasso painting.

Newsanchor Diana Davis will probably end up looking like a Picasso painting.

Or something like that. :beerchug:

I just got my first converter from Radio (Sattelite-Cell) Shack today. I actually like the device as it gives my old TVs remote control that controls volume, as opposed to the remote channel select that a V.C.R. has to offer.

However, I don't think I like the ugly faces that the pixilating pictures produce on WAY too many channels.:sigh: The system makes you feel like you have all these free channels that you didn't know that you had. In reality, all but a few are unviewable. Nothing gained/nothing lost I guess. I guess we are just battling pixels instead of snow. Now, I only have the old rabbit ears as an antenna. I did notice that the U.H.F loop works better than using V.H.F. Who would have thought that there would ever be a market for rooftop antennas again. I see it coming, everybody who does not find the sense in/or can't afford paying $60-$100 per month to watch TV will need a rooftop antenna. Still cheaper than PAY PER DAYTV:thmbsp:. Perhaps an amplified indoor antenna would be an alternative.

Depending on location, a simple unamplified 300 ohm UHF loop with a matching transformer is enough. It is here, but I am pretty close to the transmitters I guess.

if I were to put up a new rooftop antenna it would HAVE TO be directional for DTV.

I really need to get my act together for the end. First I need to straighten out my outdoor antenna-the mount bent over the winter. With it I can bring in some fuzzy analog from DC & Baltimore. As it is I have just one analog left; their website offers no clue to anything special. The online schedule shows their analog station continuing right on into the next day. Guess that was easier for whoever does the schedule.

We have started having an issue with one of our two DigitalStream boxes. Watch a station, then switch to their subchannel...it will work. Shuffle back again and it will display the proper subchannel number but will be showing the other channel. Turning the box off and on again fixes it.

I will be visiting my mother in Atlanta when the switch happens, and sadly will miss the end of broadcasting in New Orleans. I may lug my little orange Philco with me just because I've had it so long to watch the end, although the cessation of any station in Atlanta doesn't have any personal meaning to me.

Is there a scheduled time? For my stations here in Grand Rapids it's 10am Eastern Daylight time. What sucks is that I'll be no where near a TV during the switch off. I'll be at a camp. I'm going to try to set my VCR to tape analog's last few moments before the plug is pulled. I'm thinking that they won't just pull the plug and the picture turns to snow, I think they'll switch to a message in big bold letters that just says "Get a converter box to continue watching this station" or something like that for a couple weeks before they really turn off the transmitters.

I doubt they'll do anything special for analogue TV. They'll probabally mention how they just axed "that crappy old [because as we all know, old = bad] analogue signal in favour of glorious godly digital. until the picure scrambles and fucks up whenever someone sneezes.

And I will bet all my money that there will be a tonne of people who are still clueless (how they can be clueless at this point is beyond me, but in general, the masses are idiots) as to why their TV won't work.

and even more people actually think that even if they have cable/satelite/etc, they still need a new TV or a converter box. morons.

Luckily, Canada isn't raping us of free TV until 2011, but after that I doubt the government will be giving us coupons for converter boxes.
I did however find out that the new digital channels will be on UHF, which is shitty since there are NO UHF analogue stations here, which means no one has a UHF antenna. VHF antennas will be useless, including the big ass areal we have on the roof. it will be a shrine to the days when TV signal was reliable.

We have digital cable, and it's ALWAYS fucking up. When that happens, i just go to my room where I still got analogue TV set up and watch in there.

even with digital cable though, you can plainly see pixels and hear digital compression and distortion. They're especially obvious on my 25" 1981 RCA XL-100 console. It's so fuckin irritating. AND THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE PROGRESS?! That TV has an excellent tuner too. i can pick up stations with a watchable picture, without an antenna at all. I'll bet this new digital transformation will give me nothing but CBC and the french channel, knowing the shitty TV reception in this area. (and CBC to me is totally unwatchable for reasons I can't mention here)

The online schedule shows their analog station continuing right on into the next day. .

Well, it looks as if the schedule does go "right on into the next day.":drool: I obatained my second converter (a Zenith) and came home and hooked it to the living rooms 1949 RCA. In the spare room I just turned on the 1955 Philco with rabbit ears and waited for midinght. I even had a friend on the phone who was curious, so I heard Conan in surround. Well, midnight was nearly fifty minutes ago as I write and nothing had changed.:scratch2: I retired the real oldie experiment for the night and flipped on the 1970 or so Sears Medalist color set behind me right now to see how things progress.

By the way, I think the cheap Zenith converter recieves better than the more popular Digital Stream. I have only had two for one day so I will do a little experimenting this weekend. Also, UHF loop works better than VHF for me.

Down to the final hours now...

KAIT 8 Has terminated their analog signal just a few seconds ago from this post.

What happened when they did that? did it just cut off, or did they display a warning?

One of the stations here switched to a static message, the other two just went to snow.

Here In Detroit WXYZ went to snow, WJBK-2 & WDIV-4 switched to a "How to connect to a convertor box" program loop.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MRroVXuRgU

The West Palm Beach Fox affiliate is the last of our locals to switch. The crawl says the signal will go to snow at 12 Noon. I can't believe that Judge Karen will be the last show I watch on my sets...:tears: :thumbsdn:

I will watch it until it goes dark.

As of this post, All analog in this area has gone the way of ol' Yeller, with the exception of a very weak Christian LP broadcast from Batesville on UHF 15.

Oh the humanity!!! All analog is snow now in portland oregon.

It is quite sad.
Matt Davala

Reading this thread --especially the last few posts-- reminds me of one of those sci-fi movie scenes where aliens (or nuclear disaster if you go back far enough) are wiping out the Earth's communications, and all the channels go to 'snow'... it sounds like some apocalyptic "beginning of the end"...

It will be very interesting to see what happens in reaction to this, and how the media covers it. Even if there are riots, you might not hear about it. There have been several major protest marches in major cities involving thousands of people in America in the past year that never made it onto any mainstream media. It depends on whether they deem the issue "worth covering", and that may be a political decision. Since it is television stations doing most of the news reporting, they may be reluctant to cover protests which are likely to be (at least partly) directed at them (by people who don't know any better). But some radio stations and newspapers should cover any difficulties; word should get around, as this shouldn't be deemed too political.

My guess is there will be some grumblings, but nothing too major. Most people have cable now anyway, and many of the others either have a set-top box or will quickly get one. Relatively few will actually protest, beyond grumbling with their neighbors or friends, although I would HOPE that MANY would/will. I'd smile and laugh with great joy to see tens of thousands of protesters in every major city, forcing them to rescind this decision. But I don't believe it will happen.

Reading this thread --especially the last few posts-- reminds me of one of those sci-fi movie scenes where aliens (or nuclear disaster if you go back far enough) are wiping out the Earth's communications, and all the channels go to 'snow'... it sounds like some apocalyptic "beginning of the end"...

It will be very interesting to see what happens in reaction to this, and how the media covers it. Even if there are riots, you might not hear about it. There have been several major protest marches in major cities involving thousands of people in America in the past year that never made it onto any mainstream media. It depends on whether they deem the issue "worth covering", and that may be a political decision. Since it is television stations doing most of the news reporting, they may be reluctant to cover protests which are likely to be (at least partly) directed at them (by people who don't know any better). But some radio stations and newspapers should cover any difficulties; word should get around, as this shouldn't be deemed too political.

Riots? Are you kidding? This country, collectively, has stood still for overtaxation, overspending, and the Red Chinese, of all people, financing us.

You think they'll riot over their TV's turning to snow?

...come to think of it, that's probably the ONLY thing that will get them off their collective, lazy a$$es.

LJB:smoke:

Well, on the lighter side, with a clear path I'm somehow receiving WUND-2 from Edenton, NC (Analog).

If i remember right the first of the stations to switch over here in Los Angeles will be noon PST and the last will switch at midnight. So far all are still running analog as of 10:00AM. I hooked up my converter box to our kitchen TV this morning and half the stations are gone! The antenna worked great for Analog but looks like I am going to have to work with it now but am going to wait as some of the stations are not on their final channel #. Hopefully some of this will correct itself but I am not counting on it.

So my portable 'TV sound' radio is now useless too? Will they start broadcasting the emergency/ fire signals on that bandwidth?

Yes, radio's VHF sound function will be useless now.

I think this is going to be a very big deal when the first national disaster hits. Living in S. Florida, I have relied on a portable TV for important news when hurricanes strike. Obviously I won't be able to do that anymore.

Yeah, I can listen to the radio but those maps and other visuals (emergency contacts, lists of gas stations with power, etc). are very important in that time of widespread need. I haven't seen that issue addressed anywhere...

Now's the time to do some last minute analog DXing. So far I've gotten WUND from NC, KDKA and WTAE from PA.

KHQA, Hannibal MO, Quincy IL is due to switch in about 1 hour from now. 3:00 pm central time. I have a couple of my sets on to witness it.

I think this is going to be a very big deal when the first national disaster hits. Living in S. Florida, I have relied on a portable TV for important news when hurricanes strike. Obviously I won't be able to do that anymore.

Yeah, I can listen to the radio but those maps and other visuals (emergency contacts, lists of gas stations with power, etc). are very important in that time of widespread need. I haven't seen that issue addressed anywhere...

Get an digital TV tuner for your laptop.

Having lived in Florida and Louisiana, I can confirm that there will be a LOT of people caught off-guard when the first disaster arrives. Problem with a lot of laptops is that they suck too much battery power when compared to a little 5" black/white TV. About 50-75 watts for modern laptops. Will be interesting to see how they handle this.

Dallas stations didn't give it much effort. KTVT-11 (CBS) went straight to snow without so much as an announcement. KFWD-4 (Fox) and KXAS-5 (NBC) ran a looping bilingual video about the converter boxes, looks like something the DTV people distributed. KERA-13 (PBS) ran a static text page about the mandated switchover.

WFAA-8 (ABC) was a bit classier. Had an announcer next to a running Motorola 7" "suitcase" set (the one that uses the 7JP4, can't remember the model) displaying the station's old logo card. Talked about the significance of the change and how it was history making. WFAA was on the air as another call sign (k-something) back in 1948 and the first in Dallas, 2nd in the DFW area on the air. They closed with their signoff film that ran back before the early 80's. Not sure exactly what "era" it was from, but it used their long-retired round logo, and showed shots of downtown missing buildings that I know were built in the mid-80s.

Ans so, little by little, the analog stations simply switch off in LA. No good bye's, no fanfare, no nothing. Just a click to snow. THAT, of all things is sad. No respect for the analog history of broadcasting to even have the decency to "sign off".

Alas, a bittersweet moment for myself. Everything I have spent half a lifetime to learn will be obsolete tomorrow.

Thank god I still do vintage audio. Sigh...

I'm in Detroit. I think people here, including the TV stations, are so broke that they'll just flip the switch at midnight (or whenever), and that'll be that. They may have a commentary about it on the news or something, but my guess is that, especially since they've been broadcasting a digital signal for quite a while here, no one will really do anything special to commemmorate it.

And if you haven't done anything to prepare for it yet.... well, you probably don't watch television and so it won't matter anyhow.

Well, it's time I got back to my The Girls Next Door marathon.....

Welcome to CostCo. I love you.

The NBC affiliate here has an engineer who helped bring the station online in 1953 coming in to do the "ceremonial" shutdown during the 6pm newscast. They're keeping the transmitter on for two weeks as a nightlight, but it will be the only analog broadcast in the area.

http://www.ky3.com/news/local/47918127.html

Get an digital TV tuner for your laptop.

This. The price of PV panels that can charge batteries have come down significantly in price, and you can usually find AGMs that are pulls from big commercial UPSs for not a lot. 100Ah or so gives a lot of time for looking at weather maps.

An HF ham rig with the hurricane net frequencies programmed in would be my first choice, though. Those guys are really on the ball when it comes to weather reports and health & welfare traffic.

Now's the time to do some last minute analog DXing. So far I've gotten WUND from NC, KDKA and WTAE from PA.

Cool. BTW, KDKA and WTAE are from here in Pittsburgh. There musth ave bee na front moving through because I was listening to FM on 92.1 in the Colorado pickup and I heard another station coming in and "walking over" the one I was listening to.

Ans so, little by little, the analog stations simply switch off in LA. No good bye's, no fanfare, no nothing. Just a click to snow. THAT, of all things is sad. No respect for the analog history of broadcasting to even have the decency to "sign off".

Alas, a bittersweet moment for myself. Everything I have spent half a lifetime to learn will be obsolete tomorrow.



I know that feeling. I would have hoped for more of a sign off, but it doesn't seem like that will be the case.

David

:thumbsdn:I'm in Detroit. I think people here, including the TV stations, are so broke that they'll just flip the switch at midnight (or whenever), and that'll be that.

Well, it's final. The end has come, again, the end of an era. At midnight, without a warning, The Tonight Show went to commercial and never came back. I got a lot of really cool pictures kind in a fateful kind of way. I took some shots of the DTV directional/informational programming that will likely set a worlds record for infomercial length. Anyway, I noticed some of the captions were kind of funny, especially being viewed on a 1956 model TV. One says, "television has not yet been upgraded to digital" (NO SH*T), and the other says, "continue watching free television." I'm going to post these for fun. If anyone has any interesting "end of an era" screen shots please post them.:thmbsp:

P.S. This is 40 minutes later. I just did the photo upload (dialup). Just four pics!!

Farewell....channel 11 and 13 here in Los Angeles just went to snow.

http://www.artchive.com/artchive/r/rockwell/rockwell_antenna.jpg

Here in the Bay Area, they all just went away at midnight. Channel 11 is still on the air, though, showing DTV info.

The first stations to switch last night were channels 3, 19 and 43 in Cleveland, although I did not see the actual cutoff of the analog signal since I have cable (Time Warner, the cable operator in my area, uses direct digital feeds from the TV stations, not over-the-air signals picked up via antennas). I had no choice but to see the event on cable, as the OTA signals in this area are too weak to have been seen in analog with an antenna, and channel 3 (the NBC station serving northeastern Ohio) does not even reach here OTA.

The other six local stations (5, 8, 23, 25, 55, 61) waited until midnight to ring down the curtain. A PBS station 60 miles southwest of here (WEAO-TV 49), which is carried on Time Warner Cable in my area, shut down its analog signal at 12:01 this morning. That station must have had some problems with its digital signal immediately after the transition, as I watched part of a Charlie Rose interview program at midnight and found the video and audio terribly out of sync. I found it weird, to say the least, to see Rose's guest on my TV screen and hearing the sound about 30 seconds later. Fortunately, as of 1 a.m. EST or so, however, the problem was corrected and the show ran to completion without further incidents.

The commercial TV stations in this area did not have any issues whatsoever with digital freezeups, video/audio synchronization problems, or anything else--their transition was seamless and transparent, at least to those of us watching on cable. I do not know whether any of those stations made an announcement, ran a crawl, or gave any sort of warning that their analog signal was about to disappear forever, although I remember a home-shopping station on channel 67 in a town near where channel 49 is located switched to digital early (about six months ago, IIRC) and did show a screen crawl announcing the end of their analog transmissions.

Channel 3 is remaining on the air in analog as a "nightlight" station for the next 30 days, running DTV conversion info and emergency information as necessary.

Perhaps every Cleveland TV station did run a crawl last night, moments before cutting their analog signals, but if so, I didn't see it as the cable carries only the stations' digital signals these days (TW cable, the entire NE Ohio/NW Pennsylvania system, was converted to 100-percent digital about a year or so ago).

R. I. P. analog TV in northeastern Ohio

1947 - 2009

The stations here in Hampton Roads Virginia just went off. WTKR channel 3 switched off right before Letterman was to begin. None of the stations did a sign off. They just disappeared with no reverence for a system that brought us information and entertainment our entire lives. We are in the digital age now whether we like it or not.


(Sing to the tune of the NBC chimes) We Are Screwed.

I know you guys are talking TV but I'll throw this in. Back in about 1973 or so, one of the radio stations in the Cleveland area was switching to a "Brand New Country Music Format".To mark the event, they played Jerry Reed's "When You're Hot,You're Hot" for 24 hours straight. They would speed it up, slow it down, and drop in all kinds of strange noises and audio clips. If you could stay with it for awhile, it really became quite hilarious.

I remember that, and yes, I did "stay with it" for quite some time, as it was something no one had ever done before on radio in Cleveland--and it caught (and held) my interest. I was 17 years old and living in a Cleveland suburb at the time, and the radio station was, IIRC, WELW-FM, 107.9 (it's now urban contemporary WENZ-Z107.9 after several callsign and format changes, and who in the Cleveland area can ever forget their fabulous 140kW ERP signal, which they finally had to throttle back to 16kW ERP in the '80s because of new stations having gone on the air on 107.9 in Pittsburgh and Toronto?). That 24-hour Jerry Reed stunt was the darndest thing I've ever heard on radio in my entire life. As you said, they would do all kinds of crazy things with the song: play it backward, play two copies at once, run it at 78 RPM rather than 33 1/3 ... anything they could think of.

As I said, this was a stunt no one had ever pulled on radio in Cleveland before, and may never do again. In fact, in this age of most radio stations being automated and programmed from central studios hundreds or thousands of miles away, it would seem to me that a stunt like that would be almost impossible to pull off, unless some daredevil engineer at the central computer reprogrammed the system to play one or two songs over and over again. I doubt if either of the big media conglomerates (Clear Channel and CBS Radio, the latter formerly known as Infinity) that own and operate 90 percent of the radio stations in the United States would stand for that although, considering the noise masquerading as music a lot of those stations play all day, every day, I don't see the harm in doing a stunt like the Jerry Reed marathon again. Today's teenagers probably wouldn't notice the difference; after all, to that generation, rock and roll is rock and roll, the louder the better. They couldn't care less if the same song(s) repeat over and over again, as long as it's loud enough to rattle the windows. They don't worry about the loudness or what it will eventually do to their hearing, which is too darn bad. I am reminded of the story of two middle-aged men watching a motorcycle race in which the engines were deafeningly loud. The first gentleman said to his friend, "I tell ya, Joe, at this rate these kids will be deaf before they are 25 years old." His friend answered, "Nonsense! I been riding these things for years and I'm still alive!" The second man had thought his friend had said "dead" rather than "deaf", almost certainly because the second man's hearing had been adversely affected by loud noise (probably ear-pounding rock music through headphones with the volume run up to maximum) when he was a teenager. I live on the main street of a small village here in northeastern Ohio and often hear loud rap and other types of "music" blaring from cars passing by my apartment. The cars' windows are almost always closed as the vehicles zoom by. If their "music" is so loud it can be heard on the street and even inside buildings through the car's closed windows, I shudder to think how loud the same stuff must be inside the car. I bet those young men and women will go deaf within a very short time if they keep this up.

I remember that, and yes, I did "stay with it" for quite some time, as it was something no one had ever done before on radio in Cleveland--and it caught (and held) my interest. I was 17 years old and living in a Cleveland suburb at the time, and the radio station was, IIRC, WELW-FM, 107.9 (it's now urban contemporary WENZ-Z107.9 after several callsign and format changes, and who in the Cleveland area can ever forget their fabulous 140kW ERP signal, which they finally had to throttle back to 16kW ERP in the '80s because of new stations having gone on the air on 107.9 in Pittsburgh and Toronto?). That 24-hour Jerry Reed stunt was the darndest thing I've ever heard on radio in my entire life. As you said, they would do all kinds of crazy things with the song: play it backward, play two copies at once, run it at 78 RPM rather than 33 1/3 ... anything they could think of.


There was a station here in Dallas that when Clear Channel bought them, the whole staff was fired all at once to bring in the "corporate music" zombies. To protest, the old staff put on a CD of "Macarena" on "repeat" and secured the studio such that it couldn't be changed. This went on for like two days....amusing.

Thought I should chime in, if a little late. Friday was a very busy day for me, but I really wanted to do something with the switchover. I had a few minutes in the morning so I pulled out the old set I keep in the office-a 12" bw Philco from the 60s. Bought that thing at a yard sale 15 years ago for a dollar. It gets drug out every few years-I watched the Clinton/Lewinsky testimony on it, I watched 911 unfold. So Friday morning I watched a couple minutes of daytime TV and snapped a few pictures-this was of the only local station left on analog. (also the only thing you can pick up here with a set-top antenna)

It wasn't until about 9:30 that night that I had time to switch a TV back on. (Well, my wife was in the back watching digital) Much to my dismay, the local station (WBOC) had already flipped the switch! (this is the one which I had earlier mentioned, with an online schedule which continued on into Saturday) So, I quickly switched over to my outdoor antenna to find: nothing left from Baltimore; 3 DC stations were coming in. Pioneer broadcasters WRC-4 & WTTG-5 (the former being NBC owned, the latter being an old DuMont flagship) were running the same DTV endless-loop. The Maryland Public Broadcasting station from Annapolis had it, too. I found only one station airing "real" programming-the Spanish language station from DC. They even had a countdown clock, and were talking about it on the 11pm news.

I could almost pick up WGAL-8 from Lancaster-I kept tweaking the antenna but just couldn't get a watchable signal. It looked like, from what I could see, they were airing something besides the same old continous loop.

At that point I was tired and just said the heck with it. WRC & WTTG will be running the loop for another month, so I'll tune in again then. Otherwise, it wasn't worth my time to stay up until midnight. Sandy G said it-with a whimper, not a bang.

One other thing: Saturday I was talking to a TV repairman I know. He said he was swamped Friday, installing converter boxes. Hooked 'em up as fast as he could all day. He charged $50 labor for each service call. Good for him!

it is a sad day...analog is no more.


I swear I miss the old test pattern of days gone by......no more national anthem at 1am......that warm fuzzy feeling of watching your favourite show in B/W at nite is gone.


:tears:

Yep... Those 5am sign ons and spending the next hour aligning my tv sets..

Steve

Hello,

in these days too, the last German analogue television transmitter of the public teleivison service was switched off. See a video from the last regular PAL colour tv transmission in Germany:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8PM4qR3uUg

Kind regards,
Eckhard