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I know that analog UHF transmitters can take a ton of power to put out a puny signal. There are some UHF stations that are operating at 5 megawatts effective radiated power (this is transmitter output power X antenna gain). Even with an antenna gain of 50 times, which is common on UHF, the transmitter is drawing at least 100,000 watts off the AC line. Combine that with super expensive tubes and water cooling system headaches, there is a lot of incentive for UHF stations to get rid of that stuff and go for the solid state lower power consumption digital transmitters.
I am not saying it is truly in the public service to get rid of analog TV but I can see how a station would be tempted to do it.
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