DTV station identification; are local TV stations still analog on digital cable?

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by andy

It works because your cable system is still sending standard NTSC analog TV signals down the wire. These are the same type of signals that were used over the air, except they are sending them through a coaxial wire. The digital signals are on the same wire, but at a different frequency.

It's possible for analog and digital cable to share the same wire in much the same way analog and digital TV shared the same airwaves. They get along fine, as long as each channel is on a different frequency.

How can anyone still be transmitting analog when every television station in the US has turned off its analog signal? Television stations, and I think cable companies as well, are not allowed to transmit or otherwise use those signals anymore--it is all supposed to be digital or nothing as far as full-power television stations and cable companies are concerned. A lot of TV stations will find themselves in deep trouble with the FCC over this, and cable companies could find themselves in violation of some FCC statute as well for carrying analog TV signals.