Just one month left of analog NTSC (again)

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by Sandy G

Well, I wish to register a complaint...About a week & a half ago here, we had a Tornado come thru. Or at least a funnel cloud. Depends on who you talk to. Some folks say they saw a funnel cloud, I didn't. Anyhow, the local radio stations, WRGS 1370 KC, & the FM station, they've changed their call letters again for the umpteenth time, I can't remember, I think they're WEYE, 104.3 Mc, both of them are "fully automated", & consequently, we got NOTHING as far as updates on the tornado-just the usual canned, "Blah-blah-blah" reports at the regular newstimes. Other than that, they kept pumpin' out the inane Kuntry-Lovin' hits...Kinda wish the tornado had come by & blown them away, for all the good they did..."Public Service", my ass... Next year-or even after June, if we get another tornado, we could be blown away, & if the lights get knocked out-as they usually are-how would we know if one's coming ? I still say this is about the most stupid jerkoff trick the boneheads in Warshington have ever dreamed up... An' they're masters at coming up w/jerkoff tricks...

Sandy, I did not realize how utterly useless radio is for weather warnings until I read your post. With so many stations being automated these days (there is one such station in the next town south of here, and maybe--even likely--many more in Cleveland) the chances of getting local weather information and/or warnings are slim to none--they don't ordinarily break into the automated programming for much of anything. There is a 0.5kW local station near where I grew up that changed from oldies to a fully-automated talk format about five years ago or so; I don't hear it where I live now (Fairport Harbor, Ohio, a village 33 miles east of Cleveland that isn't considered a suburb), so don't know what's going on anymore with it or its programming. But I'd think they are as bad as most other automated stations, never (well, hardly ever) breaking into the satellite programming. Heaven help them (not to mention the residents of the area) if a tornado strikes the city where they are located (Willoughby, Ohio, an eastern suburb of Cleveland); the storm might well quite literally blow them off the air, and the public would have little or no advance warning of the event.

BTW, I just looked up (on www.Radio-Locator.com) the information for the local AM/FM radio stations in your area. You were right. The local FM in Surgoinsville, Tennessee is in fact WEYE-FM, while the local AM station in Rogersville is still WRGS. I didn't realize both those stations are automated. I think your best bet will be to hope that the digital TV stations serving your area are receivable well enough to get the info you will need in an emergency situation, although given the all-or-nothing nature of DTV this could be and probably will be hit-or-miss at best--hardly acceptable in an emergency. The next tornado may well knock the local radio stations off the air; at least if you have power and access to your TV (and your cable or antenna haven't been disabled or blown down, respectively) you will get EAS (Emergency Alert System) info. If the storm knocks out your electric service, unfortunately you will be out of luck as far as TV is concerned, and radio will, again, be worthless as many of the local stations will be off the air if the tornado blows down their towers.

The FCC obviously did not do their homework when they decided to shut down analog TV on June 12 this year. This, which is not in the public interest by any means, will leave many, many people literally "in the dark" as far as emergency information goes if a tornado or other natural disaster disrupts electric power or disables the area's television stations. I agree with others here who have said it would have been an excellent idea if the FCC had put a clause in the DTV-shutdown rules that would allow one analog NTSC TV station in each major market to stay on the air to allow for emergency information if needed. The FCC's "nightlight" service provisions were supposed to have addressed this issue, but unfortunately many cities did not take advantage of them, which is why most of the U.S. is in such a mess today as far as TV in emergencies goes. The whole country probably would have been better off had the FCC kept its hands off the present NTSC analog television system, which has served this country well for nearly sixty years. At least with NTSC analog, stations can be received (albeit with snowy pictures and/or noisy sound) when the signals are extremely weak; with DTV, you either have a signal or you don't, which again is totally unacceptable in any emergency situation--in a severe rainstorm, flood condition or tornado, the signal will be unpredictable, leaving viewers either with no reception whatsoever or with an unusable picture and no sound.

Sheeeesh! The FCC really blew it this time.

[Sandy G]

Well, in all honesty, we're in sort of a "Here there be Tygers" area, anyway, when it comes to news/weather coverage...The Knoxville stations tend to cover only their metro area, which doesn't include us, unless its something REALLY bad, pretty much the same story w/the Kingsport/Johnson City/Bristol stations.

[Dave1384]

Some folks are not going to bother with the converter boxes. Viewership will decline somewhat with ad revenue to follow. Screw em'. You'll see. My my 85 year old mom cannot get Antiques Road Show anymore. The Comcast guy told me it is a ROYAL PITA. It is.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by Dave1384

Some folks are not going to bother with the converter boxes. Viewership will decline somewhat with ad revenue to follow. Screw em'. You'll see. My my 85 year old mom cannot get Antiques Road Show anymore. The Comcast guy told me it is a ROYAL PITA. It is.

Sounds like your mother is still using an NTSC analog TV connected directly to an antenna, without a converter box, and the PBS station in her area is now 100-percent digital. Is she aware that all TV will be digital by 06.12, and that her TV will no longer work after midnight (or sooner) on that date unless it is connected to cable or a converter box? If she has cable, however, she should still get Antiques Roadshow on PBS. Even if the local PBS station is transmitting exclusively digital signals, the cable operator will see to it that the station (and all others on the system) are downconverted to NTSC so that analog sets can receive the signals.

All cable television systems in the U.S., including Comcast, are required by law to carry every broadcast channel in every market they serve. If the system in your mother's area is not carrying PBS, it is in violation of that law.

[zenith2134]

Whether or not the Digital OTA system is flawed, I am not sure yet. Since I am local to NYC's many transmitters, reception hasn't been too much of an issue (yet)

But as far as safety is concerned, why not leave one analog VHF or UHF station live in each market? Seems like a plausible prevention scheme, "just in case..."

[3Guncolor]

It would be silly to leave one station on in each market in analog. Who would pick the station and who would pay the cost to keep the transmitter on the air? A lot of stations ran their old transmitters down to the last mile so many of then don't have many trouble free hours left so who would pay to replace these transmitters? The way things are today in ad sales the stations don't have the cash. In some markets like LA if something bad happens we have AM radio KNX and KFI both 50000 watt flame throwers and much better news departments then most of the television stations. KFI makes more money then most FM stations so AM is not dead yet.

[peverett]

There are two issues with using radio for emergency issues at present(at least in tornado alley).

1. At present, commercial radio (AM or FM) does not cover severe wether at all. Other than TV, the only weather coverage is on the flawed weather radio systems.

2. There is no way radio can replace the modern severe weather coverage (doppler radar, etc) available on TV. A picture is truly worth 1000 words.

As peoples lives are at stake, I think money can be found. As to the transmitters, new ones can be built-all it takes is money.

In fact, as the coverage area is less for DTV than NTSC(less people see the commercials with DTV), I would bet that some stations would love to remain analog if given the chance(In addition they could advertise-and it would be correct-that their weather coverage is more reliable than others).

The main two things that need to happen is a change in the stupid law(let the marketplace decide) and some money returned to Verizon, etc. I do not believe that any one needs to "choose" a station-they would choose themselves.

[3Guncolor]

Yes new Transmitters could be built all it takes is money. And more $ to pay the electric bill. The possible extra $ from commercials with a few added viewers won't even come close to cover the costs. One possible solution might be to have some stations that are able to keep their antenna and transmitter operational licensed for emergency use during storms etc.. The government could possibly pay them to keep the transmitter operational. The costs would be low for a few years due to the low amount of hours the plant would be operated. After five years the situation could be reevaluated and if there was a true need for analog then the decision would be made how to operate going forward.

As much as I like analog and hate to see it go most viewers use either dish/satellite or cable.

BTW when earthquakes hit out here it’s television that is behind some of the radio stations except for the comedy of seeing the anchors hiding under the desk. But fire coverage can come in handy so I can see your point about being able to see what’s going on. But I can’t see the need to keep an analog station on the air for that because there is no storm caused interference and digital should be good to go.

[peverett]

With earthquakes and such, I do not think the type of TV matters. At present, no pre-warnings are possible.

However with severe storms that are changing by the minute, up to date information is critical.

I have experienced both DTV and Satellite during storms. Both freeze up and lose sound-no good at all. In fact, during one episode DTV froze up for 10 minutes while analog NTSC continued on snowy, but useable.

[colorfixer]

To leave a high power transmitter for long periods as an emergency measure is difficult for many reasons. These beasts don't like to sit dormant without being run on a regular basis, which means maintenance and operational costs, plus, the channel assigned to such a transmitter would have to be kept free, which is nearly impossible in most markets. In a nutshell, it wouldn't be practical.

Since they've announced the ability to tailor the dtv signal for portable devices, it should be a moot point anyway.

[zenithfan1]

At least the extension gave me time to get a whole bunch of sets fixed to see analog one last time. I took the 11th and 12th off of work, the 11th is also my daughters birthday. I plan to fill every available space in the house with tvs and let the damn things play all day. Channel 6 said last night that analog will cease right at midnight on the 12th, I wonder how many will be off before then, either way, I'll be watching. I now have working sets ranging in years from 1949 to 2001 so it should make a cool video.

[AUdubon5425]

The people most affected by the loss of TV in bad weather will be in outlying rural areas, where small independent radio stations still sign off the air overnight or do not have the means to keep an employee there around the clock. Or, on the other hand, even in metropolitan areas (such as New Orleans) the television weather departments are very good at coming and staying on the air during severe weather outbreaks. There is only one radio station with a real news department here, and the last time we had flooding and tornadic activity overnight they did not break into "The Dave Ramsey Show" to provide information. Probably because Entercomm isn't paying anyone to stay there after midnight.

Hopefully my outdoor antenna will pull a signal through severe thunderstorms. Haven't had the chance to test it yet.

[Cadillac Kid]

Thats one month until I have to trash all my Shure Wireless microphones so some bloated Telecom can install high powered transmitters everywhere and we can enjoy some crap TV on our cell phones. Progress marches on.

[wilkes85]

I just found out that they're switching the channels to UHF when they axe analogue TV here... which is just stupid because there are no UHF channels here, and there never were. So very few, if any people here would actually own a UHF antenna.

So i guess I won't be able to use the antenna on the roof at all, after 2011. It will just be a shrine to the good ol' days when TV was once free.

[wa2ise]

Today (May 29th) it's two weeks and counting...