Operation Big Switch

Snow To Greet Those Not Ready

If you live in the US and receive over-the-air (antenna) broadcasts on an analog TV, and DO NOT have a DTV (digital television) converter box installed by 11:59pm February 17, 2009, one minute later at 12:00 midnight (Feb 18th) your television WILL NOT WORK! That's right, the US federal government is pulling the plug on the RCA developed analog TV system introduced to the public for the first time at the 1939 New York World's Fair. World War 2 initially interrupted the television industry, but by 1946, set manufacturing was in full swing and broadcasts resumed. When color TV was introduced in the mid-1950's, older black and white sets could receive color broadcasts in black and white because the entire television system was based on the analog standard. Now that digital is the new standard, the only way for an over-the-air analog TV to work after the switch is to have a digital-to-analog converter box installed between the antenna and the television or to subscribe to cable or satellite where conversion is automatic. Owners of digital television sets ARE READY NOW, and will not even realize a change has taken place. The idea is to make the transition transparent to the end user. The move to DTV has been in the works since 1996, when the Federal Communications Commission established standards and made the conversion mandatory. In spite of the fact that the switch has been planned for over a decade and hundreds of millions of dollars have been funneled into public service announcements and government issued coupons to help defray converter box costs, some people remain unaware of the looming deadline. Others are in denial and state while they have heard the switch is coming, they do not believe it will happen! While the end result remains to be seen, I predict the transition from analog to to digital television will be successful, but initially disastrous.