[opendtv] News: Glitches Come to Light in Wilmington
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: OpenDTV Mail List <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 9 Sep 2008 09:15:13 -0400
http://www.tvnewsday.com/articles/2008/09/09/daily.9/
Glitches Come to Light in Wilmington
By Jim Barthold
TVNEWSDAY, Sep 9 2008, 8:39 AM ET
Trouble with D-to-A converter boxes and antennas, not a lack of
awareness about the DTV conversion, drove calls to TV stations and
the local cable TV provider in Wilmington, N.C., yesterday after the
five-county market became the nation's first to abandon analog
television.
]
"Almost everybody is aware; it's that their equipment is not working
correctly," said Connie Book, associate dean of the Elon University
School of Communications.
Book led a group of her students who helped local stations and Time
Warner Cable answer phones after the stations cut off their analog
service at noon and forced over-the-air viewers to pick up the
stations' digital signals.
The students also recorded the number and nature of the calls.
As of this morning, they had logged 143 calls, 104 from people who
said they relied solely on over-the-air TV.
Wilmington is the nation's 135th largest TV market with about 180,000
TV households. Between 13,000 and 15,000 had relied solely on analog
broadcasting.
Most of the callers to the stations had digital TVs or converter
boxes, but still couldn't get a picture, according to the Elon
students.
Forty-one percent complained that couldn't find a signal; 26 percent
said they had trouble with the antenna; and 21 percent said they
simply couldn't get their converter boxes to work properly.
All but one caller said they had been aware of the DTV transition,
confirming a survey that the NAB had conducted prior to the analog
cut-off.
Most of the calls were taken by Raycom Media's NBC affiliate WECT
(49.2 percent) and Morris Network's ABC affiliate WWAY (36.6 percent).
"We had a few calls from people that didn't scan their converter box
when they hooked it up," said Andy Combs, general manager of WWAY.
"We had a couple people call up that needed to adjust their antenna;
just those types of adjustments."
The calls to the stations and Time Warner Cable do not provide a full picture.
Broadcasting & Cable reported last night that a call center at
Southeastern Community College received about 75 calls and another in
Bladen county received between 25 and 30. In both cases, most were
complaints from people who couldn't receive WECT.
Still to be heard from is the FCC. Chairman Kevin Martin and
Commissioner Michael Copps were in downtown Wilmington yesterday at
noon for the ceremonial switch from analog to digital.
But after that the FCC went mute. An agency rep did not return phone
calls seeking information on the number of calls that the agency had
received in the wake of the cut off.
Book told TVNewsday late yesterday that she had heard that the FCC
had fielded 500 calls.
The commercial stations in Wilmington, along with a low-power
religious station belonging to Trinity Broadcasting, had volunteered
to cut off their analog signals more than five months ahead of the
rest of the country so that government officials would have a better
idea of what to expect from the nationwide switch, slated for Feb.
17, 2009.
With the help of the local broadcasters and the NAB, the FCC mounted
a massive campaign in the Wilmington to alert viewers to the Sept. 8
switch and to make sure they took steps to avoid losing their
broadcast signals.
They were told they could sign up for cable or satellite TV, buy a
new digital TV set or buy a set-top converter box that would all them
to receive the digital signals on their old analog TV sets.
"Now they realize that the time is here and the channels didn't
miraculously appear so they have to fix something or get better
antennas," said Dan Ullmer, chief engineer of WECT-WSFX, the NBC and
Fox affiliates.
It's led to a run at consumer electronics stores "and a lot of them
are selling out of some products," Ullmer said.
The whole experience is providing a lesson in what must be done to
avoid confusion and widespread loss of service, said Connie Knox,
general manager of WILM, Capitol Broadcasting's low-power CBS
affiliate.
"My suggestion is that [larger] markets get together and make the
switch earlier than just waiting until Feb. 17," she said. "If they
don't, they're going to have a much bigger problem on their hands."
Wilmington stations flooded the airwaves with PSAs and even the fire
department, in small town fashion, volunteered to visit homes and
adjust antennas, she said.
That's probably not going to happen in bigger markets and it's a
reason for concern, she said.
Not all the initial feedback was negative, according to Book.
WILM was a revelation for some new digital viewers because its
low-power analog signal was difficult to receive off air.
"We have a couple calls on that because people are excited about it,"
said Book.
Viewers are also learning that the four local commercial stations
plus noncommercial WUNC now deliver 15 digital signals, Knox said.
The market's two noncommercial stations are not participating in the
early switch to digital because they are part of the state's
emergency communications network.
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