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FCC head spreads digital word
Jan 06, 2009 (The Columbus Dispatch - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
Kevin J. Martin, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, is talking fast these days because he is facing a sweeping deadline: the Feb. 17 transition from analog to digital television.
When the transition occurs, anyone watching television via antenna or rabbit ears who doesn't have a digital TV (DTV) transformer will be largely out of luck.
To alert viewers about the transformation, Martin is hitting the road. He'll deliver his message at 3:30 p.m. today at WOSU@COSI, 333 W. Broad St.
He spoke to The Dispatch yesterday from Indiana.
Q: What's the most common misconception you're running into with DTV?
A: People with converter boxes still need to understand that . . . they still need to have it scan or "listen" for channels. . . .
The other thing that people are sometimes confused by is that even if they subscribe to cable or satellite, if they have another TV upstairs or in another room and it's not connected to cable, they are still going to need a converter box for those sets that use rabbit ears.
Q: The FCC has set up a
$7 million call center to handle DTV questions, and there are reports that the program issuing coupons for converters has run out of money. Will we be ready for the switch?
A: As far back as September and October, I argued for the need to put more money into the program. I felt they might reach a point where they would need to send out more coupons. . . . But even if they run out now, the most important message is to tell people to still apply for the coupons because it takes a few weeks to get them.
Q: The DTV transition is virtually without precedent. When television went to color from black and white, black and white remained universally available for decades. The overlap with analog and DTV is far, far shorter.
A: This is the most significant change since television went from black and white to color. But whereas that was a more evolutionary change, this is going to be a hard date, and the mass market will change literally overnight.
So yes, it's definitely unprecedented. In Columbus, almost 120,000 homes still use rabbit ears, so we need to get a lot of people prepared.
Q: Is this the biggest communications change we'll see in the next five or 10 years?
A: I think some other changes we've seen have probably been much more dramatic -- in terms of the Internet, for instance, and how it's broadened the access to news, information and entertainment. Where we were 10 years ago was nowhere near today.
And what we'll do with wireless penetration in the future and broadband connections, in some ways, it's just as transformational.
tferan@dispatch.com
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