Had it not been for a Congressional extension on the deadline for television stations to begin broadcasting digital-only signals, Angela Hutchcraft and millions of other Americans’ televisions would be displaying static today.
Like 24 million households, Hutchcraft requested a coupon from the federal government to purchase a digital converter box, which would allow her to continue watching the local channels on which she depends for weather forecasts, she said. Hutchcraft said Monday it has been one year since she made the request, and she has still not received the coupon.
“I don’t need to know when severe weather is coming,” she said sarcastically.
Hutchcraft, 26, of Makanda, is one of the 12.6 million Americans still waiting for the coupon, which the federal government can no longer afford to distribute, according to a news release from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration.
Congress extended today’s deadline to June 12 hoping the number of people unprepared for the digital conversion would be lower then.
But the deadline extension will not stop WSIU-TV from completing its switch from analog to digital broadcasts, said Delores Kerstein, interim director of WSIU Public Broadcasting. She said most of the station’s analog broadcasts were replaced with digital signals on Jan. 29, but the station’s last analog transmitter in Olney would be shut off today, which makes WSIU the first southern Illinois television station to transmit only digital signals.
This has kept WSIU technicians busy with helping hundreds of viewers prepare for the digital conversion, Kerstein said. It’s a burden that other local television stations may not fully understand, she said.
“There are people that can’t program a VCR that are now expected to reprogram their TVs,” said Robert Henderson, WSIU’s operations manager.
More than 80 percent of WSIU’s audience is on cable or satellite TV, but Henderson said viewers using antennas have had problems with the digital conversion. Though some of the viewers’ problems have been common, some problems, such as improperly installed antennas, cannot be solved over the phone, he said.
Viewers without cable or satellite TV must have a VHF antenna and a digital TV or converter box, Henderson said.
Daily Egyptian reporter Barton Lorimor can be reached at 536-3311 ext. 263 or barton.lorimor@siude.com.
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