It's official: all full-power television stations in the United States have made the switch from analog to digital broadcasting. The last 971 did the jump on Friday in 195 markets. Federal Communications Commission Chair Michael Copps was characteristically circumspect about the final move, warning of a "period of adjustment as we all figure out how to make this new technology work in the real world.
"We all need a bit of patience and perseverance in the days ahead," he told the press on Friday. "This is a momentous change and it will take time to get it right." The FCC reports that well over 300,000 people called the agency's help-line (1-888-CALL-FCC) on June 12, almost 700,000 in the last work week. About a third of callers requested help with their digital converter set-top boxes. Many just needed to be reminded to rescan their signal area with the box.
#1 large country
How did the nation do overall? Quite well by most accounts, with many procrastinators finally getting their act together over the weekend. ...
(((A little later than the media prophets foresaw:)))
Bruce Sterling's Eulogy for Analog TV from The Long Now Foundation on Vimeo.
