By Mike O'Mara
The dawn of digital television is getting a big reception today. But the big question is whether some TV owners will be getting any reception at all.
History was made a few seconds after 10 a.m. this morning on WKYC TV3 as Michael Cardemone said, "Good morning! welcome to 'Good Company' today." Regular television programming in analog was suddenly over for WKYC. The digital age for television had truly begun.
Thousands of old unconverted television sets went to a silent black screen across Northeast Ohio. For viewers who had not updated their old analog televisions with a digital converter box and a good antenna, life became challenging.
The switchboard at WKYC lit up. Receptionist Katrina Thompson and a phone bank of engineers were ready for the outpouring of calls.
"Hi. I am not getting any signals on my TV. What happened?", said one of the 300 callers.
On Fulton Road, at the DTV Walk-In Help Center, volunteer Irma Colon has been answering questions all day.
"The key is getting people to go to the TV menu and do a re-scan of the channels," said Colon. "You wouldn't believe how many people have the converter box but forget to scan the channels."
Israel Torres and his mother came to the center for help. "I should have taken care of this before," said Torres.
He added, "When I turned on the TV this morning I went 'uh-oh!' It's like now, OK, I've got to do this after putting it off for too long."
Conversion day just happened to also be trash day in the City of Cleveland. All across the city, we found televisions dumped on the tree lawn.
Melvin Demmmings stopped his city dump truck and said, "Oh, we've been seeing a lot of TV's today. You wouldn't believe how many we've picked up."
Liz Fontanez watched the crew load her old TV into the compacter. "My kids bought all new TV's," said Liz, "so we didn't need the old analog one. I'd rather switch than fight."
WKYC is a "nightlight" station for the Cleveland/Akron/Canton market. Those who have not yet made arrangements to receive a digital signal will see information instructing them how to do so in both English and Spanish. The information includes addresses of walk-in help centers and phone numbers for more information. You can also log on to dtv.gov for help on-line.
It's estimated that more than 1 million homes are unready for the switch. Cable and satellite subscribers won't be affected.
The changeover was supposed to take place last February. But the government's fund for $40 converter box coupons ran out of money, prompting the delay.
The Federal Communications Commission has put 4,000 operators on standby for calls from confused viewers, and set up demonstration centers in several cities.
- For a list of walk-in centers for Northeast Ohio: CLICK HERE
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