Residents of Wilmington North Carolina are now the first citizens in the US to experience all digital TV. On Monday September the eighth, local Wilmington television stations officially switched over to digital, shutting down the old analog TV signals that used to fill the airwaves of the North Carolina town.
The Washington Post reports that Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin was on hand at a ceremony symbolizing the official start of the digital TV era in America. A downtown ceremony in Wilmington featured an eight-foot high mock television switch which was flipped at exactly noon Eastern Standard Time.
Broadcasters in the city of Wilmington had volunteered to be the first in the nation to go digital. The rest of the country is scheduled to switch over in approximately 5 months, and the FCC has set a deadline of February the 17th for all American broadcasters to convert to the digital format.
According to the Washington Post, the switch over to digital television went smoothly for the most part, although the FCC claims to have received several hundred phone calls from Wilmington residents, many of which did not realize the switchover had taken place. Other residents inquired about problems setting up digital converters to use with older analog televisions. The FCC plans to keep staff on hand in Wilmington for several days to insure as the switch to digital television goes smoothly.
Local Wilmington retailers reported brisk sales of digital TV converter boxes over the past several weeks. The local Wal-Mart had sold out of converters completely the day before the digital switch over.
It is not surprising that the FCC chose Wilmington North Carolina as the city best suited to handle an early switch over to digital TV. According to the Nielsen ratings, only about 7% of households in Wilmington use an over the air analog signal. The national average hovers around 13%. Wilmington is also a relatively small television market, rated 135th in the United States, making it ideal to test the switch over to digital TV.
Located on the coast of North Carolina, Wilmington is a tourist town with hundreds of seasonal beach rentals and vacation homes. Many returning vacation home owners may be confronted with a blank television screen when arriving back in town, as there has been relatively little national media coverage of Wilmington’s honor as the first digital TV city in the US.
Judging by how smoothly the transition from analog to digital went in Wilmington, the official change-over for the rest of the country in early 2009 should the relatively trouble-free.
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that is pretty daunting…Soon everybody will have everything..The world is spinning so fast…makes one wonder…carol stanley author o For Kids 59.99& Over
Comment by carol stanley — September 16, 2008 @ 2:16 pm