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And Now, The Least Surprising Headline In Philadelphia History
Over the weekend, Philly was fourth highest in the country for calls to the federal hot line from people confused about the nationwide move last Friday to drop analog TV signals and to broadcast only in digital. In related news, the lady in the picture at right still can’t get up. 20 Responses to “And Now, The Least Surprising Headline In Philadelphia History”Leave a ReplyYou must be logged in to post a comment. | YOUR PHILEBRITY.COM: Editor & Co-Founder: Joey Sweeney Contributing Editor: Jim Adair Contributing Writers: Conor Corcoran Schoolly D Ad Sales & Marketing/Promos: Katie Winkler Interns: Madeline Bates Sharon Margolis Co-Founder/Philebritus Emeritus: Benny Philebrity Send listings info here. NOTICE: Interns wanted.
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June 15th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
Haven’t been confused but have been frustrated. We don’t have cable (or any pay tv) and our reception has sucked (despite buying new antennas). Only one of our 3 tv’s work for all channels. While we do enjoy the weirdness of THIS TV (17.2) barely getting most of the other channels we always had sucks.
June 15th, 2009 at 12:42 pm
I wonder how many of these people do not speak english as a first language? There wasn’t alot of publicity about the switch in spanish, vietnamese, cambodian, russian…
June 15th, 2009 at 12:54 pm
@gtownradioboy
Do you have an HD antenna? I bought one a few months back, and it greatly improved my reception, currently getting all broadcast channels (cbs, abc, nbc, mytv, fox, and cw).
June 15th, 2009 at 12:54 pm
I like what Julia is getting at. Yeah, digital TV is great, but those of other classes and cultures relied on free television – I can’t even count the number of old school antenna televisions I could see in South Philly living rooms. The fact of the matter is, the transition was too quick of a switch – and the fact that people still had to pay for a digital converter box after whatever discount was gained from the government vouchers, is just too much for many. They should have been free, and there should have been better outreach to cultural communities where English isn’t a first language. And so the digital divide rages on.
You can thank the formerly Republican and big media controlled FCC for this.
June 15th, 2009 at 1:01 pm
Well… a few things:
1. This transition has been planned for years and years and years. In fact, Obama pushed back the transition from February to June JUST to make sure people had enough time to switch.
2. There were a few in Spanish, most of them on Spanish-based television. As for other languages, I do agree, not enough has been done. Then again, this was in the works for years and years.
3. The vouchers were for $40. Most converter box coupons would cover the entire price in that case, but there were some that cost more. I had to pay an extra $20 for my box. You can get a DTV these days for as little as $140 at Walmart, so that alone is a decent incentive to just get a new set instead.
My 2 cents.
June 15th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
Larry, I understand that this was planned in advance, and that Obama pushed for the new date.
I just think the FCC could have done more to encourage community organizers and multicultural organizations to educate people on the switch. Hopefully, some work will be done to catch folks up who missed the deadline.
From what I could tell, there were not enough of the cheaper converter boxes. But $140 or even the difference from that $40 voucher is seen as a luxury for those trying to make ends meet on dead-end labor or service industry jobs.
On a positive note, the switch does free up some white spaces that will be beneficial to successful broadband deployment in rural towns and poorer urban neighborhoods. That is, unless Verizon finds a way to buy up more of that. Can you hear me now?
June 15th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
You don’t need a special HD antenna: it’s the same frequencies TV has always used. You just need a good VHF/UHF antenna.
WPVI switched their digital broadcast from a UHF frequency to their old channel 6 VHF-lo frequency. Many early adopters utilized a UHF-only antenna (like us), which probaly won’t get channel 6 and may not get channel 12. (WHYY also moved their digital transmission from a UHF frequency back to their old VHF-hi channel 12 frequency.)
If you have been using a UHF-only antenna successfully but no longer get WPVI and/or WHYY, you will need to either add a VHF antenna and a VHF/UHF combiner to receive the relocated WPVI/WHYY or replace the UHF-only unit with a VHF/UHF antenna.
Since the main issue here is reception of one VHF station, it’s possible to fashion a simple antenna built to a specific size to receive channel 6. (I believe it also will work for channel 12, due to the frequencies being of related wavelengths or something like that..)
It’s basically a 66″ wide piece of old flat twin lead antenna wire; that length will precisely capture the frequency channel 6 transmits. See more here: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=16593441#post16593441
June 15th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
Um, Philadelphia has the 5th largest population in the US. Why is it surprising that that we are in the top 5 for calls to the FCC?
The real WTF is that Baltimore is on this list, with half the population of Philly.
June 15th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
Agreed, barryg. Quite WTF indeed.
June 15th, 2009 at 2:25 pm
The DTV transition will also open up a new swath of the radio spectrum for other uses. At some point, it’s a waste of resources to have that part of the spectrum dedicated to analog TV, which serves a relatively small number of users (which is shrinking). Steps were taken to make it more equitable to those who don’t have cable/satelite.
June 15th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
There was more than ample time to prepare for this switch.
I take issue with the belief that television is some kind of right – the government did more than its due diligence on this.
June 15th, 2009 at 6:46 pm
a perfect excuse to throw away your television
June 15th, 2009 at 7:57 pm
For godly, privileged people like yourself, friendlynerd, internet and digital television are affordable. But for a good chunk of your fellow Americans, it is not. Access to television and radio SHOULD be open – most importantly in the event of crisis or emergency. But hey, they all can’t be as put together as you, can they?
June 16th, 2009 at 9:11 am
No, most aren’t. And last I checked emergencies were broadcast over radios. Ass.
June 16th, 2009 at 9:31 am
Both on radio and television, yup. God forbid we take into account those less fortunate, right? Ass right back at ya.
June 16th, 2009 at 9:35 am
Yeah, let’s make a new tax. We’ll buy everyone new TVs! Or better yet, we’ll just go on with analog TV forever, wasting useful bandwidth on something a sliver of the population makes use of.
June 16th, 2009 at 9:43 am
I did not propose analog TV forever. I just think digital converters should have been gratis for those who qualified, and that the outreach to low income and cultural communities should have been better. The freed up space will hopefully go to broadband to low income or rural communities, or open up the dial to independent, low power radio stations.
OMG OMG TAXES – your Republican/Libertarian is showing.
June 16th, 2009 at 9:44 am
Oh you’ve got me all figured out.
June 16th, 2009 at 5:36 pm
Ummmm I’m pretty sure they got the fourth most calls because channel 6 (and a number of others) didn’t even make the switch so many were left out.
June 16th, 2009 at 5:38 pm
Looking at the article I wonder what this says about Chicago, Dallas, and New York?