No reception: Digital changeover spells the end of TV for some

FARMINGTON – With the pending end of analog TV broadcasting, people with antennas perched high on their rooftops across Franklin County and elsewhere in Maine will be facing a blank screen when the nation switches to digital.

That’s because that old reliable antenna that once brought, free of charge, the major networks’ television programming won’t be able to receive the digital signal. Even if, says a local electronics dealer, the homeowner buys a new antenna built to receive a digital signal, there’s no guarantee the digital signal will reach that antenna in rural Franklin County as the longer-reaching analog signal once did.

“It’s a huge deal, especially the further north you go in Franklin County,” said Homer Ambrose at Radio Shack in Farmington. He’s selling a lot of antennas, but with that, comes the warning: the new antenna still may not work. 

The only alternative, then, is to hook up to cable or satellite television for digital reception at $25 or more each month. 

That is, if a cable company has arrived in your neighborhood and if you can afford the extra expense.  

Unfortunately, for the many who live on fixed incomes and can’t afford the additional $25 or more a month to have cable TV bring their favorite programs, they will simply have to go without.

“That extra $20 a month can be too much for a lot of folks,” Ambrose said.

In her volunteer work with local seniors, Shannon Smith of Wilton said the seniors she helps are already being forced to choose between heat, medicine and food with all of today’s challenges. Up until now, watching TV was free with an antenna and an important part of their lives.

“Watching television is the main entertainment and daily interaction for a majority of our senior citizens,” Smith said. “With the new changes due to go into effect in only a few days, they will now have to subscribe to a cable provider in order to watch television.” She added that seniors living in Farmington and on the Weld Road can’t get Maine Public Broadcasting Network, which already transitioned to digital a few weeks ago.

The problem in this state is there aren’t enough translators to distribute the signal to all areas of Maine, according to MPBN’s David Morse.

Morse, vice president at MPBN, said since his network went digital a few weeks ago, he’s received hundreds of calls from viewers, particularly in the more remote areas of Maine, who complain they can no longer get the station’s broadcast. He expects come Feb. 18, if all broadcasting goes digital, there will be a flood of unhappy viewers who can’t get any of the stations.

All this, he said, could have been avoided if after legislation passed in 1991 that directed the state to pay $3.4 million for technological upgrades, including more translators throughout Maine, had gone ahead. If it had, antennas everywhere would have been able to receive a digital signal free with the use of a converter box on the older analog television sets.

But, as it currently stands, “a lot of people won’t be getting digital,” Morse said. “It is awful.”   

While cable or satellite subscribers with older analog TVs don’t need a digital-to-analog converter box, those with a roof top antenna or the TV top “rabbit ears” do. The government established the converter box coupon program, which allows every household up to two coupons worth $40 each toward the purchase of a converter box. 

“The ‘free’ offer to obtain a box to adapt a current TV, which has a local antenna, to receive the new HDTV has turned into no more than another unresearched fiasco,” Smith said. “On obtaining a conversion box, I found out that once connected I still could not receive the new HD signal, even if I had a new TV due to low reception. I spoke with a TV technician for this area and he confirmed that receiving the new signal on a local antenna will be virtually impossible.”

Morse confirmed that he’s heard as much from viewers around the state.

“The converter box has a lot of issues,” he said. If a viewer has experienced a lot of “ghosting” or static with their TV’s analog signal, they’re probably not going to get the digital signal because it’s an all or nothing proposition with digital. Overall, Morse recommends going with a cable or satellite subscription, “for the lease amount of headaches,” he said. But, he noted not everyone can afford it.

“This is a real challenge,” he added.   

The general confusion over the transition to digital television resulted in a congressional bill that proposed delaying the change over by four months. On Wednesday, the U.S. House failed to meet the two-thirds majority needed to pass a bill that sought to postpone the conversion date from Feb. 17 to June 12. But on Thursday, the Senate voted unanimously in the affirmative on a similar bill. The House is expected to vote on the Senate’s bill next week. 

Those supporting the delay say it is needed to get more information about the DTV transition and provide more time for viewers to redeem the converter box coupons. 

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security pushed the move from analog to digital in order to improve communication across the country following the events of 9/11 and the massive damage and slow response in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Congress had mandated that Feb. 17, 2009 would be the last day for television stations to broadcast in analog, but that is expected to change with the House vote next week, which only needs a simple majority this time around.

The four-month delay, however, isn’t likely to solve the problems of those viewers using an antenna and out of the digital range.

“I feel crushed that many of our seniors will have to lose this one amenity that kept so many of them active,” Smith said. 

According to Sen. Olympia Snowe, who says she is aware of the plight of Mainers who can’t afford cable or satellite, the delay in the digital change over will help.

“Some viewers in Maine and in rural communities across the country currently receive weak analog signals because they are outside of a designated coverage area. Clearly, this is a very serious problem that, if unaddressed, will leave already cash-strapped seniors on fixed incomes in the dark. This is absurd,” Snowe said.  

“As a member of the Senate Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over telecommunications issues, I have been working with my colleagues to address this problem. In addition, I have supported initiatives to delay the DTV conversion to ensure seniors and families are educated and prepared for the transition.  We simply can not allow the DTV conversion to occur until we can guarantee that every household in America will have the opportunity to be a part of this new era for television,” she added.

For more information on the digital television transition or the converter box coupon program, go to www.dtv2009.gov or call 1-888-388-2009. Morse at MPBN encouraged viewers to call them at 800-884-1717 for information.