Avoiding the digital “train wreck”
WaPo:
lawmakers are worried that too few Americans know that the analog TVs they have been using for years could become big cathode-ray paperweights after February 18, 2009, when broadcasters shut off their analog signals.
Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., fretted over the “high potential for a train wreck” as she and other lawmakers questioned National Telecommunications & Information Administration director John Kneuer and FCC Consumer Bureau chief Cathy Seidel. “Far too few of these consumers know that the transition from current analog television technology to digital television, or DTV, is under way,” said committee chairman Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii…
A poll released in January by the Association for Public Television Stations indicated 61% of respondents had “no idea” the digital transition was going to take place….The government earmarked $5 million for public education.
Given the current state of TV, the best course might well be to do nothing and let the sets go dark on February 19. Failing that, the most efficient use of the tiny publicity sum of $5 million would be to give half each to Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton in exchange for these model citizens’ agreement to wear T-shirts announcing, “Your TV won’t work in 2009″. That would keep Fox News busy for two or three months at least — between disasters and blonde kidnappings, of course.