Digital deadline goes smoothly
6/20/09 | 15 comments

Digital deadline goes smoothly


Broadcasters say MPBN’s early conversion helped transition
By Eric Russell
BDN Staff

At this time last week, television stations across the state and country braced for a wave of complaints about the final switch from analog to digital signals.

According to those in the broadcasting industry, though, that wave never really came.

“It was sort of anticlimactic,” Suzanne Goucher, executive director of the Maine Association of Broadcasters, said Friday. “I half expected my phone to be ringing off the hook. In a strange way, Maine was fortunate because [Maine Public Broadcasting Network] turned its analog signal off back in January. That was our big ‘oh no moment.’”

Aside from MPBN, WVII-ABC7 and sister station WFVX-Fox 22 abandoned analog for good in February. WLBZ2 and WABI-TV5, however, operated both analog and digital signals until June 12, the cutoff date for all public stations.

Steve Hiltz, program director for WABI, said his station received a lot of calls at the beginning of last week, but most concerns were remedied quickly.

“For others who are having problems, it’s still somewhat of a mystery,” he said. “We’re still trying to assess how we can help people, but it’s all guesswork.”

As local television stations work to remedy problems on their end, help may be on the way from the federal government.

Maine Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe introduced legislation in April called the “DTV Cliff Effect Assistance Act,” that would establish a $125 million fund to reimburse for the construction of digital repeaters or translator towers in rural areas.

“Despite all of the preparations for digital television, there are still concerns,” Collins said in recent statement. “I have talked with many people in Maine who have purchased a converter box yet they still cannot receive a digital signal or they are experiencing a drastic decrease in service. These gaps in service, known as the ‘cliff effect,’ are often the result of terrain or distance from the broadcast tower.”

Earlier this month, Maine’s 2nd District U.S. Rep. Michael Michaud introduced the same bill in the House.

“It’s clear that analog and digital signals do not act the same,” Michaud said recently. “It’s important that all Mainers are able to continue to get news and information about local and national events. Extending the digital TV transition date gave consumers extra time to buy converter boxes. But now, through no fault of their own, some may experience trouble viewing the new signal even when they use the converter box.”

Michael Palmer, manager at WVII, said his station has weathered the digital storm well since the switch in late February.

“We get calls once in a while still, but we understand that digital signals are simply not the greatest technology,” he said. “The nature of the signal makes it so that hilly communities, which Maine has plenty of, are not going to fare well.”

In other words, even though television stations have not been flooded with complaints, it doesn’t mean there are not frustrations out there.

Mark Philips, who lives in Milo, lost MPBN in January and hasn’t been able to get it since. More recently, he has been able to get signals for WLBZ2 and WVII, but not WABI.

“It’s OK, though, because I think I’m going to get rid of my TV altogether,” he said.

Regina Rooney, who lives in Old Town, recently purchased both a converter box and a new high-powered UHF-VHF antenna. She gained some channels but lost MPBN, a trade she wasn’t happy about.

“But there’s more to it,” she wrote by e-mail. “Some of the digital channels don’t always come in regularly.”

Greg Rossel, who lives in Troy, also wrote by e-mail that he has an attic antenna with a booster at his home, and has lost both WLBZ2 and WVII.

“We never really watched them anyway, so I guess you could say, the switchover worked out OK for us,” he said.

Bob Deschenes of Princeton has tried a booster and a new antenna, but has still lost some channels he used to get.

“We even put our antenna on top of the roof and [connected] a new coaxial cable,” he said. “According to the maps we are just too far to receive anything. I don’t think this was thought through before enacted.”

Areas that are experiencing the most problems, according to Goucher, fringe coverage areas such as rural Hancock County, northern Penobscot County and parts of Piscataquis County.

“I’ve heard no reports of people shooting their TV sets, which is good,” she said. “But, I suspect some folks have gone to cable or satellite, although I don’t have any data to support that.”

Goucher said she thinks the Cliff Effect Assistance Act would help plug some gaps in service by creating additional towers, but she predicted that the process could take awhile.

“Once you put up a tower, though, it can be reused for other things as well, such as cell phones,” she said.

What can people do in the meantime?

“Try moving your antenna to a window,” Goucher said. “Basically, do the least expensive thing first and then keep trying.”

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Comments
15 comments on this item
On 6/19/09 at 8:04 PM, trekkie76 wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Call dish network or directv, go to Wal-Mart and buy a decent modern Television. Problem solved!

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On 6/19/09 at 11:26 PM, HeadedSouth666 wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Only proplem I'm having is paying more for loud commericals with less programing. I'm getting real close to scrapping the whole thing.

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On 6/20/09 at 7:39 AM, BicycleBoy wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

By their very nature, Television and the broadcast media are Orwellian and should be abandoned if there is ever hope of saving our society. Un plug the Idiot box and pick up a book (or even a copy of the BDN). BREAK THE CHAINS OF BONDAGE!! FREE YOUR MIND!

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On 6/20/09 at 8:03 AM, maineboy wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

doesn't really matter. Trere is nothing on tv but garbage thats not fit to watch

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On 6/20/09 at 8:58 AM, Ronald wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Here in northern ME we have to resort to cable or satellite TV....problem solved. I have DirecTV and no cable so if I want to receive WAGM-TV in Presque Isle to get the local news I have to resort to a separate antenna. I'm 65 miles away from the station. I was getting a somewhat snowy picture before the TV station went to digital. Now I get a picture that is very clear. The TV station remained on Channel 8; had they switched to a UHF channel I would not be able to receive them at all due to Pennington Mountain between my home and Mars Hill.

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On 6/20/09 at 9:12 AM, jgordon wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

We live in Prospect not the county and our reception sucks! Bought the converter box and realigned the antennae in Jan. Worked OK but lost channel 2 completely. When the switchover took place the channels that did work for for us degraded for some reason. Called WVII and was told humidity(???) caused the problem but their signal comes in better on rainy days so I have my doubts about that. WVII suggested we buy a signal amplifier, which we did, and this didn't help. Bought a new TV and the signal amplifier degraded the signal (what???) so we just use the new TV by itself. So now we get PBN fine, WVII & WABI come in but the sound cycles on and off regardless of the humidity! To say that the change went smoothly is rediculously untrue. The orignal rationale for this change was to open up additional broadcast frequencies for first responders but oh, coincidentally, they took more of the spectrum than they needed for that need and the additional open frequencies are now up for lease. And oh, as Trekkie76 wrote, just sign up for directTV or Dish and pay $$$ every month for service. That my friends is the real reason this change took place.

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On 6/20/09 at 9:17 AM, dwwagg wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Losing channels in rural areas was a given from the beginning. The new HDTV signals are being broadcast at about an 80% power reduction in many locations. Maps indicate that a signal being broadcast with 316,000 watts will travel no further than a signal with 21,000 watts. Do the math. Many stations reduced power to gain some of the money back they spent for the new HDTV transmitters. If anything, the stations should have been required to double their pre HDTV wattage output. I live in the flatlands, only 17 miles from the transmitters. I lost NBC and ABC with the digital switch. I don't suspect I will get them back. HDTV was a plan cooked up by the government to eliminate frequencies that tv's use. We used to have stations all the way up to 83, then it was cut to channel 69, and now the highest channel on the air is 52. The government then sold these "air spaces" for billions of dollars. They didn't particularly care whether Joe SixPack had tv out in the boonies, or for that matter Bubba 15 miles out of town. I have a dish, but the reception of HD is so much better over the air than the dish.....that is if you can get a signal.

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On 6/20/09 at 9:37 AM, hadenuf wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

At my place on the lake.....no cable and no satelite signals,I used to get wagm8 and mpbn10 and 2 canadian channels via outside antenna.Now,with the"box", No canadian stations.I wonder if they are considering a conversion too.The stations that I do get are much better quality than before.

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On 6/20/09 at 10:04 AM, equalrightsforall wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

I now receive no television stations on my TV set! Problem Solved! Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, I'm free at last!

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On 6/20/09 at 10:55 AM, Woody1 wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

I live in Winslow in a rather "high" location with a new outside antenna on the roof. I have satellite but where I live (Kennebec County), the "local" channels are from Portland. Their coverage stops in Augusta. They don't even give us a weather report and DirecTV considers this local. I've complained to DirecTV and the FCC several times but while the FCC says DirecTV has the ability to give us Bangor as local, DirecTV insists on giving us the Portland stations which they say are assigned by zip code. A mile away, across the line in Somerset County (Fairfield), they get the Bangor stations as local. I can get Channel 5 and Channel 12 on the "box", but not Channel 7 or Channel 2.

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On 6/20/09 at 2:46 PM, ryanrrobbins wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Dwwag, please don't confuse high-definition programming with digital transmission. Not all digital transmission is high-definition. High-power stations are required to broadcast in digital, not in high-definition. This is the biggest misconception out there.

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On 6/20/09 at 6:32 PM, theCHAD wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

I live right in town, i have not had MPBN since january, i do not get channel 5, i get channel 2 occaisionally and 7 reliably. I find it odd that at my place of business, i can see WLBZs transmitter in holden with a CLEAR line of sight, yet i can barely receive it! this switch has been nothing short of infuriating! We have all been led to believe that the switch was so that bandwidth could be opened up for EMS communications, would it not be simpler to allocate more frequencies at the higher or lower ends of the spectrum? Dial it up a few megahertz and leave our TVs alone!

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On 6/20/09 at 7:32 PM, David889327 wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

smooth as gravelly mud

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On 6/23/09 at 2:22 PM, cbmalt wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

To hadenuf:

Canada will be switching over in August 2011, I believe. It's very strange that you can't get the analog Canadian stations anymore.

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On 6/24/09 at 8:01 PM, medicinematt wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

the reason you can't get the canadian stations is because of your converter box. it will only bring in digital stations, the canadian stations are broadcasting in analog until 2011. To get the Canadian stations you would have to unhook you box. converter boxes are availabe with a switch that allows you to switch between analog and digital without unhooking them. what lake? east grand? i tried getting WAGM there, with no luck. nothing from the bangor stations either, altho WVII was a write off before the conversion anyway.

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