FCC Flooded with Calls When TV Stations Pull Plug on Analog

February 24, 2009

By Mike Peters

Although Congress passed legislation delaying the DTV transition deadline to June 12, nearly one-fourth of the nation's full-power TV stations opted to end all analog broadcasting on the original deadline this week. In the final version of the DTV Delay Bill, TV stations were given that option; and while the majority of larger stations will be waiting until June 12 to switch to all-digital broadcasting, more than 400 stations chose to end analog signals on February 17.

FCC DTV Transition Call Center Prepared for High Volume of Calls

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) DTV call center was prepared to handle up to 100,000 calls. It received more than 20,000 calls for help the day before the original deadline and 28,315 on February 17. More calls are expected since most of the early-terminating stations did not make the switch until midnight on the 17th.

According to a statement by the FCC, most of the calls for help were answered almost immediately. Many were from consumers who were unaware that they should run the "scan" function on their digital televisions or converter boxes in order to get reception from a station that changed its digital channel after the transition. Call center agents were trained to walk consumers through the process. Information about scanning and other answers to transition questions can be found at www.dtv.gov.

36 Percent of Full-Power TV Stations Have Completed the DTV Transition

In addition to the stations that made the switch to digital this week, approximately 220 TV stations had already completed the DTV transition, bringing the total number of stations that will no longer broadcast analog signals to 641 - or 36 percent of the full-power stations nationwide. Stations that made the transition before the original deadline include those in the Wilmington, NC market, which made the transition on September 8, 2008, and Hawaii, which made the transition on January 15.