noooooo...

Hello, America. It's me, Lisa.

And I'm a little pissed.

Our new President (and so far the U.S. Senate) is pushing forward with a plan to delay the nationwide switch from analog to digital TV broadcasting from its previously agreed-upon date of February 17 to a new cut-off of June 12.

Booooo!!!

As a member of the TV industry, I can tell you this is NOT good news for us. Right now it's costing us thousands of dollars extra to broadcast because we're currently emitting analog AND digital signals. We have to keep that analog signal running until the cut-off date. For bigger stations, this is not as much of a problem, but for a small station like the one where I work, it's very bad news. This D-TV switch was mandated by the government over three years ago, giving stations time to budget for the switch. Among other things, that budget includes converting all of our equipment (field cameras, studio cameras, lenses, sets, switchboards, etc.) as well as spending extra moolah on broadcasting those dual signals. Now with the economy on the decline and just less than a month to go, we might have to continue to broadcast both signals for four MORE months, which is NOT in the budget.

Now, from a consumer standpoint, why do you care if the DTV switch happens on time or not? Well, you might not. Maybe you're already set up; you got your converter box or you're already hooked up with Comcast, and you're all ready to go. Maybe you never watch TV anyway and you don't give a crap. That's fine.

But let's say you like TV. Here are a couple of the benefits that you as a TV viewer will enjoy: more channels, better picture and clearer sound.

Let's say you don't care about TV, but you DO care about energy conservation. Did you know that it takes about a fifth of the power to broadcast digitally as it does to broadcast in analog? So why is a President who says it's fundamental for America to cut down on its energy uses advocating a plan that will be costing America millions of dollars to consume five times the amount of energy that it could by making the switch now?

Here's why: the Obama administration is concerned because an estimated 6 million households still aren't ready for the switch.

Are you KIDDING ME?! Where have you people been??!!! We've been running nonstop promos, stories, and commercials on national and local levels for at least over a year (ever since I started working here) telling people what they need to do to get ready, and we've made it very clear when that deadline would be.

Now the government has run out of money to aid people with discounts on their converter boxes, and I honestly don't know whose fault that was. Maybe the government researchers didn't get an accurate number of how many folks out there are still using rabbit ears to watch the tube. I don't know. And if that's holding people up from getting DTV-ready, I'm sorry. But still, you've had over a YEAR to get this done! It's not like this snuck up on you and we all-of-a-sudden said, "Hey, by the way, you're gonna need to either get a new TV or a converter, or sign up for cable or you won't be able to watch TV anymore." We said that long enough ago that if people really wanted to watch TV, they would have time to get prepared, whether that meant getting help from Uncle Sam or saving up to buy a converter at the full price (somewhere in the ballpark of $50).

Grrrrrr this is frusterating. Sorry, I'm just ranting. I've gotta get back to work now.

At least a new Bachelor episode will be waiting for me online when I get done with work! :)

Until later!