I think WGHP general manager Karen Adams sums up the constipated analog-digital switch pretty well:
Those who supported the delay worried that 20 million households hadn’t prepared for the conversion because of a shortage of government coupons designed to defray the cost of converter boxes, which switch analog signals to digital.
“Where the rubber met the road is when the coupon funding ran out,” said Karen Adams, president and general manager of WGHP (Fox 8) in High Point. “We are ready, but folks still need converter boxes …. It is important for us to stay on (the air) until folks get this figured out. I don’t mean viewers; I mean government entities.”
Well, government figured out what to do, and it’s the same thing government always does — delay and throw more money:
More than 3.7 million people are still on a waiting list to receive coupons for digital converter boxes from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, according to NTIA data from February 4. The NTIA ran through the $1.3 billion allocated for the coupons weeks ago, though a Senate panel last month approved an additional $650 million for the coupon program as part of the so-called stimulus package making its way through Congress.
Don’t get me wrong, TV’s a big part of my life, but since when did it become a right?
