January 14th, 2009 
joel As the countdown clock indicates, you have one more chance to talk directly to representatives of the Federal Communications Commission before the landmark transition to digital television on February 17th.
A DTV outreach public meeting will be held in the Admiral Room of the Blasco Memorial Library Thursday, Jan. 15th at 2:00 PM and again at 6:00 PM. The library is located at 160 East Front Street in Erie, just off of the Bayfront Parkway at Holland Street.
When announcing the DTV Consumer Education Nationwide Tour, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said, “As part of our efforts to prepare consumers for the transition, we have identified television markets in which the largest number of viewers will have to take action to be prepared for the transition. This unprecedented nationwide tour by the entire Commission is part of our commitment to prepare and educate consumers about the digital television transition.”
If you have questions or comments about the digital transition, these meetings are the ultimate resource.
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One question comes to mind…. What is to become of our old analog television sets? I don’t know about anyone else here in this forum, but my portable analog TV that i won in a raffle has served me faithfully for many years. It helped me to discover Canada, Buffalo and even Detroit. I really do not want to just put my old friend out on the curb for the sanitation department. Perhaps, I will invest in a converter box, but it seems to be a ransom of sorts. The signals that came to me through the air used to be FREE.
You’ll still be able to watch Canadian stations with your portable set until 2011 when Canada converts to digital.
I went down to the afternoon session. There were about 25 people in attendance. Two young women represented the FCC, having several handouts available (transition facts, hook-up diagrams, & converter box coupon applications). They also brought a converter box & rabbit ears for a demonstration.
WICU News (John Last) was in attendance…and interestingly received a slew of questions about the conversion that he and his shooter mostly could not answer. Last told attendees to contact John Wilkocz (WICU’s chief engineer) to get their questions answered.
The presentation started with a demonstration of how to hook up the converter box to the antenna and the TV. The next step was to allow the converter to scan for any available digital signals. Well….there were none to be found within the Admiral Room of the Blasco Library! And we are what….a month away from the drop dead date for analog? Interesting…..
The spokeswoman then asked for questions, of which there were a few. What was disturbing was that while she was trying to answer questions, others in the room just started talking to the other folks they came with so you really couldn’t hear her answers. So much for proper meeting etiquette! The hub-bub going on basically caused the spokeswoman to get closer to the person who asked the question, which then turned into more of a private one-on-one Q&A session. Eventually people came up to the front of the room and gathered around her to get their questions answered.
People started leaving about 2:20 or so, with those interested in asking questions clustering around for another half hour or so.
As I was leaving the library I saw a WSEE car parked outside the building, but I had not seen any cameras from 35 or 24 during the event.
I was surprised to see relatively few folks attending. Most of those folks were of retirement age, which given the 2PM timing of the event is understandable. Perhaps the low turnout shows most people are hooked up to cable and/or satellite and aren’t too concerned about the transition. Of course there’s also the fact that the basics of the equipment installation are not too terribly difficult, making the seminar unnecessary for many folks.
Thanks for the Eyewitness Report, Roger!
That’s because they held the meetings in urban areas. If you held the same meeting in Meadville it would be packed with people. The outlying rural area stands to lose the most with a weaker transmission (digital is at least 1/4 the power of analog) and most are used to snowy reception that will be unwatchable in the digital time period. Also many in rural areas don’t have access to cable and believe it or not depending on the situation for clearance to the southern sky, sat is not always an answer and right now only DISH provides locals.
This is a messed up situation and the middle of america (rural base) will be crying out foul when the transition occurs.