To the newbies and the dusties of the United States Congress:
Hey, um, is there a problem or something? I’m just curious because, well, you may have actually done something to help the American public out. Are you feeling well? Does something hurt? Have you all been replaced by aliens and are now sitting in a spaceship, high above Earth, waiting for your daily anal probe?
Don’t take any offense to this, please. I’m just a bit shocked that you moved quickly and got something done without too much partisan backstabbing, back-biting, or other things you do on another person’s back. Is it the new thinking of the forward-looking Obama administration that influenced you? Nah. It’s probably because the issue dealt with something that affects every single living, breathing, two-legged, warm-blooded human in America.
Of course I’m talking about television! What, you thought I was dealing in deeper subjects like global warming or the economy? Who are you talking to?
Seriously, I’m glad that you all got together and decided to delay the digital TV conversion until June 12th (my daughter’s birthday). Then again, you didn’t have much choice, did you, since you kinda, sorta ran out of coupons — 2.5 million to be exact. Coincidentally, the same amount of people who are on the DTV waiting list. That’s not including the millions of others whose coupons expired.
There really wasn’t much choice in he matter. With about 20 million people still using rabbit ears to get their favorite shows it was inevitable that a push back in conversion would take place. Especially since so many people are using television as both comfort food and information source during these tough times. There was definitely a potential of some very irate voters if the cutover actually took place in February.
True, many of the broadcast networks are now griping that this will cost them additional dollars to keep running an analog signal, but those complaints really don’t have merit. Think of it this way: if the conversion took place on the original date, these networks would have lost millions of viewers for what looks like a long period of time. That, in turn, would have probably reduced ratings and, in turn, reduced ad revenue. It would have been a disaster after that. No, you did the right thing here.
So, I want to thank you for getting together and, for the good of the nation, approving this DTV pushback. Now that this extremely important task is done you can focus on some of the smaller items on your list. Such as the economy, global warming, terrorist attacks, Iraq, Afghanistan, lack of federal regulation in the Bernie Madoff scandal…you know, stuff that won’t take up too much of your time.
All my lovin’ I will give to you,
Rich
Clacked by Richard Keller 
on Jan 27, 2009 @ 14:00 EST5EDT
But doesn’t all the money spent in preparation of the original date just go to waste at this point?
Wouldn’t having done something right been actually being prepared for the original date in the first place?
I’m actually frustrated at the decision to delay based on these points.
Pardon my asking, but why MUST we have total digital conversion at all?
So the government can sell (and make a great deal of money off of) the rights to use the spectrum to other Telecoms.
Huh. Thanks.
I’m sure there are more (and better) arguments, too… :)
It, in all honesty, has to do with national security. Eliminating those waves allows the air to be monitored better and thus prevent some malfeasance.
All the advertising to promote awareness of the Feb. 17 date now goes out the window. And they’ll need to spend even more now promoting the new date. I think this is a bad idea.
I say those that are ready should just pull the plug anyway instead of waiting. For those that waiting or can’t spare $40, fuck them…. You shouldn’t have procrastinated, dumbasses.
Right now I get Fox, NBC, and ABC pretty well with rabbit ears. I also sometimes can get another NBC and some PBS to come in.
With the new box i have, I get an ABC station! That’s it! One station!
And I’m sick of this bullshit “But then we have to spend more money”, the government is going to sell the airwaves off, they can easily make 25 billion dollars from the sale.
They should have the cutoff in May-June to begin with when all the good shows are ending. I hate that they are extending the date now and making us all go thru all the ads and tests and scrollers and beeping longer now. These people should have gotten their shit months ago and saved us all the headaches of the tests and ads and scrollers and the beeping. I realize some of them are old and don’t know shit about a/v equipment or cables but they could have found someone to help them out.
Seriously? A good idea? First of all, where the frak are all the gov’t printers? They can’t print out new coupons? Really? I could have probably run a couple million over the last few months myself. And what idiot though putting a time limit on the coupon was a good idea? Answer: Government. Why put an expiration date on the damned thing? Why should it EVER expire? If every household is eligible for two, then every one should get two. Period. How is this rocket science?
Second, the same assholes who waited until the last minute to get their coupons will wait now until May 30th to begin their next round of panic. They will not rush to the store to buy a converter box when the coupon finally arrives. And, by then, the economy will be in ever poorer shape, and these same folks with rabbit ears can’t order their boxes online so it’s a wash with the coupon, they’ll all need to pay $20 at Best Buy (since Circuit City, if not completely liquidated, will be selling them for $250).
Frankly, this entire thing was a huge embarrassment.
I couldn’t agree more. It’s just another bad idea piled on top of a mound of bad ideas surrounding this switch. There might be a new face in front of the government, but so far it’s business as usual.
Anyone who isn’t ready by now, isn’t going to be ready by June. There was plenty of time, plenty of advertising, plenty of warning. So because 2.5 million people were too lazy, or stupid to take care of this, the rest of us have to wait. What the hell has happened to the country?
I work at a television station and we *are* pulling the plug on February 17. The legislation says stations must terminate their analog signal after June 12, but may do so at any time before that as long as they’ve filed with the FCC. We’ve filed, as have two of our competitors, and all three stations will go digital at 11:59pm. I’m sure you’ll find some stations in your respective cities doing the same. Of course, most of you won’t even notice, since you’re all ready! Right?