Friday marks final signoff for analog TV service

[Old Coot]

Source: Modesto Bee

NEW YORK -- Television stations across the U.S. began cutting their analog signals Friday, marking the final signoff for a 60-year-old technology and likely stranding more than 1 million unprepared homes without TV service.

The Federal Communications Commission put 4,000 operators on standby for calls from confused viewers, and set up demonstration centers in several cities. Volunteer groups and local government agencies were helping elderly people set up digital converter boxes that keep older TVs functioning. Any set hooked up to cable or a satellite dish is unaffected.

"When you're alone like me, that's my partner," Patricia Bruchalski, 82, said about her TV.

Bruchalski, a pianist and former opera singer in Brooklyn Park, Md., got assistance Thursday from Anne Arundel County's Department of Aging and Disabilities and a community organization called Partners in Care. After her converter box was installed, Bruchalski marveled that digital broadcasts seemed clearer and gave her more channels - about 15 instead of the three she was used to.

Read more: http://www.modbee.com/technology/story/741458.html

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My TV just "froze" on one channel only. It has one frame of one of the doctors on "The Doctors" and nothing else. The other channels come in just fine. I wonder if the TV station is making the change. I am on cable. Then again, maybe the cable company screwed up again. If it has to freeze up, I wish it would happen on someone I find more attractive.