DTV Conversion Today for Macon and Albany, GA

Those in Macon and Albany without a new TV or a converter box will wake up today without Sesame Street, Teletubbies, Dora the Explorer, Frontline, the News Hour and all the other public TV programs.... or any other programs for that matter. Today, they flipped the switch rather than wait until June 12th. Will there be a massive outcry? Should more money have been allocated to help with the conversion? Some say Throw the Switch Already! and envision some positive results:

Rather than issue another coupon that may or may not get used, Congress should have saved the taxpayers some money and just let broadcasters throw the switch. Americans will survive. TV, after all, is a powerful motivator. The second screens go dark, no doubt clueless TV owners will leap off the couch and find out what’s going on. It will probably take people about a nanosecond to find out what happened to Law and Order and remedy the problem, without any help from the feds.

That’s pretty much what happened in the first test. In September, Wilmington, North Carolina, volunteered to be the first market to make the full switch from analog to digital. Both the FCC and student researchers from Elon University studied the changeover closely. The Elon students, who surveyed people who called local TV stations on the day of the switch, found that the largest number of complaints did come from people over 60. But the elderly often had someone else calling on their behalf. They weren’t as isolated as the FCC might think.

Even the elderly, it turns out, will find a way to get their TVs turned back on. If they can't, the problem is not one of TV service but of larger social failings that won't be fixed with a coupon, though there's a chance it could be remedied by pulling the plug on some TVs for a while. Who knows? The digital switch might provide a unique opportunity for stitching together isolated communities. (In fact, something along those lines happened in Wilmington as people consulted with their neighbors about antenna angles, signal strength, and other aspects of the switch.) It's entirely possible that a dark TV could prompt a humanitarian intervention as people reach out for help to get their tubes turned on.

Perhaps the cable companies and all the others who will benefit from this conversion should have paid to provide free converter boxes (which probably cost all of $5 or less to produce) rather than our tax dollar subsidies. And, if we were going to provide the $40 coupon, then how about requiring a standardized high quality (rather than a poor minimum) product available at that price. Yes, price controls. Otherwise, it's just a taxpayer subsidy to converter box manufacturers. Sound familiar? (think Medicare prescription drug plans, bank bailouts, cost-plus Pentagon contracting, oil company subsidies, etc.)