Althouse: At long last, grandma turns on the television and discovers...

June 13, 2009

At long last, grandma turns on the television and discovers...

... there's nothing on.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...: Many of the viewers who called WAFB, the CBS affiliate in Baton Rouge, La., claimed they did not know about the transition...

How anyone could truthfully make that statement? Unless they haven't watched more than twelve total hours of broadcast TV over the last two years.

But with the DTV spots no longer necessary does that mean will we see more of Vince, the ShamWow guy?; 6/13/09, 9:47 AM
Anonymous said...: I never saw any of the ads. I knew it was coming, but only because I read an awful lot of news. The first I even heard was years ago when they set the date, then I heard nothing until early this year when it got postponed.

I have ready five articles on this tops.

I'm not surprised people didn't hear about his. They probably ignored the ads.

But not a big deal - so if they didn't know about it - they can get a converter box today. Yawn.; 6/13/09, 10:05 AM
traditionalguy said...: But how will these loner Grandmothers ever learn that cigarettes are illegal and hear the upcoming announcement to register their guns? Obama's work is never done.; 6/13/09, 10:10 AM
rhhardin said...: Are those without any TV prepared or unprepared?

Wait, I have a radio with a TV band.... hmmm, all hiss.

There's sound on channel 6. It seems to be a demo of attaching converter boxes.; 6/13/09, 10:29 AM
Palladian said...: My local subway line here in New York has been full of ads for the transition. But they're all in Spanish, LOL.; 6/13/09, 10:31 AM
Anonymous said...: There are people in NYC without cable?; 6/13/09, 10:40 AM
Anonymous said...: snow on my old dial tv or snow leopard on my computer...hmmm

oh well phil collins woke me up this morning he told me

and he told you gramma,

you don't have to believe in the hereafter, just believe in me

you don't have leave your house,
you don't have to get out of that chair, you don't even have to touch that dial

cuz i'\m everywhere.

jesus , he's been telling me everything will be alright; 6/13/09, 10:58 AM
Palladian said...: "there are people in NYC without cable?"

Apparently only Spanish-speaking people.

I don't have cable actually, but I don't watch TV.; 6/13/09, 11:35 AM
Anonymous said...: Is there ever anything on? Anything worth watching, anyway?

We were a Nielsen family for a week this year- we got the booklet, not the box. I turned in a blank booklet. They gave me $5 for not having watched TV at all.; 6/13/09, 11:42 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: My local subway line here in New York has been full of ads for the transition. But they're all in Spanish, LOL.

I saw a sign at a store in Washington Heights that said "Hablamos Ingles".; 6/13/09, 12:44 PM
JAL said...: Well, I've been ready, though even with my special augmented rabbit ears I still wasn't getting the digital local NBC and Fox -- though the little bedroom set picked up NBC. (?)

So Friday evening I flip the TV on after being on the road all day -- and I can not longer get anything .... So I fiddle with the antenna and drag up a couple I was getting on digital, but now I have lost ABC for real, and NBC is still lost. Well, Fox has shown up. I can watch Bones and HOUSE.

My question is what did they do so that stations I WAS getting digitally have disappeared?; 6/13/09, 2:13 PM
Unknown said...: At this point, if people hadn't been reached by advertising, the only way to reach them was to shut off the tv.

Sort of like what my mom did to us when we were kids.

I bet those late adopters are adopting now!; 6/13/09, 2:41 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Somebody once said there were two kinds of people in the world ones who turn on the tv upon entering the room and the ones who turned it off.; 6/13/09, 5:06 PM
Kev said...: I saw a snippet of the local news last night (which is a rarity for me), and the station had a call center going and people apparently calling in. Like others, I'm amazed that there were people who didn't know about the transition at all.; 6/13/09, 5:50 PM
Anonymous said...: JAL, are you SURE you were getting some channels digitally? A digital antenna isn't enough, you need a digital tuner or converter box as well...the bandrange is completely different. Many channels were simultaneously broadcasting both digital and analog, but yesterday most of the analog broadcasts went dark at last, except for a few that were still broadcasting instructions for using a converter box.
If you don't have a digital tv or a converter box, you were not really getting a digital signal. A good clue is the fact that a digital signal can only come in with perfect reception (perhaps with some slight pixelization if the signal is week or erratic due to weather or location) or NOTHING. If you were getting some channels with a less-than clear picture, that was analog.; 6/13/09, 8:36 PM
Mr. Forward said...: "I never saw any of the ads...."

So, downtownlad really does live on an alternate planet.; 6/16/09, 1:34 AM