DTV2009: Wilmington, NC DTV Transition Coming September 8, It's Official And OTA Viewers Will Be Lost

There will be waves created by the early Wilmington, North Carolina analog TV signal cutoff said president of Capitol Broadcasting, Jim Goodman, whether or not the switch happens in September 2008 or February 2009. Already predicting lost over-the-air TV viewers, Goodman promised FCC chair Kevin Martin that Wilmington would get through it.

Yesterday the proposal to cutoff analog signals early in Wilmington was outlined by the FCC who said analog signals will be cut off in Wilmington September 8, 2008 at noon. Five stations from the Big Four networks and a Trinity Broadcasting Network affiliate will all be involved in the early switch.

Wilmington volunteered for the early switch after being approached by the FCC, in part because the town's digital infrastructure was ready to go. And while other markets have also been approached no one else has volunteered so far. Not everyone is happy about the early switch though. Some have called the September date little more than poor timing as it's right in the middle of North Carolina's hurricane season and for OTA viewers that lose their signals, the early cutoff is a safety concern.

Some have also questioned whether the early cutoff in Wilmington is little more than a "staged dress rehearsal under false conditions", which happens to be exactly what we wondered yesterday. Can such a small test market really expose any nasty problems that can be applied to the entire country come February 17, 2009? We doubt it.

Via Broadcasting & Cable

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Posted by Justin Davey at May 9, 2008 4:14 AM

Actually, the town's digital infrastructure is *not* "ready to go" - WILM 10 (CBS) doesn't even have their DTV on-air yet, so viewers who deploy converter boxes today in Wilmington had best get ones with analogue passthrough or no more CBS eye.

Still, this has a better chance of being a "carefully controlled test" in Wilmington than it would be in a more difficult market like Burlington VT. Vermont is nothing but endless green mountains and shivering cows making Ben & Jerry's ice cream - so both rural and filled with natural obstructions due to terrain. Great place for a ski slope, not so great for underpowered DTV to reach every small village and hamlet. Better yet, existing coverage from low-VHF analogue stations in Plattsburgh-Burlington reaches into the Eastern Townships of Québec and "le West Island" of Montréal, regions where there are likely no converters (and certainly no coupons) to be found because Canadians aren't switching off analogue TV until 2011. Try the test-marketing in northern Vermont instead of the more controlled conditions of North Carolina and you'd be distributing not just converters but French as a second language lessons so those who can't get their signals back even with huge outdoor antennas in remote regions could get used to nothing but CBFT Montréal's "ici Radio-Canada!"

Posted by: CarlB at July 20, 2008 9:28 PM