Digital Television Transition Will Be Complete This Week

TV stations like WAPT in Jackson will have to broadcast in only digital starting June 12

The final transition to digital television will happen tomorrow. MPB's Stephen Koranda reports.

Announcements like this have been bombarding consumers for months to get them ready for the transition. but even that may not be enough in Mississippi, says Stewart Kellogg, General Manager of WAPT Television in Jackson and head of a DTV transition task force in Mississippi.

“One of the biggest issues is that we’re so rural. And Also you add on to that we are a poor state, and so you’ve got a lot of folks who get their TV, as we say, the old fashion way.”

Kellogg says around 10 percent of Mississippians get their TV through over-the-air signals, and there are still people who aren’t ready. He says if you have cable or satellite TV you’re ok, but if you use an antenna, you’ll need a TV that can accept digital signals, or a converter box to work with an analog TV. Kellogg says Mississippians also need to plan for emergencies, because many hand held TV’s aren’t ready to go digital.

“There are only a few companies making battery-operated digital receivers. Folks don ‘t realize until the power goes down and they take their little watchman and they turn it on, and they’re not going to get anything after Friday.”

The Federal Communications Commission is running a 24 hour toll free help line, that can help people get a converter box set up and answer other questions about the switch, says Mark Wigfield with the FCC.

“And we’ll continue probably through the weekend depending on the demand and we’re going to have at peak about 4000 people on that line answering phones for the call center.”

The FCC will also be able to arrange in-home equipment help for people who need it. All that information can be found on the FCC website, or by calling 1 888 CALL FCC.