[SBE] 4 more monts?

[wgbw at lsol.net]

Folks, It WASN'T funny.  In almost everywhere in the U.S., perhaps
except the rural deep south, it's called a Racial Slur.
Stop it.  It makes your 'society' look bad, and will 
ultimately affect your membership in a negative way.
And, might I add...this ISN'T the first time.  Time to wake up.

I also wish some of you folks, would experience what we've
seen on the radio side.  35 miles from the nearest TV stations,
and local residents unable to get anyone's attention because they're a
long distance call away. One of the major network affils has
some kind of engineering union spat, and they're running their operation
with two guys, if you can find them!  (5 million watts, 24 hours a day)

I drove to a couple, 80-years old, this afternoon...that just
spent $688 on an off-brand HDTV, from a national retailer that wouldn't
deliver, nor set it up.  They're stuck with a true HDTV set,
and all that comes in is ANALOG under Channel 13!   Of course,
we set it up, did the scan, and got paid nothing... because
that's what good broadcasters do!  (with all those Public Service
Announcements, it's assumed it's free.)

Two weeks ago, I stopped at another guy's house, again the market
leaders in HDTV wouldn't cross county lines.  He had an 1972 RCA
TV with a hospital-type remote...no numbers.  Channel up and down,
volume up and down.  All that he's needed for 36 years.  Beautiful picture
and woodwork, and couldn't program channel 3 or 4 for his converter
box.  I didn't have a universal remote for him, so he's still stuck
in the swamp!

The bottom line, is...if I had two examples for you, on February 17th
I'll have two hundred more...and multiply that times Wisconsin's 72
counties.  Hawaii is a safe bet, with something like 96% penetration
of their cable system...most operators out there are only worried about
getting their signal to a fiber optic cable or a microwave path... and
that's OK for what they do...but other parts of the country are vastly
different.

This week, Cincinnati was stuck in 2+ inches of ice.  In Wisconsin and
Minnesota in the past two weeks it was 18 below.  Who wants to go 'Cold
Turkey' and 'let them eat cake?!'

Like the folks worried about the Dow Jones hitting 8000... it's only a number.

February 17th is only a date.  If you're worried about your power bill,
run your analog unit at 80% to limp over the finish line.  And, if your place
is that poor, may I suggest you sell your GM's BMW that he's driving.  At
most places I visit, I usually see three or four BMW's in the parking lot.

Finally, I want to thank the 'genius' of the 'cheap club' that decided...
and it WASN'T a politician...it was likely an engineering committee... that
analog pass-thru on converter boxes was not mandatory.  I live in a county of 
80,000 and there isn't an "A-B switch" available for retail sale anywhere in 
our market.

Thank you for letting me 'vent my spleen' in three or more places.

I figure there are two ways to look at this...you can tell your viewers,
'take care'... or 'take a chance'.  February 17th here, is taking a chance.

Mark Heller, CBRE
WGBW Radio
Two Rivers, WI

wgbw at lsol.net



------- Original Message -------

>From    : Henry M. Seiden[mailto:info at techworkspro.com]

Sent    : 1/30/2009 5:19:33 PM
To      : sbe at sbe.org
Cc      : 
Subject : RE: Re: [SBE] 4 more monts?

 Barry, take it slow. Henry R. has gone over the top, methinks. I hope  
it's his vain attempt at being humorous in the last paragraph. At  
least I hope that's so. Clearly some didn't find it funny. Me too.

Way off topic, for sure. The transition, if you wish to call it that,  
has clearly become a political football and NO LONGER AN ENGINEERING  
OR TECHNICAL ONE. Many are saying a lot worse. I thought that this  
list was all about a technical discussion. Maybe we should move this  
to the neighborhood bar instead? That's where I'm going. Let the  
fisticuffs ensue.

His second paragraph speaks to the rating consequences of viewership  
reductions because of a mismanaged 'transition', not exactly on topic  
or a technical discussion either.

Keeping what may be old equipment going for that time may be a bit  
clearer to our concerns here. Perhaps a government sponsored crawl on  
all analog channels should be mandated to the tune of $600M. Will  
cooler heads prevail in Congress? I think not.

I don't know of any easy way to quit analog except to go cold turkey.  
Wasn't nearly as bad with any other transition (stereo, color TV,  
digital FM, satellite) since it hasn't meant actually turning anything  
off permanently. I think stopping at that make the point.

Henry S.


On Jan 30, 2009, at 15:59 , A9xw at cs.com wrote:


> Besides, you can't turn off analog in February, its


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