Free Republic

For the second straight time, a FCC-sponsored NASCAR auto, designed to promote next year's Digital TV transition, has been involved in an accident. But FCC Chairman Kevin Martin says that's a good thing. "Except for the cars that win the races, the cars that are in wrecks get a lot of attention," Martin told reporters Monday, according to Reuters. Martin and the FCC have been under fire for spending $350,000 to sponsor the car which promotes a web site (DTV.gov) notifying Americans about the digital transition which takes place on February 17, 2009. The Wall Street Journal reports that watchdog...

We’re pathetic. As a nation, taken together, we are the biggest collection of spoiled, helpless pansies the world has ever known. The converter boxes prove it. You know what I’m talking about. For a year they’ve been pounding it into our heads. Seriously, if you beamed down here from another planet, and based your assessment of what mattered most on what you heard the most about, it would be converter boxes. There have been countless mentions, countless little crawls across the bottom of the television screen, countless panels of “experts” waiting to answer your questions. The background is that the...

A proposed delay in the digital television transition will apparently have no impact on Hawaii's go-early time of noon Thursday. "We're planning to do the transition as scheduled Jan. 15, 2009, in accordance with the request from Hawaii's broadcasting community," said Lyle Ishida, Hawaii DTV transition manager for the Federal Communications Commission. A proposal by the Consumers Union Wednesday spread through Washington, D.C. like wildfire and was reiterated by President-elect Barack Obama yesterday, citing concern for consumers unprepared for the Feb. 17 national transition date. As of Monday, Hawaii requests for DTV converter box coupons were at 53,012, while...

President-elect Barack Obama this week has joined the growing chorus of people who have concluded that the nation is not ready for next month's Digital TV transition. In a letter to key lawmakers urging that the February 17 switch to digital be delayed, Obama's transition chief cited a litany of issues including the fact that federal funds for digital converter coupons have run out. While Obama's transition team is correct to point out that the digital transition could force millions of people to lose their TV signals, the President-elect is woefully late to address this problem. By calling for a...

Consumers Union is urging Congress to delay the nation's transition to digital television, saying the program to help TV viewers prepare for the switch next month has been underfunded and poorly implemented. In a letter sent last night to President Bush, President-elect Barack Obama, House Commerce Committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) and Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John D. Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), the consumer advocacy group said Congress should push back the transition "until a plan is in place to minimize the number of consumers who will lose TV signals." The request comes two days after the federal government said it...

The Federal Communications Commission sponsored a Nascar race car as part of its effort to inform Americans that on Feb. 18, television signals transmitted over the air will be transmitted solely in digital format. Old TV sets will no longer work. It paid $350,000 to emblazon “The Digital TV Transition” and other phrases on a Ford driven by David Gilliland. So how’s that going? In November, the car crashed during a Nascar race in Phoenix. It was the second crash in as many months. And how is the digital TV transition going? According to critics, about as well, despite a...