FCC Hits Road for DTV Outreach

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The DTV Countdown – Complete Coverage from Broadcasting & Cable
DTV Transition 101: A Video Guide to the Analog-Shutoff

FCC commissioners continue to talk up the DTV transition with visits and interviews as the countdown to the Feb. 17 analog cut-off enters the home stretch.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is heading to Ohio and Indiana for DTV outreach events, the FCC says. He has scheduled three stops in Indiana Jan. 5--Greenwood, Fort Wayne, and South Bend--followed by three more in Ohio--Cincinnati, Dayton and Columbus, on Jan. 6. Those are all analog-heavy markets (more than 100,000 analog-only homes) that the FCC identified as in need of some FCC TLC.

Also scheduled to press the flesh for DTV, at least electronically, is fellow Republican Commissioner Robert McDowell, who has scheduled a pair of Jan. 5 interviews with Washington-area TV stations WUSA-TV and WJLA-TV. McDowell has already made several road trips, including to Alaska, to carry the message about DTV preparedness.

On the Democratic side, Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein will be in San Diego Jan. 6 for a DTV transition town hall meeting at a local library.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.