At 4:30 a.m. local time on Friday, viewers of KOAT-TV in New Mexico who are unprepared for the transition to digital television may end up looking at a blank screen. Then again, they may not. (Either way, they should probably go to bed.)
Nielsen Co. recently estimated that 2.8 million homes nationwide are unprepared for the transition to digital-only television. Out of the 56 largest Nielsen markets, the Albuquerque-Santa Fe market topped the list, with 7.6 percent of households there not yet ready.
But Mary Lynn Roper, president and general manager of the Hearst-owned ABC affiliate, believes the situation is not as bad as it sounds.
"We cover 160,000 square miles. It's the second largest DMA [designated market area] in the nation in coverage area," she said. "So that causes some interesting dynamics. And I think it's fair to say that we are known as the least-prepared because a lot of our market doesn't need to be prepared."
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KOAT
KOAT President and GM Mary Lynn Roper has been at the station since 1977, when she started as a photographer shooting film. Now, she will see her station switch to an all-digital signal. |
That's because KOAT has between 45 and 50
broadcast relays called "translators." In areas served by those translators, viewers will continue to receive an analog signal over the air. These translators allow a signal to hop from community to community, and
the federal government has not mandated a time frame to convert them to digital.
There are hundreds of these low-power stations in the western United States, said Shermaze Ingram, senior director of media relations for the National Association of Broadcasters.
Roper doesn't know how many households in her area are served by these relayed signals, but she estimated that about 35,000 in the market are unprepared, some of which are served by signals from sister stations KOCT-TV in Carlsbad and KOVT-TV in Silver City.
To prepare viewers for the transition, KOAT ran FCC-mandated public service announcements, produced news stories, and hosted an open house featuring a fresh news set, a meet-the-anchors session and a digital TV workshop. The station expected to attract 500 or so people; more than 3,000 showed up. Some even brought their TVs and converters, and station engineers showed them how to set them up.
If those viewers have not yet hooked up their converter boxes, the Nielsen survey would have counted them as unprepared, Ingram said. An NAB survey found 40 percent of people who had converter boxes had not yet hooked them up.
Roper said the station will be ready for whoever needs help Friday. Fifteen people are scheduled to answer phones in the morning, and more are standing by. She expects the most common question to be a version of, "Where can I find you?" because KOAT will be moving channels, like hundreds of stations across the country. KOAT will move from Channel 21 to Channel 7 on the digital spectrum. The key word, Roper said, will be "scan."
In newscasts after the transition, the station will ask viewers to help each other. "You may be watching, but there may be a neighbor that's having a problem or someone elderly," Roper said. "Just be aware and you can help so everyone has access."
Roper does not believe the station will lose viewers as a result of the digital transition. "Television is such an integral part of people's lives that they'll figure it out," she said. "They may have to go to their next-door neighbor's or talk about it when they go to church. I just don't think there'll be people out there who will think it's OK to not have TV. I just don't think that's an option for New Mexicans or Americans."
