DTV Transition Town Hall Meeting Tuesday
By Katie DeLong
Archived Content
MILWAUKEE – The way you get TV from antennas is about to change. Analog TV signals will go away in just 77 days.
The Milwaukee area has some of the highest number of television sets not ready for the change.
A Federal Communications Commissioner was in Milwaukee Tuesday to update viewers.
There were a lot of people who got angry at the commissioner about the conversion to digital TV.
The reason? Anyone who watches TV with an antenna will have to get a converter box or a new TV to keep watching.
The big TV switch is something new and different, and that has some people upset. So to try and clear up what's happening, FCC Commissioner Michael Copps held a town hall meeting at Marquette University to talk about the switch to digital and what people need to do.
If you watch TV over an antenna, you'll need to get a converter box, but with the box, your old TV will keep working.
“I still have questions that haven't been answered. Do I need a separate one for my DVD player plus one for my TV? I still have unanswered questions,” Clarene Anderson said.
The answer to that is no.
And if you have cable or satellite, this change doesn't affect you at all.
It's happening because Congress passed a law requiring the switch to digital, and Commissioner Copps talked about the benefits for all of us. “It’s going to mean first of all better television for all of those folks that rely on over-the-air broadcasting,” Copps explained.
People said Tuesday’s meeting helped.
“I've been angry about this whole process, you know, just because I didn't understand it, and now I’m understanding it more that, you know, I understand that going forward, we're pulling into the 21st century and going forward,” Katie Tarara said.
The commissioner was in Milwaukee because we're one of the least prepared cities for this switch to digital. There are more than 180,000 households who watch TV over an antenna and will have to get these boxes.
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