Hear ye, hear ye!

By federal mandate digital television is about to burst forth on Maine airways, saturating the state with clarity and sharpness never before observed or heard by logger, legislator, spudster or lobsterman from Kittery to Fort Kent. At least that’s what we have been led to believe by local broadcasters both public and commercial for the last few years. But let’s take a closer look and see if all the fanfare is actually justified given the potential difficulties that lie waiting to frustrate the innocent, unsuspecting home viewer.

First there is the little matter of owning something that is capable of receiving the digital signal. This dilemma is quickly solved by visiting your local electronics store and purchasing a new digital television set with a digital receiver or by acquiring a set top box that receives the digital transmission and converts it to a code that your old, obsolete, not ready for the landfill, analog set can understand. Need I mention that you can buy anywhere from six to 10 of your current analog-style sets for the price of just one of these marvelous digital wonders. So if you plan on replacing all the other sets you have around the house, as well, think second mortgage.

Next, since the new broadcasts will be on higher-frequency channels, you will need to get physical and install a UHF antenna, up high somewhere, like on the rooftop, in order to haul in some of the digital stew that’s whizzing by your location up there above the hills and treetops. The ultra high frequencies require more transmitting power, are more line of sight in nature and given Maine’s terrain, blind spots aren’t out of the question. If you’re used to living with a slightly snowy signal, life’s about to change. With digital you don’t get a snowy picture when the signal is weak. You get no picture! Things might be looking great and then all of a sudden, nothing. If you’re not up there high enough with a decent antenna, nothing will be as clear and sharp as the something you could have had otherwise.

Several years ago Mainers voted on and passed a bond issue giving Maine Public Broadcasting more than $10 million to convert its transmission facilities to digital readiness and MPBC has been steadily working toward this goal ever since. They have also been privately raising another $10 million in hopes of being able to convert studio and production equipment to state-of-the-art quality and compatibility in order to keep pace with the forecasted need for new, local, digital programming.

As stated in an editorial by this newspaper on May 1, the average costs to go digital for any single station are in the $3 million range regardless of whether the station has a potential audience of 5 million or 500,000. MPBC has five television transmitters, so with some creative construction deals and partnerships the $10 million should do the trick. But that’s $20 million being raised and spent by a not-for-profit organization for a technology that has virtually no audience and probably will not reach significant levels for years to come, given the prohibitive costs of current home digital reception equipment.

The state’s major commercial broadcasters will spend, collectively, upward of $25 million to $30 million or more converting their businesses to stay in line with the federal mandate issued in 1996. Everyone, public and commercial, must meet the readiness deadlines in preparation for the ultimate deadline of 2006 when all analog signals will be shut down and digital will be the only way you can go.

TV sets are made quite well these days and last for many trouble-free years. It took around 50 years to get this magic box down to a price everyone could afford and you can have one in every room if you so desire. I just purchased a brand new 12-inch color set for $83 and I know you can get them even cheaper sometimes. Now the Federal Communications Commission has a plan and a mandate that will cost me hundreds for converter boxes or maybe thousands for just one digital TV set and I’m not even sure if I can receive the signals at my location. Some people might get the 0’s, some might get the 1’s and the lucky will get a perfect 10 if they can afford it.

There is a plus side to all of this. After 2006 there could be a lot less television watching, families might talk again, kids might read more, couch potatoes could be uprooted, obesity levels might fall, power consumption could inch down and America could smarten up despite Washington’s dumb-down campaign. The herds might thin out. Advertisers might not have as many opportunities to pull the wool over our eyes and we just might see some whiz-bang fantastic programming being promoted trying to lure us all back into lala land. You may see some pretty creative digital financing deals spring up. Can you say rebates? No interest until 2006! Who knows, maybe we’ll see some DTV sets on the Great TV Auction over the next few years.

One thing seems certain. The spring pickup cleanup crews will be breaking their backs for broadcasting for years to come. Get your old set out to the curb early. Beat the rush. Go buy a book. Have a family fun night. Take up a new hobby. Go visit grandma. Take back your life. Let the FCC boobs in Washington have the new tubes. There’s always radio and it has the clearest pictures you could imagine.

Bill Moores is a 30-year local broadcast veteran in public and commercial, technical and production.