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WEDU, Others To End Analog Signal Tuesday

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By WALT BELCHER | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 11, 2009

Citing financial hardships, PBS outlet WEDU, Channel 3, plans to shut off the station's analog broadcast signal Tuesday and switch to a digital-only signal.

The Tampa station is one of 500 nationwide that has received clearance from the Federal Communications Commission to make the switch before the new government-mandated date of June 12.

Other Tampa area stations given the green light to switch on or after Feb. 17 include WTOG, Channel 44; WUSF, Channel 16; WTTA, Channel 38, and WCLF, Channel 22.

"It's regrettable that we have to do this now, but we can't afford to keep broadcasting both digital and analog," WEDU President Richard Lobo says. "By doing this now, we can save some jobs here."

Lobo says the power bill alone for analog runs more than $10,000 a month.

"Other stations in the market are doing it, and we have been notifying our viewers for weeks about this," he adds.

Lobo says that recent test runs in which the analog signal was shut off resulted in "minimal calls" from viewers.

Last week, Congress lifted a Feb. 17 deadline for stations to drop analog, postponing it until June 12.

Lawmakers were concerned about the 6.5 million homes that Nielsen Media Research estimated were not ready despite years of planning and a $1.5 billion federal program to aid consumers.

A federal program that offered consumers $40 coupons to buy converter boxes reached its budget limit last month, leaving the requests for more than 3.7 million coupons on a waiting list. It will be months before they can be delivered to consumers

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