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Analog Television Faces Another Cutoff Test Today

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Tribune Staff

Published: January 5, 2009

TAMPA - Television stations in Tampa and St. Petersburg will again shut off analog broadcast signals for about three minutes on Tuesday morning, part of a series of tests to prepare viewers for the switch to digital broadcasts.

On WFLA Channel 8, the test will occur at the beginning of the "Today" show at 7 a.m. Tuesday. Viewers with televisions that can pick up only analog signals will see a test pattern. People who have converter boxes, digital TV sets, or cable or satellite services will see normal programming.

During the time of the test, WFLA viewers can call the News Channel 8 phone bank at 1-800-528-0808 if they have any questions.

When the first test was conducted on Dec. 18, more than 160,000 area homes in the market were not yet prepared for the switch to digital, according to Nielsen Media Research estimates.

More than 1.82 million homes in the Tampa-St. Petersburg viewing area didn't see the test message because they are already plugged into the digital world.

After Tuesday, five more tests are scheduled before stations nationwide permanently switch from analog to digital broadcast signals. The dates of the tests are:

Monday, Jan. 12 - 9 am

Saturday, Jan. 17 - 7 pm

Wednesday, Jan. 21 - 1 pm

Friday, Feb. 13 - 2 pm

Sunday, Feb. 15 - 8 pm

More information is available on the WFLA Web site at http://www.wfla.com/dtv/

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