The Future Is Four Months Away

The House passed--and President Obama will sign--a bill delaying the switch from analog to digital TV. Instead of February 17, it will now be June 12.

Bad planning and lack of funding necessitated the change, which will give folks who aren't blessed with cable and satellite more time to get those $40 coupons to purchase converter boxes. It's part of the $900 billion-plus stimulus package aggressively touted by Obama and vigorously debated in Congress, which would include $650 million for the digital switch.

OK, now that you won't have to put up an outdoor antenna in the middle of winter, you're probably wondering what's going to happen to Twin Cities TV stations after (or even before) the switch. Some of them might be switching channels.

There's no information we could find on what WCCO (CBS) and KSTP (ABC) are going to do, except that they have separate UHF digital channels. If you watch enough of WCCO, you may have noticed that they deemphasized "Channel 4" in favor of the call letters. And will KSTP continue to bill its station "5 Eyewitness News" after the switch?

KMSP (Fox) and KARE (NBC), according to Wikipedia, will be on digital channels 9 and 11 (in that order) after the switch. So "Fox 9" and "KARE-11" are safe.

WUCW (The CW) will end analog broadcasting on February 17, as will the other stations that are owned by Sinclair Broadcasting, reports the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

Twin Cities Public Television (TPT), which like PBS stations across the country has the most to lose from the digital switch, has also been the most pro-active in promoting it.

The biggest change is the elimination of KTCI, Channel 17, a station best known for running radar weather during the day and PBS leftovers at night that big sister KTCA doesn't have room for. It will be replaced by TPT Life on subchannel 2.3, the new home for PBS leftovers. KTCA will continue as TPT 2, the main PBS station, at subchannel 2.1. TPT MN will carry regional programming, along with Minnesota Legislature coverage on 2.2. And weather radar will get its own channel on 2.4. Not all of these channels will be seen on cable or satellite, so check with your provider or tpt.org. The website also tells us that they still intend to make the switch on February 17, but the analog channels will continue until June.

So now you have four more months to get your TVs up to speed. If you somehow wake up on the morning of June 13 to find a snowy picture on your set, don't say you weren't warned.