FCC Chairman Kevin Martin Knows the Shift to Digital TV is Hard

August 25, 2008 RSS Feed Print

Just because he's young—41—and a government bureaucrat doesn't mean that Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin is immune to the pain of millions of Americans who face a TV blackout next February if they don't update their old sets. "I grew up in a rural area outside of Charlotte, N.C. Didn't have cable, couldn't get it," he says. "We had rabbit ears and a rooftop antenna" that needed to be adjusted to make Happy Days clear, he says. So, when he makes the case that Americans with predigital TVs have to switch to cable or satellite or get a signal converter box, "I get it," he says. "When I'm trying to describe what steps need to be taken," adds Martin, "I think about how I'd talk to my mom and dad when I was growing up."

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I live 20 miles west of NYC and digital reception is horrible out here. Service has been intermittent on all the digital broadcast networks out of NY using an outdoor antenna. I used to get a good signal on digital ABC and now that has disappeared. FOX is the only acceptable channel right now though at times in the past I have gotten CBS and NBC. Is this going to magically be fixed in Feb 2009?

Tahoe Joe of NJ 5:00PM August 25, 2008

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