Ya' know, Jim Rising and I have "careers" that pretty much ran side by side. Actually, they're still running side by side in many respects.It's also fair to say that we feel the same way about a good many things. He gets annoyed by that which seems to have no logical explanation.
By way of background, Mr. Rising and I spent the bulk of our working life in broadcasting. I was at WARM when Jim and WKRZ managed to knock The Mighty 590 of its lofty perch of longstanding in the early '80s.
At first thought to be grazed, winged, by 'KRZ, WARM's condition rapidly worsened, and its market dominance would in time come to a crashing end. The latest radio ratings for this market can be found right here.
It was in radio before my WARM years that I'd first heard the term digital. While at WWPA/The Twin in Williamsport, an engineeer by the name of Carl Steinbacher spoke of digital frequently. We're talking the '70s here, mid to late '70s. A long time ago.
Carl, a really bright guy, would try with great patience to explain to me, and anyone else who'd listen, that the huge but distant wave, the one rolling, thundering, and swelling towards broadcasting, was digital. Most of the time, the looks on our faces were dopey, stunned, like we hadn't a clue what he was talking about. The reason for that was pretty darned simple - we didn't have a clue what he was talking about.
The only thing in my life at the time that was digital was a watch. I still have it. It doesn't work at all now, and it didn't work very well back then. What it was then, however, was the future strapped to my wrist. I didn't know that. I didn't understand that. I didn't know what analog was until digital emerged. Here in 2008, I'll make no pretense in truly understanding it all. I do not.
What is obvious is that the wave, which sure took a long time getting here, is about to crash down on Analog Beach, wiping out television reception for those who fail to heed its approach. Does that sound about right? Does that ring true with all of the dire warnings we now seem to get hourly? Doomed, I tell you, doomed! It's over. Repent and digitalize, or suffer the unspeakable consequences, chief among which is no TV for you.
Well, c'mon now, that's really not quite right, is it?
Recent strange happenings on Penobscot Knob revealed how many, more like how few, pull a television signal from the airwaves these days. When one TV transmitter tower came down, taking others with it, we were given more than just a great news story, we were given a yardstick with which to measure the scope of the damage about to be caused by the coming digital wave.If some of the numbers disseminated are correct, and I have no reason to believe otherwise, roughly 17% of television viewers pluck their favorite show from those distant towers which broadcast to us all. For what it matters, and it's my guess is it matters not much, the airwaves belong to us all. Those who have licenses to broadcast television and radio signals are holders of a public trust, no more, no less. That, of course, is the theory. A topic for examination some other time, perhaps.
What it really gets down to is simple enough; if you don't watch TV via rabbit ears, a rooftop antenna, or by wearing an aluminum-foil hat, you have nothing to fear in terms of losing anything.
If you're a cable or satellite subscriber, you'll notice an elevation in the quality of what you see, and that will be completely dependent upon your television. If you spend a ton on a swell HD TV, terrific. If you're sticking with what you might already have, an old low-tech conventional television, no dice, no soap, no good, no difference. As time marches forward, though, you will have little choice save to buy HD, because the tube television(CRT) is already no longer being made in any quantity, if it's being manufactured at all.
(Just so you'll know, the Sweeneys have yet to make the big leap, we're still waiting for 3-D TV. OK, old joke, one from The Honeymooners episode where Ralph and Ed go halfsies on a television. What we're doing is no more than wrestling with which HD TV to buy. There is no doubt as to which one we want, but there is that matter of buyer's remorse if we spend what need be spent in getting it. Did someone say, "...rampant consumerism?")
I think Jim Rising and I, although traveling different routes to get there, are wondering the same thing, asking the same question; why did going digital become such an obsession with the FCC? While surely not opposed to digital, I really don't know why it became legally mandated.
Why did forcing digital upon us Americans become a priority? As much as I love technology and electronics, I could use an explanation.
Analogically, for now, I'll be standing-by.
Jim, back to you...
