NO Converter Box Reprieve

President Obama says and the Senate does: They postponed the analog switch four more months. The new date for the analog TV shutdown:
June 12. UPDATE: The House Said NO.

Previously, the analog shutdown was going to happen in February 17. The deadline was set up so that the government could free up "wasted" spectrum so that it could be used to build more robust emergency wireless networks, as well as provide the private sector with more spectrum that could be used to develop new wireless broadband services. The government has already auctioned off most of the unused spectrum. And after February, service providers who won licenses in those auctions will be able to get to work building their next-generation wireless networks... are now going to have to wait a little longer.

Nielsen estimates 6.5 million U.S. homes still with analog TV only, politicians have thought twice about taking the circus from the people, after their inability to give them bread.
[ABC News]

And one other note, the digital box top still requires your dusty, bent RABBIT ears. Really. This box is not the magic bean that makes your wood paneled 27 inch tube into a flat screen HDTV. You still need rabbit ears. In the case of some folks who have been writing in, some of their favorite channels aren't strong enough to get into the new digital box, even with their rabbit ears. You can imagine how pissed these old people are.

Another writer tells me he's in the middle of a couple markets - so he gets the news from two different towns. But now, with the box, they now don't get the other town's signal. He's kind of pissed about that.

The whole gag is that this $40 subsidy for lazy Americans to watch more television has never made any sense, unless you follow what they're going to do with the spectrum that opens up when UHF and VHF open up. In fact, does anyone know why they need to open up all those frequencies for emergency services? Is there something we oughta know? Is this all for AT$T to make WiMax over UHF? Me? I think it's just Comcast and DirecTV trying to connect the last 10% of people who aren't stuck with their products. The best lobbying job I've seen in a while.

Then you've got granny going ape-nuts about not being able to watch her stories. The coupon was lost, then she couldn't get another one, then it snowed, her cat died, then she missed the deadline of using the new coupon... now they've moved the date, so she's all confused...

All I know is that someone is giving old granny and her bent rabbit ears a good punch in the gut with all this converter box nonsense.

What do you think America?

UPDATE: "In my opinion, we could do nothing worse than to delay this transition date," said Joe Barton of Texas, the top Republican on the House Commerce Committee. "The bill is a solution looking for a problem that exists mostly in the mind of the Obama administration."

No, Joe, the problem is this whole thing from the get-go.