My TV reception sucks this morning

No, really, it does. I hooked up the antenna to the analog tuner of my HDTV for the first time this morning so that I could properly commemorate the waning moments of analog television. Reception was terrible.

But not so terrible that I missed poor Tim Elbertson at KXRM/Channel 21 announcing that the station had switched off its analog transmitter and, if viewers were still watching him, they had successfully navigated the digital divide.

Psych! I was watching him in analog. It took them another five minutes to turn the darn thing off. Which is funny, because on Wednesday I was talking to KXRM general manager Steve Dant about the DTV thing and I asked him, "So, how do you actually turn off your analog transmitter?" And he said he'd talked to engineering about it and all that was required was the click of a mouse. Doh!

Anyway, funny, but not the end of the world. KXRM did eventually get up a rotating informational segment that explains how to hook up a converter box, KKTV/Channel 11 put up a static display telling people to get with the program, KOAA/Channels 5&30 went with static on 5, but is leaving 30 up as a simulcast (it's a low-power transmitter, so they're not legally required to switch it off), and KRDO/Channel 13 was waiting until 9 to switch...

So, once that happens, I guess we will be in a brave new digital world.