Analog died while I was running
I thought I was fully prepared for the death of analog television. All of my TV sets were connected to cable. There were no old-style TV sets connected to rabbit ears. I even purchased two converter boxes in case I ever needed them to feed an additional TV set. Yep, I was fully ready for all-digital broadcast. The death of analog broadcasting wouldn’t affect me.
It was a sunny here on Saturday, June 13, the day after most TV stations eagerly turned off their kilowatt-consuming analog transmitters. I decided to go running, perhaps do a short circuit of six or seven miles along the country roads near my home. Leaving the house, I was equipped with my traditional gear: hat, mace, headphones and my trusty portable AM/FM/Weather/VHF TV radio.
The radio, a wonderful Sony model, has served me for years. In fact, I think this one may be the sixth or seventh unit I’ve owned over the thousands of miles I’ve run. This particular radio is rugged, highly reliable and, equally important, it is energy efficient. One AAA cell will last weeks or months, depending on how many miles I burn up.
The radio can take its share of abuse too. I usually wear out a couple sets of headphones long before the radio quits. And even then, it’s usually because I’ve broken the waist clip, not because the radio actually fails. This little model has become a true partner in my quest for fitness.
I’d reached only about halfway into my run when I became bored with the traditional listening fare. My favorite AM news-talk station was playing a 30-minute commercial for some cure-all vitamin. Listen to these types of shows often enough, and you’ll self-diagnose yourself into all kinds of illnesses.
The local public radio station was broadcasting “Prairie Home Companion,” which I hate. What now?
No problem, I thought. I’ll just listen to television. I switch to the TV band.
Uh oh. Channel 4 has nothing, just hiss. Channel 5, same nothing but hiss. Here we go; Channel 9 has audio.
It took only about five seconds of listening to discover the audio was nothing but a loop of “KMBC has ceased transmitting in analog. Tune your digital television or converter box … blah, blah, blah. This message will be repeated in Spanish.”
OMG! I suddenly realized analog television was gone. I would no longer be able to listen to the “CBS Sunday Morning” show while jogging around my parks and roadways. I wouldn’t be able to catch the evening newscasts from ABC, FOX or NBC while biking. I began to realize how much enjoyment I received from listening to television while running. Now that pleasure was gone forever.
I’m sure there’ll be portable digital TV receivers someday, but that won’t happen soon. Besides, early receivers will focus on video, not audio. And they’ll be expensive, battery-killing devices. I know I’ll never be able to buy a portable DTV receiver for the $15 my little Sony radio cost.
The technology shift could be seen as reason to upgrade to an MP3 player and listen to music while running. But, if you’re a news-talk radio fanatic like me, music just doesn’t “do it.” I’ve never found a music beat that I could run with. It might have something to do with the fact that I can’t walk and chew gum at the same time. For me, there’s just something about being able to connect with live events and people via radio and television that make that type of programming my preference.
It’s also an immediacy thing. News/talk is now. You can’t download real-time news/talk. These are live, not recorded, events. It’s impossible to record the 6 p.m. news at 4 p.m. so you’ll have it on your player for your later evening run.
I miss the technology that served me well over the many thousands of miles I’ve jogged. Analog television, it and I, have had a good run together.
Tell me your thoughts about the analog cutoff.
June 22nd, 2009 at 4:02 pm
Brad:
You need to embrace the podcast. Many of the TV shows you may like to listen to as well as news and lot’s of other programs are available for download so you can listen anytime you like. I also like to run and couldn’t do it without my iPod and Podcasts. I have some music that I listen to occasionally but I much prefer talk and information. It is sad about analog and I’ve also listened to the local news on my way home from work but I think you’ll like the podcast better. More choices.
Chuck
June 22nd, 2009 at 4:20 pm
“OMG! I suddenly realized analog television was gone. ”
No - seriously! You didn’t *really* think an analog receiver would still tune DTV audio, did you? My 85 year-old uncle had that one figured out a year ago!
June 22nd, 2009 at 4:30 pm
Hi Brad,
Imagine my surprise when the TV station mentioned was KMBC…same thing kind of happened to me (though I do not run). I was cleaning out the kitchen closet and I found an old Casio handhel;d TV…about the coolest thing I ever saw (back in the day). Well I turned it on, not thinking about June 13th…It powered up and I though “what do you know, it still works…then…nothing…So much for that $100 !
Wes
June 22nd, 2009 at 11:17 pm
Brad, I fully understand your grieving about the loss of analog broadcasts. I have a small (3inchX5inchX1inch) analog LCD TV. It’s portable, gets (got) great reception, and runs for 4-5 hours on 4 AA batteries. It has been a great TV for emergencies since it is so small and I can use it for a very long time if I have a few extra AAs. Unfortunately I’ve found that there are no good replacements for this TV. There are a few “off” brands offering portable digital TVs, however they have much larger screens than I need, much shorter battery life, NON-user replaceable batteries, and are virtually worthless without external antennas (basic whip antennas don’t work well for the frequencies that most digital channels use now).
I purchased a battery powered weather radio back at the beginning of ‘09 in preparation for losing my little TV and I forgot about the “TV band” issue. So I also now have a brand new emergency that is missing this handy feature. Luckily it has a NOAA weather band setting on it, otherwise it would have been completely wasted money!
I’m sure that the digital signal will work fine for many people. I will be the first to admit that the picture does look quite good without any “snow” of course, but there are many aspects of analog that will be sorely missed! For instance, I’m out in the country, 30 miles away from the local transmitters and I have completely lost our local ABC and CBS stations since the switch. With analog we sacrificed a little bit of picture quality for a reliable signal, but with digital we sacrifice reliability for a great picture. In my opinion this is a step backwards. My satellite signal goes out when it drizzles so I always end up relying on the over the air signal during fowl weather. If a tornado is on its way I would much rather have a reliable signal and a slightly grainy picture than no picture at all with the potential for a perfect picture!!
I imagine that many years down the road the sensitivity of ATSC (digital) tuners will improve and this type of situation will not be as problematic. However, until then I guess we must accept the “downgrade”, buy larger antennas, and put a few of our beloved gadgets on the shelf for good.
Best regards,
~Zeb~
June 23rd, 2009 at 7:54 am
It appears that the cold-turkey digital transisition wasn’t complete, or what happened to you and many others like you wouldn’t have! Where ARE the digital TV audio radios; the small campers’ weather-safety-net & just-in-case-it-storms-all-day battery powered digital TVs? I would appreciate ONE model made by someone to replace the 5″ B&W TV/AM/FM set I have downstairs next to the ‘john’! Also, I can’t figure our why the ‘big-boys’ aka Sony, Panasonic, JVC, Samsung, etc. have apparantly tabbooed manufacturing small, portable, battery capable sets! There should be a big market for them. It doesn’t make sense.
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:48 am
I agree with you Ted. Where ARE all the replacement gadgets that we love!
I am by no means an engineer, but I believe that one of the reasons digital tuners are not making their way into smaller, more portable items is that they are not very efficient yet. They consume much more power than their analog counterparts, making battery lives shorter (which is my guess as to why you don’t see any portable TVs that use standard primary batteres). They are also not as sensitive, so they require good external antennas (which need to be as high as possible) to recieve good signals.
Hopefully future improvements in tuner design will remedy this issue, but if that is going to happen it will be many years down the road.
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:30 pm
Check out Axion AXN-8701 7-Inch Widescreen Portable Handheld TV with Built-In Tuner on the web. Moderate price. Not designed for jogging, but it is small and has a recharageable battery.
It would be nice if car radios came with TV audio tuners. If one company built a good one, perhaps all manufacturers would follow! Evidence is that thousands of former channel 6 audio listeners are unhappy now.
June 28th, 2009 at 11:19 pm
There are a few others as well:
Eviant T7 ATSC/NTSC 7-inch LCD
Iview 780PTV ATSC/NTSC 7″ LCD
Accurian 16-454 ATSC/NTSC 7” LCD
Haier HLT71 ATSC/NTSC 7-inch LCD
Dynex DX-7HTV-09 ATSC/NTSC 7″ 480i LCD
Insignia NS-7HTV ATSC/NTSC 7″ LCD
SUPERSONIC SC-193A ATSC/NTSC/QAM 7″ LCD
I’m sure there are more out there, but I didn’t want to spend more time digging them up. As you can see, every single model has essentially the same basic stats: A 7″ LCD screen, both ATSC and NTSC tuners, and they all have built in rechargable batteries and basic whip antennas. It would certainly be nice to see some variety here! My small ANALOG LCD tv that I mentioned earlier has a 2.2 inch screen, a little small, but still easily useable (imagine the picture viewer on a digital camera). The small size is perfect for emergencies, but not that great for entertainment. I would love to see a portable digital TV with a 4″ screen with a better balance between screen size and battery life. That’s just me though!
September 14th, 2009 at 3:31 pm
Not only is it a matter of the beloved devices we can no longer enjoy; it’s the matter of reliability. Our locals here get their STLs rained out as soon as severe weather approaches, making them entirely useless. When I was a board op for the dominant local NBC affiliate, we had a backup STL on a far different frequency. There is no such redundancy with their digital transmission, so it fades away far early than satellite ever did.
Digital broadcast was enacted entirely the wrong way (ie, by politicians), and we’re all suffering as a result. For many of us it’s the loss of signal and/or convenience, but for broadcasters I think it’s going to be a loss of viewers. In my area most people have cable TV, but that’s hardly the case in many other markets.
September 26th, 2009 at 9:03 pm
Brad,
The analog shut off was forced down our throats by big business and big government. Paid TV program providers (cable, satellite, wireless) convinced the FCC that shutting down analog would be good for you and me. When FM radio was promoted as an enhanced form of radio broadcasting, AM radio was not shut down. When color TV was introduced, black and white TV’s were not effected, because the FCC required that the system be compatible to insure that the new system would not obsolite existing black and white TV’s.
All of us in the TV broadcast business are well aware of the many problems the digital changeover has caused for both broadcasters and viewers.
You are probably aware that analog TV still exists. Low power TV stations are exempt from the digital switch. My question is: why couldn’t analog have continued for high power stations so as not-to-obsolete all analog TV receivers like your Sony portable. Instead of the “digital transition” it should have been the “digital addition”.
If it was done correctly, analog broadcast would have simulcast along side of digital for several more years allowing plenty of time to iron out the many bugs of digital while allowing the public to gradually transition to digital. The new buzz is 3D. Will the FCC repeat their digital disaster and force everyone to re-tool for 3D?
Remember “I want my MTV” well “I want my analog TV”.
Joe LoRe’
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