The DTV conversion comes early to Wilmington, North Carolina

Let the Digital Television Revolution begin! Oh, wait, millions of us have converted to digital cable boxes already. Let me try this again. Let the Government-Enforced Digital Television Revolution begin! Okay, much better.

In order to test out the conversion of all media outlets and consumer televisions to digital service by February 17th, 2009, Wilmington, North Carolina decided to beat everyone to the punch and perform the conversion early. So, at noon on Monday, Wilmington mayor Bill Saffo and FCC Chairman Kevin Martin pulled a huge, symbolic power switch to convert all of the city from analog to digital broadcasts. Of course, things went off without a hitch. Uh-huh. And, Platyrrhini Cebidae soar out of my tushie!

Not long after the cut-over broadcasters in the area reported dozens of calls from residents within the city limits and surrounding counties who either weren't prepared for the conversion or couldn't get their brand-new digital-converter boxes to work with their old analog sets. Both the networks and the FCC knew that this would happen and expected to receive calls over the next few weeks from the 14,000 households who received their signals from over-the-air broadcasting.

Despite the phone calls, both the broadcast networks and the FCC seemed to be pleased with the conversion. Andy Combs, general manager of Wilmington's ABC affiliate, said that even though they received about three dozen calls, the conversion was a big success. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said that the success of the conversion in Wilmington is not what happens in the present but what they can learn from it for the total digital switch early next year.

I have to wonder if Wilmington was the best test bed for the digital conversion. Even combining the city population with the three counties that encompass the Metropolitan Wilmington area, the entire population is only about 374,000. The 14,000 over-the-air households comprise under 5 percent of the viewing public. This doesn't seem to be a good gage for a conversion in say Philadelphia, Boston or Los Angeles -- older cities where you potentially have a higher percentage of non-digital television watchers. With the conversion only a mere five months away I foresee some big issues getting everyone converted. And, with the conversion hitting right in the middle of February sweeps, this would be trouble for the networks. What do you think?