Over-the-air TV signals: Is Congress ready to dock rabbit ears?

By CHARLES OWENS

Sometimes you just have to wonder what the powers-that-be in Washington are thinking. You’ve got the whole global warming and climate change debate going on in the middle of one of the worst winters our region and our country has seen in more than a decade.

Has anyone in Washington actually checked the thermometer outside? It’s not hot. It’s cold. Then you’ve got health care reform dominating the national headlines at a time when only a small percentage of Americans were actually asking for health care reform. And now, if we are to believe certain commercials that are running on television, Washington may now be getting ready to undo something it told everybody to do just a little over a year ago.

Remember the television converter boxes we all had to buy in order to keep our local over-the-air channels? Well, if you have seen the somewhat confusing commercial, it warns those free channels may soon be gone. The commercial urges citizens to contact their local lawmakers, and demand that legislation is passed to keep the free over-the-air signals intact. If not, the commercial warns that millions of Americans could soon lose their free antenna signals.

What? For almost two years, we had to endure non-stop commercials, and public service announcements, encouraging us to buy a television converter box — or a brand new flat screen television for that matter — in order to receive our local over-the-air signals. In the Bluefield market, those free signals are WVVA TV-6 and the local CW affiliate. We were warned that millions of Americans would lose these free signals if they didn’t upgrade to converter boxes and or flat screen televisions. Now, surely to goodness, lawmakers in Washington aren’t planning to take away our free channels. After all, those over-the-air signals are handy for folks who subscribe to satellite television providers that don’t currently provide local channels. The free channels also are helpful for the poor who can’t afford cable or satellite television. They are even good for folks with small flat screen televisions sitting next to the kitchen sink or stove — where you have no cable line — but can still pick up at least two high definition over-the-air signals that are local.

Now, does Congress really want to take all of this away — and render all of those converter boxes we bought useless? The television commercial says call your local lawmaker. So I guess we need to tell U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, U.S. Sen. Robert C. Byrd, Congressman Nick Joe Rahall, U.S. Sen. Jim Webb, U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner and U.S. Rep. Rick Boucher, to fight to keep our over-the-air signals, or to issue refunds to everyone who paid for a converter box — if and when we lose over-the-air signals.

Maybe there is more to this story than the confusing commercial is leading viewers to believe. The Associated Press reported last week that higher cable and satellite bills are looming. The AP story went on to state that the networks might even ditch free over-the-air broadcast signals, and could even opt to operate as cable channels instead in the not-too-distant future.

That, according to the AP report, would spell the end of free TV as Americans have known since the 1940s. So, I guess even the old rabbit ears from the ’40s and ’50s would be rendered useless.

The AP story also warns that the looming purchase of NBC by the Comcast Corp could impact the future of free TV. While Comcast has not indicated plans to end free NBC over-the-air broadcast, Jeff Zucker, who runs NBC and its sister cable channels, has apparently indicated the cable model is superior to the broadcast model, the AP report added.

So what is really going on here? Are television networks as we know them on the verge of extinction — becoming instead a part of a larger cable package?

Say it isn’t so.

What would happen to “American Idol,” “Lost,” “24,” “Desperate Housewives,” and all of the other big network shows if the networks themselves became a cable channel instead of a broadcast network channel? And what would happen then to the millions upon millions of converter boxes that were sold. You can’t pick up cable channels on a converter box. You can’t even do that on a flat-screen television. Would the converter boxes be rendered useless — picking up only a fuzzy screen of snow?

At this point, there are many questions that need to be answered. The commercial that has been running says call your local lawmaker. So I guess we need to call Rockefeller, Byrd, Rahall, Webb, Warner and Boucher. These are the same lawmakers that told us we had to buy the converter boxes to get local, over-the-air channels. So surely they would be willing to pass some kind of law ensuring that we continue to receive those local, over-the-air channels for free with our rabbit ears. They said it was critical for Americans to have access to local news and weather. So why now would they be willing to take it all away?

Hopefully, someone will explain all of this. That commercial is a little confusing. But it does urge us to call our lawmakers. So maybe we should call them.

Charles Owens is the Daily Telegraph’s city editor. Contact him at cowens@bdtonline.com.

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