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Pocono News Section
WBRE/WYOU will switch to Digital Feb. 17
WBRE/WYOU will switch to Digital Feb. 17 - Tuesday, February 10, 2009 at 5:40PM EST
Reported by: Jeff Chirico
Tuesday, Feb 10, 2009 @ 05:40pm EST
WBRE and WYOU will switch to digital on February 17, 2009. The government is allowing TV stations to delay the switch until June. But stations in our area have decided not to wait. That means you have 7 days to get ready for the change.
Joe Kasper of Wilkes-Barre is one of thousands of people in our area who watch TV with rabbit ears. But beginning next week their TV screens could go dark. Lou Abitabilo, WBRE and WYOU’s general manager says “a week from today is the date all the stations across the country have been given the option to convert to drop analog signal and convert to digital signal."
To get ready for the switch, you have four options. Subscribe to cable service, sign up for a satellite dish service, buy a digital TV --some sell for less than a 150 bucks. Or buy a digital converter box for about 50 dollars. That's what Joe did. Kasper says “when I opened the box there were five cables and I thought it's going to be a nightmare. But it's easy."
The government offers forty dollar vouchers to cut the cost of the boxes. When you get the converter Jim Barry of the Consumer Electronics Association says “hook it up. Don't wait until February 17th because you may find you don't get the channels you thought you'd get."
If you don't see WBRE or WYOU after hooking up the digital converter box, make sure you have a uhf/vhf combination antenna. It's essential in order to see every TV station in our region. So if you have questions about the change, here are the numbers to call. Call the FCC at 1-888-CALL-FCC or call Radio Shack at 1-800-The Shack. We also have all the information you need about the transition go to | | |
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