First Crack In The Deadline?

One of the most common reactions I am always getting when I tell people about the 2/17/09 "end of analog" deadline is "they'll just change it again". Maybe they're right.

Aaron Banhhardt at the The Kansas City Star found this letter from Gary Shapiro of the Consumer Electronics Association, complaining to a Senator (it doesn't say which one) about a provision in S.2686 the "Communications, Consumers' Choice, and Broadband Deployment Act of 2006", which has been reported out of committee, and whose progress should be of great interest. That's because that provision exempts Spanish-language stations 50 miles from the border from switching to digital for an additional two years, making their transition date 2/17/11.

While Shapiro's letter focuses on spectrum-recovery issues, a commenter notes that, if passed, this could be the first of many such exceptions. I can't say I'm surprised. I've always felt that this whole process may be going too fast for a significant section of the public. Pressure to change the process will be hard to resist.

BTW, thanks to Ben Drawbaugh at HD Beat for pointing me to this story!