In Wilmington, NC, It's Just FOUR Months and Counting!

This cannot wait for the next monthly update.

It may be nine months and nine days until the digital TV transition hits nationwide, but the residents of Wilmington, NC will be waking up in that future more than five months ahead of schedule, as the city has signed up to be the first transition test market with a "go" date of September 8, 2008, just four months from now. While results there may not be totally representative of what you might expect to happen in a large urban area (as a market, Wilmington ranks 135th of 210 nationwide, and the 7.4% of viewers that rely on over-the-air TV is well below the national average), we should get a lot of important data as to what kind of problems various demographic groups experience, as well as some insight into the extent of potential reception glitches.

Once the data is in and any necessary adjustments to the overall plan have been made, I hope that at least one large city can get up and running a couple of months before 2/17/09. In the meantime, we'll be watching Wilmington.