Analog TV Lives in DC!
Don’t throw your rabbit ears away just yet, soccer fans. At least not until the CONCACAF Gold Cup is over.
I watched last night’s USA/Honduras match in glorious analog, complete with an old-school non-digital antenna hooked up and pointing skyward.
The match was broadcast live from RFK on WMDO-47, an over-the-air Spanish station that is part of the Miami-based Telefutura network, itself a subsidiary of everybody’s favorite telenovela source, Univision.
If you’ve got the lowest tier cable TV, you wouldn’t have been able to watch the game, since WMDO (like the Anglo Fox Soccer Channel, which is also showing some Gold Cup games) isn’t in every package.
But if you’ve got no cable, like those of us now forced to live on a budget, you could cheer our boys on.
The supposed drop-dead date for analog TV in the U.S. was June 12, when the federally mandated switch to digital kicked in. Apparently something got lost in translation, because not only is WMDO still clogging up the airwaves with analog signals, but the station doesn’t even offer viewers a digital option.
“There shouldn’t be any analog stations out there anymore, except for maybe a high school or college station,” says “Joanne” of the FCC’s Digital TV Hotline out of Niagara Falls. “Everybody’s supposed to be transitioned to digital by now. Our map of DC isn’t showing any more analogs.”
Well, then, City Desk readers, please promise not to spill the beans on WMDO to the Feds! Not for a few more weeks! Because I plan on adjusting the rabbit ears and trying not to poke myself in the eye all over again tomorrow night for the El Salvador/Jamaica game, and again July 23 when my Gold Cup TV schedule tells me WMDO will be broadcasting both Gold Cup semifinal matches.
It’ll be just between us!
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Linked From: July 10th, 2009washington city paper | ArticleLux
5:49 pm[...] Analog TV Lives in DC! – City Desk – Washington City PaperWell, then, City Desk readers, please promise not to spill the beans on WMDO to the Feds! Not for a few more weeks! Because I plan on adjusting the rabbit ears and trying not to poke myself in the eye all over again tomorrow night for …Read More [...]
4:09 pm
WMDO is a low power TV station; they are not currently required to transmit in digital.
http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/DTVandLPTV.html
4:30 pm
WMDO has a digital station. I get it in NE.
4:44 pm
WMDO is on digital channel 8
11:19 pm
CL:to quote dan rather’s assailant: what’s the frequency? no digital WMDO makes it to petworth. analog only! i’m gonna go play a phonograph through a tube amp as i await your answer!