It’s Feb 17: How’s Your Analog TV Doing?

It's February 17, the date analog TV was supposed to go dark in the United States. But now it's not. Except in some places. And then it'll be in June. Confused yet?

It’s February 17, 2009, a date which has been relentlessly pounded into the consciousness of American television viewers for over two years as the date analog television broadcasts in the United States would cease forever. However, as with so many best-laid plans, the digital TV transition hasn’t worked out so well: confusion and lack of funding for the government’s $40 voucher program to help consumers defray the cost of jacking older analog sets into the digital age hit a few snags and then run out of money, raising the specter that millions of the Americans who rely on analog TV service for new, information, and bulletins—plus necessities like Dancing with The Stars—would be without any television service at all. So the Obama administration pushed for (and got) the digital TV transition pushed back to June 12, 2009, and pumped additional funding into the voucher program so as many consumers as possible will be ready.

Except: the new transition legislation lets some broadcast television stations go ahead with their planned transition to DTV on February 17 unless the FCC feels their conversion would be “contrary to the public interest.” The upshot is that some analog television stations are going dark today…just not all of them.

Consumers who rely on analog television broadcasts can check out the government’s DTV transition site for a list of stations that are shutting down their analog broadcasts. The 43-page list (PDF) highlights all television stations planning to stop analog service today…and it includes stations in virtually every major U.S. television market, although most affiliates for major broadcast networks are planning to delay their transition until June 12, 2009.