Digital TV Ready to Rule the Tube, Leaving Some Viewers in the Dark

By midnight tomorrow, all of the nation's full-powered TV stations will shut off their analog signals marking the biggest change in television viewing since the advent of Technicolor. In their place, broadcasters will air a new breed of digital broadcasts intended to bring crisper pictures and sound. At the end of this long-awaited and troubled transition, the government will have made $20 billion from the sale of the old analog airwaves, the telecommunications industry will be able to offer brand-new, high-speed wireless services, and public-safety officials will get access to airwaves for a new nationwide communications network. But people have been left to deal with some unsatisfactory results of the poorly managed, government-mandated transition. The education campaign was uncoordinated, a federal program to help people pay for converter boxes ran out of money, and many were not informed that they might need additional equipment to receive TV service.