Professor to Document Wilmington Switch

A team of students led by Elon University professor Connie Book will travel next week to Wilmington (NC) to document what happens when the first American media market transitions from traditional analog to all-digital television broadcast. The Elon team will have exclusive access to real-time reaction after the conversion is made on Sept. 8. Students will be on site at broadcast towers with digital video recorders to capture images of the moment when engineers shut down the analog signal transmitters. They will also assist local television stations with answering phones once the conversion takes effect at noon. They will survey local residents who call to complain, collecting from them demographic information, their prior knowledge about the conversion, and reasons for not buying a digital converter box. Prof Book, who has extensively researched the television industry, hopes to share data with the FCC and television networks in the lead-up to the national digital transition that takes place in February 2009.