Face Time With the FCC
Eureka, CA – According to today’s Times-Standard, a representative from the Federal Communications Commission will be in Eureka on Thursday, January 15th, to demonstrate how to install a “digital conversion” box and “… help people complete the applications necessary to get a coupon that will provide $40 toward the purchase of a converter box”.
As most of us know by now, there are no more coupons left. At this point, all one can do is get on a waiting list with more than 1 million people ahead of you. Unless Congress decides to provide additional funding (not likely), most people on the waiting list will be waiting forever. I think it’s safe to say at this point that anyone needing a DTV converter box is on their own. Unless you already have an un-expired coupon already, you are most likely out of luck.
The good news is, as the current supply of non digital televisions slowly work their way to the junk piles to be replaced by HDTV ready TV sets, you will eventually see the existing converter boxes make their way to yard sales, flea markets and (of course) eBay. Being the transitional technology it is, DTV converter boxes will eventually end-up becoming an obsolete piece of equipment that almost no one will need to own. So, if you don’t mind waiting awhile, you will eventually be able to buy these things for next to nothing.
For those of you who would like some “face time” with a representative of the FCC, there will be a digital conversion workshop at the offices of the Area 1 Agency on Aging in Eureka, CA, on Thursday, January 15, 2009 at 11 a.m. The A1AA is located at 434 Seventh Street.
