At 7:30PM on Tuesday, 8/19/08, four key Wilmington NC television stations will turn off their analog signals and broadcast in digital only for one minute as a way to alert residents who may not yet have taken action to assure they can receive TV after the market’s earlybird special 9/8/08 DTV deadline, that the to do so is now. The stations participating in the test are WWAY (ABC), WECT (NBC), WSFX-TV (FOX) and WILM (CBS).
Viewers watching a digital signal will see regularly scheduled programming. For viewers watching an analog signal, the station will not go away (as will in fact be the case on deadline day). Rather, they will see the following message:
“This is a 60 second test shutoff of Wilmington’s analog television signals.
“If you can see this message, this television set needs to be upgraded to digital before September 8, 2008, at noon, when Wilmington commercial TV stations go all digital.
“Now is a good time to check if the other antenna TV sets in your house are upgraded to digital.
“To continue receiving television signals, upgrade to digital now with a converter box, a new TV set with a digital (ATSC) tuner or by subscribing to a pay service like cable or satellite.
”For more information call 888-225-5322 (TTY: 866-644-0908) or visit www.DTVWilmington.com.”