For more information: Teri L Sullivan
WKNO Promotions Manager
901-325-6518
tlsullivan@wkno.org
April 7, 2009
For Immediate Release
WKNO SHUTTING OFF ANALOG TRANSMITTER ON MAY 1
WKNO announces that the public television station will shut off its analog transmitter on May 1, 2009 at midnight, prior to the June 12 FCC deadline. On that date, it will become the third station in the Memphis market to complete the transition to digital broadcasting (WBUY is shutting off their analog transmitter on April 16). As of April 7, 2009, around 36% of the nation’s television broadcasters will have completely transitioned to digital, according to the National Association of Broadcasters.
The FCC-mandated digital broadcasting transition originally designated February 17, 2009 as the analog shut-off date. The United States Congress voted to move the date to June 12, 2009. An FCC-sponsored walk-in center to help viewers make the transition will be held at the Benjamin L. Hooks Library on Saturday, April 25, 1:00 – 5:00 p.m.
“We are currently running two transmitters – an analog one and a digital one,” said Michael J. LaBonia, WKNO President and CEO. “Financially, this represents a hardship on broadcasters, especially for non-profit broadcasters like WKNO. It costs more than $50,000 a year to run our analog transmitter. Over the last couple of years, we have planned our budget around shutting off this transmitter on February 17. We feel it is a better use of our community’s investment in public broadcasting to shut off this transmitter early, and we have complied with all FCC guidelines to do so.”
After WKNO’s analog shut-off on May 1, staff and volunteers will man a phone bank in the WKNO studio to answer viewers’ DTV questions on Saturday and Sunday, May 2-3, from 7:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m.
To commemorate the digital transition on May 1, WKNO will present an evening of programming honoring the history of television in Thanks for the Memories. The broadcast, featuring encore presentations from the Memphis Memoirs series (When TV Came to Town and WKNO: The First Fifty Years), will begin at 9:00 p.m. and end with the analog shut-off at midnight.
“Analog television has been broadcast for more than sixty years,” said Thanks for the Memories producer Pierre Kimsey. “It’s a momentous occasion to shut off this transmission and usher in the digital age of television.”
For more information about digital television, please call WKNO at 901-458-2521 or visit the digital television page at wkno.org.
WKNO is a non-profit, private foundation serving the Mid-South for more than 50 years.
An important community resource, WKNO uses the power of non-commercial public broadcasting to provide the Mid-South with quality educational and cultural programs that inform, entertain, and inspire. For more information: wkno.org.
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