Saturday, June 13, 2009

Analog Goes; 3 Million Watching Static

Okay, I usually don’t like to pick on people here, but to be honest I don’t think the people I’m going to write about will ever really know I’m writing this. For those of you that don’t know, and apparently there are around three million Americans, analog TV has gone the way of the dinosaur Going, going, gone digital. This happened faster than the transition from Beta to VHS to DVR. It happened faster than the, still slowly changing, transition from A.M. radio to F.M. radio. But come on, it’s not like there wasn’t any warning signs.

I mean, how could you miss all the warning signs of the change for crying out loud! They announced it during the last Super Bowel; it’s been on radio, TV, billboards, newspapers, flyers, store entrances, and even the convertor boxes themselves. You would have had to be living under a rock to have missed this. I mean, maybe if you are SpongeBob’s buddy Patrick Star (yes, I know their names) you might have missed the change. But, Patrick Star lives under a freaking rock! Where have these three million Americans been hiding for the last couple of years?

I guess, that if you ignored all the signs, did not listen to radio, turned off the commercials, and did not read a paper then you might have missed it. Maybe you just taped all your favorite shows and fast-forwarded through all the commercials for the last couple of years. Maybe someone picked up your food from the local store so you never had to see any signs. And, maybe you pay so much attention to the road when you drive that you missed the massive billboards. It just really seems odd to me that anyone would miss this transition.

Oh, well, I guess it happens. As for me, I’m going to tape MASH on my Beta VCR and watch it on my one hundred pound, fifteen inch television. I will just have to be careful when fast forwarding through the commercials, I bought the last beta tape from the discount shelf at the hardware store and no telling when they will get some more.

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