Friday Marks Official Deadline for Transition from Analog to Digital for TVs Nationwide

Television stations across the United States will officially make their transition from analog to digital signals on Friday, the FCC's deadline.

The switch will be the end of a technology that has lasted 60 years and will likely leave more than 1 million unprepared homes without TV service, according to the Associated Press.

The Federal Communications Commission has placed 4,000 operators on standby for calls from concerned viewers, and set up demonstration centers in several cities to ease their conversion.

Around 15 percent of U.S. households don't have satellite or cable, and they tend to be poorer. Nielsen Co. said minority households were less likely to be prepared for Friday's analog shutdown, as were households consisting of people younger than 35.

Many stations were moving to new frequencies Friday, which means that even digital TV sets and older sets hooked up to converter boxes need to be set to "re-scan" the airwaves. New TVs and the converter boxes have menu options, accessible through their remote controls, to enable a re-scan.

The shutdown was originally scheduled for Feb. 17, but the government's fund for $40 converter box coupons ran out of money in early January. In all, the government has mailed coupons for almost 60 million converter boxes. The limit is two coupons per household. To order a coupon, visit dtv2009.gov or call 888-388-2009

Nearly half of the nation's 1,760 full-power TV stations had already cut their analog signals even before Friday, mostly in less populated areas.

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