Don’t panic: FCC chairman reassures digital TV transition won’t cause (much) chaos

The TV Academy theater seats 600 and at least 19 of those chairs are filled with people desperate to know the latest news about the digital transition.

What’s going to happen to our TV signals?!

What about the elderly?!

What about people with battery-powered TVs?!

Not to fear. The Academy of Arts and Sciences is hosting a press conference with the acting head of the FCC and Los Angeles civic leaders to address concerns about Friday’s nationwide switch to digital.

The event is located in bleak North Hollywood, which has tried to re-brand itself as the potentially hipper sounding “NoHo.” But even if you ignore the name’s dangerous closeness to “No Ho’s,” it remains pretty tempting to rhyme it with “No Go.”

Before the Q&A with the FCC chief gets started, there’s an ambitious presentation planned for this modest audience: the entire history of television, told orally by a succession of speakers.

“... to some it is a trusted friend to sit with and alleviate moments of boredom — it is our television set and it has become an integral part of our lives,” a person is actually saying (in this case, TV Academy COO Alan Perris).

By the time Univision's Raul Peimbert cites the introduction of the videocassette recorder many minutes later, the audience is counting folds in the theater curtain. The presentation is a bit like watching one of those educational videos from grade school only it’s playing out live in 2009 for reporters on deadline. 

California Broadcasters Association president and CEO Stan Statham takes a stab at putting into context the historical importance of the digital transition.

"This is the D-day, the week it is going to happen," he says. "All Americans will receive better picture, better sound ... there is nothing negative about what’s happening this week."

Reporters scribble. Lines like "there is nothing negative about what’s happening this week" are ideal for concluding our DTV stories, setting up a potentially ironic statement should riots/chaos/zombies ensue from the government shutting off analog TV signals.

When FCC chair Michael Copps at last takes the podium, the man is dressed less appropriately for speaking to the L.A. masses and better for dinner at CoCos. (Upon closer inspection, a distracting workmanlike label sewed onto his blue shirt reads “The Digital TV Transition: Visit DTV.gov.” The message is more relevant than, say, “Lose Weight Now, Ask Me How,” but there’s still something about a government leader wearing an informational patch that fails to inspire confidence.)

Copps takes the opportunity to bash the government, which is a bit unexpected.

"We've got some humps and bumps to navigate; there's still a number of people who don’t know what to do," Copps says. "We knew this transition was coming, the government was late getting itself organized ... but we are where we are and have to make this transition."

His critique makes sense once you care enough to Google that Barack Obama appointed Copps to the top FCC post in January, replacing slick-cold-scary Bush appointee Kevin Martin, a man who always made even the most innocuous digital transition plans sound vaguely like invading Poland.

Copps doesn’t really do concise very well (below is a video from DTV reportage hub B&C to get an idea of his speaking style; Obama has no fears of being outshined), but his points boil down to this: The transition will make things better for everybody, it will provide bandwidth for other things (emergency services, broadband, wireless) and there will be a few manageable problems along the way. 

I’ve been on record comparing DTV to Y2K, saying issues caused by the transition are inherently self-solving (the lack of signal will prompt remaining laggards to take the oft-publicized steps to get reconnected), and that stories that make a temporary lack of TV for a tiny percentage of Americans sound like an enormous societal emergency both overestimate the medium's importance and underestimate the ability of most people to not freak out.

That said, on Friday we will doubtless see stories where reporters jump on extreme examples of DTV dilemmas (“My grandmother’s TV went dark and there was a big storm and she is in a wheelchair and she doesn’t have a computer and she doesn’t have a radio and she doesn’t talk to her neighbors and so her cat got wet”).

For those who are still unready, the FCC has employed 4,000 phone operators to stand by through the weekend to handle calls coming through their information line. That number is 888-225-5322 though, really, if you're on the Internet reading a Hollywood Reporter TV blog and don’t have your DTV act together by now ... well, that would be surprising.