Final Wave Goodbye: Analog “nightlight” signals get shut off forever
July 14, 2009 by Derek
Did you hear the pin drop? That was the sound of analog “nightlight” transmissions going dark Sunday afternoon — which amounts to 121 stations in 87 markets waving goodbye to analog signals forever. It was a great day for HDTV and TV lovers everywhere.
Besides the nightlight info screens, and aside from areas being served by analog translator service, this marks the official end of the analog broadcast TV era for good. And good riddance we say.
No reports of massive calls or anything by the FCC, so it appears the US handled the transition quite well overall, and that news makes us smile. This will mean huge advances in the next few years in terms of picture/sound quality and HDTV channel choice, without all that bandwidth being swallowed up by outdated analog technology.
