TV stations get calls as some shift to all-digital signals

— -- The USA's switch to an all-digital TV format began in earnest Tuesday, with 421 stations making the change in advance of the June 12 deadline.

All of the broadcasters that switched are in smaller markets, or parts of markets. Stations had until midnight to make the jump.

By midday, there were no reports of major problems, says Shermaze Ingram, a spokeswoman at the National Association of Broadcasters. "No news is certainly good news in this situation," she says.

Broadcasters are required to shift to an all-digital TV, or DTV, format by June 12. Only over-the-air TV signals are affected by the shift. Cable and satellite TV customers aren't affected.

The original transition date was Tuesday, but it was recently pushed back to give consumers and the government more time to prepare. There are 1,759 full-power stations nationwide.

TV stations had the option to stick to the original date, providing the Federal Communications Commission agreed. Prior to Tuesday, more than 200 stations had already made the switch, with few problems overall, Ingram notes.

Consider Fort Myers, Fla., where four stations, including WINK, made the switch.

"Since we pulled the plug around 12:10 p.m., we've had 32 calls," Wayne Simons, WINK's president and general manager, said about two hours after the switch.

Over the past two weeks, the station received more than 1,400 calls and e-mails from viewers who wanted to know more about the coming switch. Fort Myers' experience — no major hitches but plenty of calls — was repeated in other markets.

That's not to say that the transition was easy for everybody.

In Cape Coral, west of Fort Myers, Janice Nagorka, 74, and Troy Noll, her 44-year-old housemate, spent a week trying to get a converter box hooked up to their kitchen TV. On Tuesday, the pair hired a professional installer.

Nagorka and Noll both use wheelchairs and walkers to get around. As a result, Nagorka says, abandoning TV was not an option.

"We don't go anywhere. We can't afford it," Nagorka says. "Our only entertainment is TV."