WCNY CONTINUES EXTENSIVE COMMUNITY OUTREACH EFFORTS DURING DIGITAL TV TRANSITION

June 16, 2009 - Monday afternoon, three days after the federally-mandated transition to digital television, a 92-year-old man walks with some urgency through the front doors of WCNY Studios.  He’s lost channel 24 during the digital conversion and needs help to recover the channel.  John Duffy, vice president and director of engineering at WCNY, comes to the lobby to talk the visitor through his technical troubles.  This man is not alone.  While the digital conversion is finally complete, over-the-air viewers unprepared for the transition continue to call the WCNY digital conversion hotline with questions.  In the year since the hotline was set up, WCNY technicians have fielded over 2,000 calls from viewers with questions and concerns about the conversion.

On Friday, WCNY turned off its analog television signal for good.  A recent Nielsen Co. study stated that 2.7 percent of all U.S. households were unprepared for this conversion to digital television.  In the week that preceded the shutoff, WCNY and all other major networks in the area ran crawls at the bottom of the television screen urging those who needed help to call the WCNY hotline.  While every effort was made to help viewers transition before the shutoff date, preparations were made to field the frantic calls anticipated for the final analog shutoff day. 

“Any change can be a huge problem for some people,” said John Duffy, the figure spearheading all of WCNY’s digital television conversion community outreach efforts.  “We had a heavily-weighted over-the-air viewership and had to take those people into consideration.  Our job was to minimize any interruptions in service by providing timely and tailored technical support to these people.”

WCNY teamed up with WSTM-3 to staff a digital television conversion phone bank at the WCNY Studios during the first few days of the shutoff.  On Friday and Saturday, the phone bank received over 600 calls.  Volunteers from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and other technical staff fielded questions from 160 walk-ins at WCNY Studios, including one gentleman who brought in his newly-purchased television so that the technicians could set the television up to receive a digital signal.  During the phone bank event, a volunteer from the FCC who was impressed by the event’s coordination and reception commented that while a recent report showed the FCC was inundated with phone calls on the conversion from the neighboring Rochester area, the Syracuse area citizens had made little contact with the FCC seeking assistance.  This fact was attributed to the extensive digital conversion community outreach WCNY had made in the Central New York area.

Since the program to convert to digital television began in 1996, WCNY has provided tremendous outreach in the Central New York area.  In addition to the hotline and the recent phone bank efforts, WCNY established a digital television conversion informational kiosk at the 2008 New York State Fair that fielded questions from hundreds of New Yorkers and out-of-state visitors.  In September of 2008, the station hosted a digital conversion open house where a few hundred citizens listened to a presentation explaining the digital television conversion and then were assisted in ordering converter box coupons on resident computers.  In December 2008, in cooperation with WSTM-3 and WTVH-5, the television stations practiced soft tests to alert those ready for the conversion.  This soft test resulted in 400 calls.

The phone calls and walk-ins continue to roll in.  Monday, WCNY received 48 phone calls from people seeking help.  Then, of course, there was the personal visit from the 92-year-old man.  WCNY continues to work beyond expectation to walk each person who contacts the station through the transition.  And it appears that for as long as the public needs assistance with the conversion, WCNY will continue to answer their calls.  If you or someone you know needs assistance with the digital television transition, call the WCNY hotline at 315-234-6510.