For the past several weeks, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has been trying to find a market or two where all the TV stations would volunteer to act as DTV guinea pigs and make the switch to digital late this summer or early fall—months ahead of the mandatory Feb. 17, 2009, deadline.

So far, he hasn't had much luck.

Broadcasters across the nation have been begging off, telling the chairman that they would rather not—or simply cannot—cut off their analog service any sooner than they absolutely have to.

Working mostly through state broadcaster associations, the FCC has approached stations in at least 10 markets:  Youngstown and Columbus, Ohio; Gainesville and Fort Myers, Fla.; Madison Wis.; Yakima, Wash.; Lexington, Ky.; Santa Barbara, Calif.; Wilmington, N.C., and Shreveport, La.

Of those, only stations in three markets—Santa Barbara, Wilmington and Shreveport—are still considering the matter.

The rest have said no thanks to the proposed experiment.

The idea of testing the DTV switchover in a small number of markets actually started with Democratic Commissioner Michael Copps.

“Broadway shows open on the road to work out the kinks before opening night. The DTV transition deserves no less,” Copps said in an open March 3 letter to Martin.

The tests markets could gauge the effectiveness of consumer education, the extent of DTV coverage, the need for new antennas, the ease of hooking up converter boxes and other new gear, coordination with cable systems and satellite operators and the performance of V-chips and closed captioning, Copps's letter says.

If the FCC cannot find a market where all the stations can or will make the early switchover, it should conduct limited field tests with some stations, the letter adds.

Such tests, Copps says,  “could provide critical insights into many of the issues that consumers will face in February 2009 and permit us to make inevitable mid-course adjustments.”

Martin immediately embraced Copps's suggestion and began to search for some willing markets.

Martin himself talked to Wilmington broadcasters in a conference call earlier this month.

Likewise, Copps discussed the matter with Madison stations.

But the majority of the FCC outreach has been conducted by FCC veteran Roy Stewart, senior deputy chief of the Media Bureau, and Krista Witanowski, an aide to Martin.

Stewart declined to comment for this story, and the FCC declined to make any other official available for comment.

Despite the FCC officials' best efforts, lining up broadcasters willing and able to participate has proved difficult.

Florida broadcasters had trouble with the FCC's August-September time frame for the testing. That's hurricane season, says Patrick Roberts, president of the Florida Association of Broadcasters.

“What happens if we have another Andrew or Charley?” he asks. If service were disrupted during a storm like those, “we would look like the most insane people in the world.”

In Ohio, where broadcasters in Youngstown and Columbus considered the plan, one of their chief concerns was that pushing up the DTV start date would lead to viewer confusion.

"These stations have undertaken significant campaigns to educate their viewers. Everything is geared to Feb 17. To change that midstream would create real problems,” says Christine Merritt, executive vice president of the Ohio Association of Broadcasters.

Madison, Wis., broadcasters also gave the FCC's proposal serious consideration before rejecting it, says Michelle Vetterkind, president of the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association.

Besides consumer confusion, they feared the loss of viewers in neighboring DMAs, says Vetterkind. “Madison broadcasters don't compete in a self-contained market.”

Broadcasters in the Yakima-Richland-Pasco-Kennewick market told the FCC an early test wouldn't work because two stations aren't ready. "The bottom line is, we didn't think we were an appropriate market for a test,” says Mark Allen, president of the Washington State Association of Broadcasters.

The Yakima stations also expressed concern about “pulling the plug during a major election campaign period,” says Allen.

“The stations were concerned not only about viewers' diminished ability to receive election information, but also the fact that during nearly all of the proposed test windows these stations would be in a lowest unit charge period,” he says.

Lexington broadcasters were “flattered” that the FCC came to them, says Gary White, president of the Kentucky Broadcasters Association, but they concluded that there were too many obstacles to overcome.

“The cable companies are not completely ready,” he says.

In the Lexington market, there are 32 cable companies with 53 headends. “That's a lot of cable companies that have to make their equipment ready,” he says.

The Lexington public TV stations also warned that the market's school systems are not prepared for the switch, he says. “We hadn't thought about that.”

Plus, White says, the stations noted that regardless of what they do, the broadcast networks would continue to promote the Feb. 17 date in their awareness efforts. “How do we deal | More …