FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein encouraged television stations to take a drastic step in order to alert viewers to the government-mandated transition from analog to digital set for Feb. 17, 2009: Pull the plug on all the sets in your DMA—but just for a minute or so.

Marcellus Alexander, the NAB's executive VP, television, seconded the motion, noting that the NAB digital transition team sent an e-blast to its entire membership in late May encouraging stations to embrace trial analog shut-offs to dramatically underscore what American households will lose if they don't take steps to upgrade their analog sets.

Speaking via satellite at the Promax/BDA New York conference Wednesday, Adelstein reported that five stations have already done a "soft-analog shut-off exercise," temporarily creating nothing but grey static for those homes not yet digital-ready. The stations were in Spokane, Wash.; Orlando, Fla.; Hartford, Conn.; Las Vegas; and Honolulu.

In one dramatic demonstration, a news anchor, standing in a room filled with all the tech hardware needed to transmit its signal, alerted viewers what was about to happen, then pulled the plug. Area sets without a digital feed saw lots of static and an 800 number to call to bring back American Idol.

While 89 percent of the populace say they are aware of the 2009 switch, work remains getting to that last 10 percent who remain out of the loop.

Complicating the transition is that Congress mandated the cut-off, but allotted just $5 million for consumer education.

Noted Adelstein: "The federal government has no plan and no one is in charge" of seeing how and when the transition occurs.

Indeed, Adelstein underscored that despite the deadline, 15 percent of all television sets remain analog-only, representing 22 million households, with about 10 percent of those homes "completely unready for the digital transition."

On the other hand, the broadcast industry has spent more than $1 billion in cash and kind trying to alert everyone to the changes ahead. Indeed, Alexander repeated a long-list of NAB DTV initiatives from media kits, toolkits, speakers bureaus and action spots. The only thing NAB can't do is force every station to try the soft-shutoff.

"It wouldn't be practical because of various technical requirements," Alexander explained, "but even if it were technically possible, the NAB would never mandate our members to do anything. However, we are telling them in our e-blast that we consider a soft shutoff test to be a best practice iniative."

Responding to the FCC commissioner's remarks about the lack of federal follow-up, Alexander also added: "Broadcast, however, has stepped up and taken charge." He then reminded everyone that only 244 days remain before the digital transition must be met—Feb. 17, 2009, at 11:59 p.m.