Trouble with D-to-A converter boxes and antennas, not a lack of awareness about the DTV conversion, drove hundreds of calls to TV stations and the local cable TV provider in Wilmington, N.C., yesterday after the five-county market became the nation's first to abandon analog TV service.

"Almost everybody is aware; it's that their equipment is not working correctly," said Connie Book, associate dean of the Elon University School of Communications.

Book led a group of her students who helped local stations and Time Warner Cable answer phones after the stations cut off their analog service at noon and forced over-the-air viewers to pick up the stations' digital signals.

The students also recorded the number and nature of the calls.

As of this morning, they had logged 143 calls, 104 from people who said they relied solely on over-the-air TV. A joint press release by the stations at 10 o'clock today put the total number of calls at 226.

Wilmington is the nation's 135^th largest TV market (DMA 135) with about 180,000 TV households. Between 13,000 and 15,000 had relied solely on analog broadcasting.

Most of the callers counted by the Elon students had digital TVs or converter boxes, but still couldn't get a picture.

Forty-one percent complained that couldn't find a signal; 26 percent said they had trouble with the antenna; and 21 percent said they simply couldn't get their converter boxes to work properly, according to the Elon students.

Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo (left) and FCC Chairman Kevin Martin flip a mock switch from analog to digital yesterday in downtown Wilmington. Behind Saffo is NAB President David Rehr; behind Martin, FCC Commissioner Michael Copps. (Photo courtesy of the Wilmington Star-News and photographer Paul Stephen.)

All but one caller said they had been aware of the DTV transition, confirming a survey that the NAB had conducted prior to the analog cut-off.

Most of the calls were taken by Raycom Media's NBC affiliate WECT (49.2 percent) and Morris Network's ABC affiliate WWAY (36.6 percent).

"We had a few calls from people that didn't scan their converter box when they hooked it up," said Andy Combs, general manager of WWAY.

"We had a couple people call up that needed to adjust their antenna; just those types of adjustments."

The calls to the stations and Time Warner Cable do not provide a full picture.

Broadcasting & Cable reported last night that a call center at Southeastern Community College received about 75 calls and another in Bladen county received between 25 and 30. In both cases, most were complaints from people who couldn't receive WECT.

A spokesman for the FCC said that as of 6 p.m. last night the agency had received "several hundred" phone calls. "The number does not include the people that came home from work last night and turned on the TV," he said.

The FCC was expected to attract most of the calls. The TV stations did not actually cease analog broadcasting. They replaced their regular programming with a slide that explained what was happening and invited viewers to call an 888 number at the FCC for more information or help.

The spokesman said the agency should have more information on its calls later today.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin and Commissioner Michael Copps have been deeply involved in trying to make the Wilmington transition go smoothly. Both were in downtown Wilmington yesterday at noon for the ceremonial switch from analog to digital.

The commercial stations in Wilmington, along with a low-power religious station belonging to Trinity Broadcasting, had volunteered to cut off their analog signals more than five months ahead of the rest of the country so that government officials would have a better idea of what to expect from the nationwide switch, slated for Feb. 17, 2009.

With the help of the local broadcasters and the NAB, the FCC mounted a massive campaign in the Wilmington to alert viewers to the Sept. 8 switch and to make sure they took steps to avoid losing their broadcast signals.

They were told they could sign up for cable or satellite TV, buy a new digital TV set or buy a set-top converter box that would all them to receive the digital signals on their old analog TV sets.

"Now they realize that the time is here and the channels didn't miraculously appear so they have to fix something or get better antennas," said Dan Ullmer, chief engineer of WECT-WSFX, the NBC and Fox affiliates.

It's led to a run at consumer electronics stores "and a lot of them are selling out of some products," Ullmer said.

The whole experience is providing a lesson in what must be done to avoid confusion and widespread loss of | More …