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DMA 7

WZMY Gets the Jump on the DTV Switch

By Harry A. Jessell
TVNEWSDAY, Dec 3 2008, 10:46 AM ET

While most Boston TV stations are still preparing for the analog cut-off and the switch to digital-only broadcasting, one has already made the leap.

WZMY, the market's MNT affiliated based in Derry, N.H., went digital on Monday, reducing its analog signal to broadcasting a loop with DTV consumer information.

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"So far, so good," said Diane Sutter, the station's owner and GM.

The station has received only about a half-dozen complaints, mostly from viewers who were having trouble with their A-to-D converter boxes and antennas, she said.

Also, one small cable system checked in wondering what had happened to the WZMY signal, she said, despite the station's having sent out two certified letters to all cable operators over the past six weeks.

Cable and satellite cooperation is critical, she said, noting that combined they serve about 95 percent of the markets' 2.4 million TV homes.

In the leadup to the switchover, Sutter said, the station worked closely with the largest cable operator in town, Comcast, to alert viewers not only of the Dec. 1 switch at WZMY, but also of the Feb. 17 switch of the other stations in the market.

And even through WZMY has made the transition, Sutter said, it will continue to run PSAs and other on-air notices as required by the FCC.

In addition, WZMY will continue to air DTV information on its analog channels for "another week or two" before shutting down the transmitter for good, Sutter said.

To turn off analog service prior to Feb. 17, she said, the station had to give the FCC 30 days notice. That was done at the end of October, clearing the way for the Dec. 1 switch.

Sutter said she is happy to be in the vanguard of digital TV in Boston and that she suspects that viewers are too.

"People want their SmackDown in digital," she said.

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