Last night my parents were in town, so we joined them for a great burger dinner at 5 guys a burger place that has just started franchising their restaurants and has finally moved from being solely an East Coast joint. This has little to do with my actual post, but man they are good burgers.
Conversation with my dad for those of you that know him, often leads to political ranting. Last night was no exception. I’d like to discuss one of the topics that really made me a bit angry, the delay of the transfer of television broadcast signals from analog to digital. So one of the first things that Obama did when he entered office was proposed and somehow managed to pass the DTV delay. Why? Well because apparently too many people aren’t ready and if the switch occurred they wouldn’t be able to receive network television. WHO CARES? Last time I checked television was not a necessity. The new administration tried to make it sound like making the switch would be like cutting off the only water supply to a remote village or something. I know plenty of people who get by without tv and are fine.
These are a few of my complaints with the system.
- Again, TV is not a necessity.
- Do they honestly think that the unprepared are going to rush out and get their TV sets up to date now that they have another 5 months? Unlikely.
- Is the 1.8 billion the government has already spent not enough? There is rumor that Washington will pump more money into this program to make sure that people can handle the switch.
- What about the millions TV stations, TV manufacturers, retailers and others have spent in advertising throughout the last year on this issue. Anyone who has TV knows that these spots have been running ALL the time. That money seems kind of wasted, and now they’ll probably have to run new spots.
So what about all TV stations and American public that have spent time and money upgrading their equipment to be ready to the switch? Nothing. The prepared and self reliant are once again punished for those who are not. Is anyone else seeing this general trend more and more these days?
