WCPO-TV Analog Shut Down

At 00:54 June 12, 2009 WCPO in Cincinnati shut down analog broadcast service at the Symmes Street transmitter.

Five employees where there to watch the moment. Engineer Dave Schwarberg lowered the Harris transmitter's power to 50% seconds before switching off the exciter and pushing the off button. Dave worked at WKRC for nearly 25 years with their transmitter and has worked at WCPO for 15 years with the same duties.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Cincinnati
• Analog
• WCPO
• Shutdown
• Shutoff
• Transmitter
• Channel
• DTV
• History

[jbcub81]

I'm so glad people have documented this and that i'm not the only geeky one who wants to see this little bit of history in the making.

[radamail]

Oh no, you're definitely in good geek company! :-)

I'm enjoying checking out various analog shutdown clips on YouTube.

[wachter206]

Dang his teeth are huge!!!

[douro20]

Did this transmitter go to somewhere in South America?

[BlackHart814]

The DTV conversion was the biggest crock of shit ever. The government REALLY screwed up THIS time,

[pianoboySA]

I'm watching this video here in South Africa where the authorities had planned to do parallel analogue and digital illumination by 2011. With political meddling in the choice of the standard (which was actually legislated as DVB) this is highly unlikely. I guess then there is the debate of 8-VSB vs DVB which probably is not the right forum to discuss this...

[DigitalImagesToront]

This is history, but I think forcing the shutdown is wrong. The United States is the only country that has forced this on people. Making people subscribe to cable or buy new equipment to make their TVs work. That is not something that a free society should be doing. In Canada, they are allowing the viewers and broadcasters to decide when analog should be shut off. That is how it should be.

[digitalmasterdata]

lol good data

[Dms12444]

I wonder why they shut it off anyway. I mean what kind of advantage do they get by loosing viewers.

[burningdust]

Digital just doesn't have the same reliability.

[alexriesenbeck]

It's great how many people captured so many affiliates signing off a great era in history.

Excellent video!

Analog television will be missed largely, imho.

[wwefan2ndEdition]

Wow I think Channel 9 and Channel 12 were the only ones to not have a live shot of someone shutting off their analog transmiter