Open Letter to WMTW regarding the lack of ability to keep HD programming on the air

I emailed this to WMTW on Sunday Night, December 30,2007, after expereiencing technical problems with their HD programming, yet again.
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On Sunday night, December 30,2007, I once again found myself in the position where I had to call the WMTW consumer telephone line (782-1800) to let whomever is running the control room that the current program on air (in this case "The Sound of Music") was not running in high definition.

What is most troubling about this if first of all, I am a regular consumer, not affiliated with the Television, Cable or Satellite, industries, and I'm not affiliated with any TV manufacturer or manufacturer of television components. I have no background in broadcasting or television whatsoever, other than that I watch TV.

But I do know when, over my regular antenna and an HD TV, when a show is supposed to be in high definition but is not. I know bout the tenuous formality called "flip the switch" that must be conducted in order for such programming, which is coming from the network feed in HD, to be allowed through from the local affiliate to my TV…in HD.

The reason I know this is because I have called WMTW and most of the other network affiliates in the Portland market for the past year or so each and ever time I find myself in this exact same predicament. It just so happens that this issue occurs more often on WMTW than any of the other Portland affiliates.

I would like to let you now that first of all I will be posting this as an open letter on my blog, which deals with high definition and media issues in the Portland market. The visitors to my blog have come to rely on me to deal with and come to a conclusion about these issues on their behalf.

If you could kindly explain why it is that your station in particular has such difficulty in broadcasting a high definition program that is being fed to you by the network (meaning no special recording equipment is required at your station for this process) and why a ordinary, educated consumer must call your station on a consistent basis to have somebody "flip the switch".

Thank you so much for your time.