Below is a response to an "open" email I wrote to all TV stations in Maine as well as the Maine Association of Broadcasters. You can find that letter on the blog here.
In Ms. Goucher's response, she ignores the issue completely of "input from the consumer", you know, the ones who need the answers and are asking the real questions.
Dear xxxxxxxxxx: (name removed for privacy issues)
It is unfortunate that you felt I was "dismissive" in my response to your original email to me. That was certainly not my intent. The broadcast industry is well aware of the massive education campaign that must take place between now and the DTV transition date of February 17, 2009. It will need to be a coordinated campaign involving all 50 state broadcast associations as well as the cable and satellite TV industries, the consumer electronics industry, and numerous stakeholder groups. I pointed you to the National Association of Broadcasters' DTV website in order to show you the kinds of initiatives our industry will be undertaking. NAB is taking the lead on this campaign; they have hired a new department of five full-time people specifically and exclusively to work on the DTV transition and the awareness campaign. Just FYI, I am attaching a letter NAB President David Rehr sent to the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee last week, outlining the many directions that the awareness initiative will take. State associations such as MAB will piggyback on what NAB is planning. We must of necessity follow their lead, because many of the state associations, such as ours, are very small operations -- MAB, for instance, consists of myself plus a half-time business manager (ergo my delay in responding to you, due to the press of other business) -- and, by ourselves, we don't have the financial resources to conduct a campaign of this scale, or to hire someone to work on it. We do, however, plan to devote a good deal of time and energy to the DTV awareness campaign over the next year and a half, as do our member stations. Quite candidly, one of the holdups is that the converter boxes that analog TVs will need in order to receive and process a digital signal will not be on the market until early next year; we don't want to panic people into thinking they'll be forced to buy a new digital TV (a serious issue for seniors and low-income households), and by the same token we don't want to create demand for a product that doesn't exist yet -- it's a delicate balancing act. Please rest assured that we are aware of the issue and will be devoting the appropriate level of attention to it in coming months.
Suzanne Goucher
Maine Association of Broadcasters
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