ICMA offers tools for facilitating switch to digital TV
Now that Wilmington, N.C., has become the first metro area in the nation to make the switch from analog to digital television broadcasting, the Washington-based International City/County Management Association (ICMA) is offering its members a tool kit to help facilitate the changeover in other communities by Feb. 17. The kit is a list of facts about the switch to digital that can be disseminated to the public so that nobody will be left with static on their TV screens.
Wilmington volunteered to serve as a test of how the changeover should be handled, and City Manager Sterling Cheatham said it went well for them. “Though the switch was wildly successful, showing what planning and partnering can do, there will be lessons learned over the coming months and unanticipated consequences of the switch identified,” he said in a statement. “It is my hope that the [Federal Communications Commission] will use this as another opportunity to listen to our citizens, own the problems and be proactive in planning to address them before the ‘really big switch’ occurs.”
The ICMA tool kit is available at http://www.icma.org/main/ld.asp?ldid=20408&.