Digital transition creeps nearer

(NEWSCHANNEL 3) - The digital transition is happening February 17, 2009, and you're getting another chance to find out if you're ready.

Newschannel 3 will be airing another test Wednesday night at 10:40 pm, so you can see if you are prepared to make the transition to digital.

Those who are not ready for digital will need a digital converter, a set-top box that allows them to continue receiving all the local channels without having to buy a new television.

The government has been offering coupons to cut down on the cost of those converters, but that program is now running into trouble and out of funding. That means if you sign up to get a coupon, you'll end up on a waiting list with hundreds of thousands of others.

"I'm one of the lucky ones I suppose," said Rhea Terburg, who considers herself lucky because she received her converter coupons before the program ran out of money.

"I ordered them for my mom, my sister, and myself," said Terburg, who's buying the convertor box as a back-up for her four televisions.

"Just in case, for some reason the satellite goes out, I can hook this up for news channels, cable goes out a lot," Terburg said.

People that try to get a coupon now receive a notice saying that the coupons are not currently available. The head of the agency that runs the coupon program for the Commerce Department says there's been a massive spike in coupon requests over the past six weeks.

The Commerce Department says only about 52 percent of the millions of coupons sent out have been redeemed, so as more coupons expire, more will be put into circulation.

Rhea Turburg learned she wasn't so lucky after all, at the check-out she made an unpleasant discovery about her coupons.

"They expired two days ago," Turburg said.

With her coupons now useless, Turburg is going back to the end of the line.

"Now I'm going to be one of the ones on the waiting list," said Turburg.