Conversion Cover Story

On Tuesday, September 9, the city of Wilmington, NC held an experimental switchover from analog to digital broadcasting. There were some minor problems, but not a lot of details about them in the press.

According to Bruce Dixon, however, Associate Editor of Black Agenda Report, the real problem with the conversion is something the commercial media, the Congress and the FCC aren't talking about.

According to Dixon, "When I put a microphone in Kevin Martin's face and asked him why none of the new channels were being made available to the public, he said, 'That's a good question. I'd like to hear more from the public about that.'"

Unfortunately, Martin is unlikely to hear much from the the public about this on his upcoming tour. Dixon calls it, the FCC's We're Not Listening Tour.

The tour is supposed to provide the public with a forum to give meaningful input to the Commissioners about the upcoming digital conversion.

Anchorage, Alaska
8/27/2008

Fairbanks, Alaska
8/28/2008

Baltimore, Maryland
9/8/2008

San Francisco, California
9/11/2008

Austin, Texas
9/18/2008

Houston, Texas
9/17/2008

Memphis, Tennessee
9/19/2008

New York, New York
9/27/2008

Boise, Idaho
9/29/2008

Atlanta, Georgia
9/29/2008

Missoula, Montana
9/30/2008

Helena, Montana
10/1/2008

Bozeman, Montana
10/2/2008

Billings, Montana
10/3/2008

Nashville, Tennessee
10/7/2008

Charlotte, North Carolina
10/16/2008

Denver, Colorado
10/16/2008

Seattle, Washington
10/20/2008

Spokane, Washington
10/21/2008

Yakima, Washington
10/22/2008

Portland, Oregon
10/23/2008

Chicago, Illinois
11/20/2008

Phoenix, Arizona
12/29/2008

The complete list of 80 cities to be visited by the FCC between now and February is here.

In an interview on Media-Monitors (7:30 pm MNN ch. 56 Sept. 18, 2008), Dixon describes what citizen-activists need to do to use this opportunity to wrest some of the intiative away from the big networks and their affiliates in the upcoming digital channel giveaway.

People need to get their questions ready and show up at the FCC hearing when it comes to their town.

We will post the relevant sections of the 1996 Telecommunications Act here as soon as we can extract them from the legislation text.