The CW Twin Cities, Channel 23, will cut off its analog signal tonight at 11:59. That means viewers who watch TV using an over-the-air antenna on older analog sets will not be able to watch the channel unless they have purchased a converter box. Although Congress extended the date for the digital TV switchover from today to June 12, the legislation allowed stations to make the switch early (actually, on the original date).

“For the past year, television stations, including this station, have notified viewers of the February 17, 2009, analog shutoff date through on-air announcements, informational crawls, full-length programs, and their website,” the CW Twin Cities said on its website. “As a result, in order to avoid additional confusion due to the date change and as permitted by the recently enacted legislation, this station has notified the FCC that we would like to cease analog operations … as originally planned. … We are currently airing announcements throughout the day to inform our viewers that we will terminate analog broadcasting.”

According to the Associated Press, these other Minnesota TV stations will also be ending their analog broadcasts today and going all-digital:

Duluth-Superior: WDIO-TV (ABC), WIRT (ABC), KBJR-TV
Outstate: KWCM (PBS, Appleton), KAWE/KAWB (PBS, Lakeland Public Television)Â
Rochester-Mason City-Austin: KTTC (NBC), KXLT-TV (Fox)
Worthington: KSMN (PBS) (Sioux Falls market)

For more on today’s fractured switch to DTV across the nation, see the Associated Press’ report.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 17th, 2009 at 7:58 am and is filed under DTV switchover. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.