There’s an untold story developing in the conversion to digital television.

No. It’s not all of the chatter about consumers needing more time (and a coupon from the federal government) to buy and install a converter box. It’s also not the legislation that President Obama just pushed through Congress to delay the formal switch until June.

All of that will soon be washed over by a new realization, especially in the most rural parts of the country. Digital signals drop off abruptly at the end of their range, whereas analog signals fade out gradually. The point has gone without much discussion, apparently because it is hard to say how far digital signals will travel. It depends on the wattage of the broadcaster, tower height, terrain, trees, etc.

If the analog signals you currently receive suffer static, lines, fuzz, etc. that is an indication you are at the outer range of the broadcast reach. The same station, broadcast, digitally, may not reach you.

I first caught onto this issue just a month or two ago when I heard a vague reference to digital signals dropping off abruptly. Then last week on National Public Radio, I heard 75 miles referenced as a ballpark distance that digital signals travel.

Seventy-five miles? There are a whole of a lot of rural people who live more than 75 miles from an urban center large enough to have a broadcast television station.

The problem started to come home for me when my parents called this week. They live in rural northwest Iowa where they receive analog signals for stations broadcasting from Des Moines (150 miles away), Sioux City (100 miles away) and Fort Dodge (60 miles away). They hooked their brand new digital converter box up, and lost the stations in Sioux City and Des Moines. Only the Fort Dodge station came in digitally.

The Sioux City station and at least one of the Des Moines stations are already broadcasting a simultaneous digital signal, but alas, it seems they are too far away to receive it.

Sure. They could get satellite television. But that’s not cheap. And for many poor people, especially during these tough economic times, the satellite bill might be out of reach. For these people especially, broadcast television is important. Having equitable access to news and information is a democratizing force that we should take seriously. It’s not just about having access to Oprah or your favorite reality show.

To read the complete text of this and other posts, visit the Blog for Rural America.

Contact: Brian Depew at briand@cfra.org or 402.687.2103 x1015 for more information.