WPTD Officially NOT to Shut Down Analog Tomorrow.

UPDATE: Per Kentucky.com at this link, WKYT will NOT go tomorrow, but they will go April 13 tentatively.



We have learned, with a hat tip to emery_r and Ohio Media Watch, that WPTD-TV 16 will NOT go all digital tomorrow.

The station filed notice with the FCC yesterday that they would continue analog broadcasts, according to John Kiesewetter.

The FCC's latest guideline reads as follows:

Some stations that were not on the Appendix to the February 11 Public Notice have expressed interest in withdrawing their notifications for good reasons associated with circumstances in their markets, but not rising to the level of an “emergency or disaster.” We find that it is in the public interest to allow stations to withdraw their notifications of intent to terminate analog service on February 17, 2009.

Due to the limited period of time remaining before February 17th, stations that wish to withdraw their notifications must notify us no later than 6:00 pm EST on Sunday, February 15, 2009.

There is definitely a limited period of time alright...less than 36 hours as of the time of this post!

As for WSTR, now the ONLY southwest Ohio station going before April...they tell the Enquirer that they are DEFINITELY shutting off their analog transmitter tomorrow night. They're airing viewer notifications 10 times per hour, as well as several 30 second spots detailing the transition. We caught one of those Friday during Friday Night Smackdown.

And, we have to look south just a bit, down to Lexington.

WKYT-TV/DT 27 has its news broadcasts shown here on ICN 6 on Insight Cable. And they're owned by Gray Television. Gray has announced that they will take their stations digital tomorrow.

However, we can't get confirmation for sure that WKYT is among them, but from our understanding ALL Gray Television stations are shutting off analog tomorrow.

We'll work on confirming this...but for now, if you're a reader in Lexington, ASSUME WKYT is going digital tomorrow.