Shots fired; week one of DTV transition goes smoothly anyway
So how is it going out there in TV land so far? Well, oddly enough, the big human interest story involves an incident in Webb City, Missouri that may not have had much to do with the switch. The Joplin Globe reports that Mr. Walter Hoover, aged 70 and a bit tipsy, was upset with the disappearance of his cable service on Wednesday, and so fired several rounds from his hunting rifle into his television set.
His wife, alarmed by this response, contacted the authorities. A SWAT team was dispatched to the scene, and following a two-hour standoff, Hoover surrendered and was peacefully removed from his home.
This colorful item, which comes complete with Confederate flags draped across the house, very quickly morphed into a digital transition story. "DTV Transition Failure Leads Man to Shoot TV" declared KTVL news for southern Oregon and Northern California, with ever more clever headlines forthcoming, such as "Man in Converter Conniption Shoots TV" (Television Broadcast); "Digital TV Conversion Claims its First Victim," (National Review), and my favorite: "DTV switch doesn't kill TVs, drunk septuagenarians with guns kill TVs," (Engaget).
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