It's About Time, Youngstown!

Forgive our exasperation, but the analog TV shutdown status in Youngstown is finally clear.

As we reported earlier, numerous readers tell us that both New Vision CBS affiliate WKBN/27 and Parkin Broadcasting/New Vision LMA partner WYTV/33 have been telling viewers that the stations will not sign off analog 27 and 33 on February 17th as previously requested.

It's now official, as someone on Sunset Blvd. in Youngstown may have seen our earlier rant about not notifying viewers via the station's website. Now, both WKBN and WYTV have indeed made it clear on their identical DTV transition pages:

WKBN will be delaying anolog shut-off until June 12th.

WYTV will be delaying anolog shut-off until June 12th.

Of course, both pages misspell the word "analog", and go on to talk about the February 17th transition date, but you can't be perfect.

We're glad they finally got around to making this clear. We weren't cherishing the drive to Youngstown, and trying to convince the WKBN/WYTV receptionist to let us update the website.

At least one OMW reader tells us that the late change in the decision is confusing even the "27 First News" newsroom, with anchors announcing the June 12th transition date - followed immediately by a station PSA telling viewers that WKBN will shut off analog next Tuesday. Sigh.

With WFMJ's earlier-stated intentions to stay on analog 21 until June, you can officially mark Youngstown off the doubtful list. And with all three stations staying in analog past February 17th, with Western Reserve PBS' WNEO/45 already all-digital, we'll mark Youngstown off of our "Mighty Blog of Fun Post-February 17th Ohio Tour".

But we're keeping Marietta/Parkersburg, as someone reminded us to check...and sure enough, Gray NBC affiliate WTAP/15 Parkersburg is still planning to shut off analog one week from today.

It looks like our road trip route a week from Wednesday will be from the OMW World Headquarters down to Steubenville/Wheeling, maybe a side trip down to Marietta, and back up to I-70 across the state to Dayton. We'll also talk to locals who aren't in the TV business, to see if they're aware of what happened the day before...and if they were prepared...