Wow. I’ve officially entered the digital television era. I bought my DTV converter, which was $13.49 after tax and the government’s $40 voucher discount. This socialism was brought to us by a Republican administration! Go GOP-controlled FCC! (Well, except for the horrible rules allowing monopolistic media controls…)

So far, with my existing junky antenna, I can get the signals from the local Fox and ABC affiliates. But this is great; it’s the first crystal clear signal I’ve enjoyed since I dumped Dish and Time-Warner 15 months ago.

If I can get an antenna that allows me to pick up all the local stations, I think I’ll be happy with free programming on my 27-inch RCA “TruFlat” CRT for many years months to come!

UPDATE This evening, I’ve messed with the super-duper RCA antenna I had gotten some months back, and it is now working superbly. I get 23 channels, which is really like 5 stations x 4 channels per station, but it’s basically what I was looking for. Between football and Three Tenors Christmas on PBS, there are plenty of choices for background pictures and sounds.

UPDATE #2 I spoke too soon. Just saw a commercial for a new Howie Mandel show “Howie Do It” in which the perplexingly-successful network television star plays practical jokes on audience members, such as by telling a man he has just spilled the ashes of another man’s dead wife. Hahaha. Maybe I don’t need TV afterall.