Turn out the lights, the party’s over … in analog.
At 11:59 p.m. tonight, five Orlando TV stations will permanently end their analog broadcasts, entering an all-digital era and most likely making your older model television sets obsolete.
The stations turning off their analog transmitters, according to the FCC: Public Broadcasting stations WMFE-Channel 24 and WBCC-Channel 68, Univison’s WVEN-Channel 26, independent WRDQ-Channel 27, religious broadcaster WTGL-Channel 45. They’re joining two other area stations that shut off their analog signals earlier: religious station WACX-Channel 55 and Public broadcaster WDSU-Channel 15.
The rest of the local stations — including big-network WESH-NBC 2, WKMG-CBS 6, WFTV-ABC 9, WKCF-CW 18, WOFL-Fox 35 and WRBW-MyNetworkTV 65 — will halt their analog signals in June.
If you get your TV signals via cable or satellite, you’re fine. If you rely on an antenna, then you may have a problem if your TV does not receive digital signals (most older models don’t). You’ll need a DTV box to convert the digital signal to analog. For more information about DTV and how to get a coupon for a DTV box, click here.