Is your TV digital ready?

    AUGUSTA – The television stations of Maine will unite to conduct a series of digital TV transition tests designed to prepare viewers for the end of analog television on February 17, 2009.
    The local television stations listed below will conduct these statewide tests to inform viewers of the DTV transition and help viewers determine if they are ready for the changes that are coming in February.  The tests, lasting 60 seconds each, will begin at 6:28 p.m. and will air on Monday, Nov. 17; Wednesday, Dec. 17; and Wednesday, Jan. 20 (four weeks out from the analog turnoff date).
    During their 6 p.m. programming, WABI-TV, Bangor; WAGM-TV, Presque Isle; WCSH, Portland; WGME*, Portland; WLBZ, Bangor; WMTW-TV, Poland Spring/Portland; WPFO-TV, Waterville/Portland; WVII-TV, Bangor; and the five stations of Maine Public Television, WCBB-Augusta, WMEA-Biddeford, WMEB-Orono, WMED-Calais, and WMEM-Presque Isle, will alert viewers and explain how the test will work.
    WPME-TV, Lewiston/Portland, and WPXT-TV, Portland, will also promote the analog turnoff tests, although both stations have already ceased broadcasting analog signals.
    At 6:28 p.m., the TV stations will simulate the termination of analog broadcasting by displaying a full-screen graphic on their analog signal with a phone number viewers can call to get more information about how they can receive a digital television signal in the future. Mainers who are already viewing digital television will not have any interruption of their signals, since they are “Digital TV ready.”
    A special toll-free DTV Answers Hotline will be staffed from early November through late February to help viewers with questions about the tests and the DTV Transition. The hotline number is 866-418-7678.
    The DTV Answers Hotline is being sponsored by the Maine Association of Broadcasters and the television stations listed above.