John Kneuer resigning as digital TV transition chief
By Darren Murph 
posted Nov 11th 2007 2:18PM
posted Nov 11th 2007 2:18PM
It's been no secret that lawmakers have been sweating the fact that not a whole lot of Americans are truly informed about the quickly approaching 2009 digital TV cutover, and now it seems the effort to spread the word will be led by someone new. John Kneuer, the current head, will be stepping down this month "to pursue new opportunities," leaving the role of administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. An agency spokesman did note that the resignation was Kneuer's "own decision" and that his departure "would have no impact on the preparations for the transition. As it stands, Meredith Baker, deputy assistant secretary, will be stepping in to cover his duties, but the White House should be nominating an official replacement soon enough.
My clock radio also has a TV band, so no more waking up up to TV sound. My old car with the AM radio just did not do it for me anymore. Thus, I bought an Audiovox converter with FM and TV bands, whereby I select TV band and then rotate the TV dial to hear ch 2-13 on my way to work. It is generally a better news source. Does that mean I need to buy a new car? Or, will they make a converter box for 12 Volt automobiles?
Doin' a great job, Brownie.
Is it just me, or does anyone else find it interesting that the analog transmitters are to be turned off after Bush & co leave office? Sort of like "Peace out y'all... I'm done."
Uh... what? You need to take the tin-foil hat off for a bit, my friend.
I'm sorry. I was just over on Digg.
It's just you.
You guys in US are so lucky - so many HD terrestial channels to choose from and all left to be done is 'spread he word' about cutover date.
In Poland we do not have any DVB-T channels and there is only one or two HD channels over satellite for which you have to pay huge money to private TVN company owned by bigwigs of former communist regime.
Hold on. There's a digital TV transition chief? Seems to be an oddly specific job, no?
That's ok. No matter who they would pick, they "would have no impact on the preparations for the transition."
Wow, deputy assistant secretary...how much lower can you go, titlewise?
Unemployed.
Makes more money than you and me, I'm sure.
I really don't blame him for leaving, maybe he got to much hate mail :)
There are so many things stacked up to kill TV it's funny.
Series of Tubes, For the World!
I think it's called "Getting out before the shit hits the fan."
Actually it's called "Federal Executive Resignation Season." The executive appointee rush-to-resign before the change of administrations generally starts 16-18 months out, and there have already been a number of highish profile resignations in the last month (including the head of the DEA). Guys like this are just the start, and they probably view it as getting a jump on the competition.
Days-old news already. Yawners, big time!
Do they have someone in charge of doing nothing? Because so far it seems that way. The general population is under the mistaken impression that going "digital" means, going HD therefore need to start buyin the 32" and 42" lcd or plasma tv sets because otherwise they won't be able to watch anything at all. As usual, they're doing a poor job in educating the non-tech oriented individuals. I hope the new person gets organized and emphasized that "Going Digital DOESN'T mean going HD."
Wait a minute! I didn't have enough time to prepare for him leaving! No one told me this was gonna happen! Can I still get the NFL Network?
Do we really need to inform people about this anymore than has already been done? Will it do any good? I'm pretty sure that once their TVs stop picking up OTA signals, the uninformed might start to question why and maybe this will trigger an inert desire to question more about the universe then what they had been content with previously.
Who knows, this transition could lead a new renaissance of intellectual thought, driven by this widespread new desire to question everything. Either that or they'll just go back to listening to AM and we'll have the worst regression in humanism since the dark ages.
It it just me or has anyone else noticed that none of the press ever mentions that all VCRs and DVRs with analog tuners will also lose their function? Maybe it's a negligible population that records off broadcast transmissions instead of cable.
That guy can't dress for dick.