DTV switch doesn't kill TVs, drunk septuagenarians with guns kill TVs

The elderly have been slightly behind in picking up on the DTV transition, so news of a frustrated 70-year old Missouri man doesn't surprise us too much. That the combination of losing his cable and being unable to get a DTV converter working drove him to shoot his TV and cause a short standoff with the police? A bit more shocking. All, however, is explained in one line: "According to the man's wife, he had been drinking." Please, spare your TV and follow instructions.

[Via Multichannel News, Image courtesy of Phrank.com / Sledge Hammer]

[ohforfucksake @ Feb 20th 2009 1:26PM]

First!!!! good lad.

[Garfield @ Feb 20th 2009 1:28PM]

Now that's what I prefer to practice on my computer!

[ebrentnelson @ Feb 20th 2009 1:33PM]

HAHA! This made my day! (Luckily no one was hurt)

[AMiSH PiRATE @ Feb 20th 2009 1:36PM]

let's be honest, folks. Who HASN'T accidently picked up the wrong gun when trying to play some drunk duck hunt?

[Taylor @ Feb 20th 2009 2:07PM]

He probably just thought it was the remote. After all, he had been drinking ;-)

[All Star @ Feb 20th 2009 1:39PM]

Trust me, i know what I'm doing.

I love the Sledgehammer picture. You youngins have no idea what I'm talking about.

[Joel Stephen @ Feb 20th 2009 2:00PM]

lol I was about to say the same thing...man I loved that show.

[Asher69 @ Feb 20th 2009 1:51PM]

I know exactly what you're talking about. :D Child of the 80s!

[Dee @ Feb 20th 2009 2:11PM]

Wow! I was wondering where that was from. Man, 80's shows rocked!

[AMiSH PiRATE @ Feb 20th 2009 2:17PM]

On the one hand, I protest Sledgehammer for its inaccurate portrayal of my peoples. On the other hand, I can't help but love the cop show equivalent of get smart.

[Nick @ Feb 20th 2009 9:31PM]

One of the best shows I've ever seen.

[Wolfticket @ Feb 20th 2009 1:43PM]

Maybe he thought it was the remote.

[Anthony Castanza @ Feb 20th 2009 1:52PM]

Oh yes, because somehow the power button magically transitioned to a trigger position...

[cb88 @ Feb 20th 2009 1:57PM]

well he was drunk

[Wolfticket @ Feb 20th 2009 2:00PM]

and old

[PCIV @ Feb 22nd 2009 11:53AM]

Maybe the Wiimote?

[bandigolo @ Feb 20th 2009 1:44PM]

ah, good ol' Missouri. How I miss you.

[CraigJ @ Feb 20th 2009 4:53PM]

I don't. Good drugs, though.

[Magallanes @ Feb 20th 2009 1:58PM]

Things you can do when you are drunk :
a)sleep.
b)puke.
c)flirt.
d)Drive.
e)start a flamewar on Internet.
f)take a weapon and ...let's start the party.

[BigD145 @ Feb 20th 2009 2:01PM]

Solution:
Make alcohol illegal.
Legalize and tax marijuana.

Out with the crazies and in with the calm and mellow.

[Einhanderkiller @ Feb 20th 2009 2:19PM]

Prohibition failed in the 1920s. It only made things worse.

[Scott @ Feb 20th 2009 2:50PM]

and the drug war fails too
let it all be legalized but EDUCATE people about the CONSEQUENCES

[John @ Feb 20th 2009 3:12PM]

John likes this.

[SOOPERGOOMAN @ Feb 20th 2009 3:44PM]

The war on POT was originally the war on HEMP, they made hemp illegal because the cotton growers of the time were losing to much money to HEMP, so when HEMP went illegal so did POT. OUTDATED LAWS FOR AN OUTDATED SOCIETY. (most of em will pop off soon enough).


plus whats with this guy, his cable works fine for now or didn't they push it back to June 12th after all?

[A non eMous @ Feb 20th 2009 4:20PM]

@SUPERGOOMAN

It was pushed back, but I think that date is just a deadline so the broadcasters can flip the switch before then.

[Mustaine @ Feb 21st 2009 1:17PM]

sounds like Jello Biafra

[Dee @ Feb 20th 2009 2:11PM]

Blame it on the a-a-a-alcohol

[Dmnova @ Feb 20th 2009 2:14PM]

Sledgehammer was a legend:

"Well two thugs came into the store proceeded to rob the place. Thats where I drew my magnum and killed them both. Then I bought some eggs, some milk... and some of those little cocktail weenies."

"Sir did you feel that was necessary?"

"Oh yes yes I didn't have any groceries at all.."



And my all time favorite...

"I don't watch the news.... I make it." - Sledgehammer

[sk8rpro @ Feb 20th 2009 2:14PM]

I'm confused - I thought the DTV deadline was extended to June 12.

[Nathan @ Feb 20th 2009 2:30PM]

Nope, the bill to push it back was voted down.

[chrogonz @ Feb 20th 2009 2:42PM]

Well, the deadline was extended to June 12, but each individual channel has the option of whether to pull the plug or not until June 12. Many already converted on February 17.

[CraigJ @ Feb 20th 2009 4:55PM]

Nope, that bill passed.

[IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII (BarCODE) @ Feb 21st 2009 2:23AM]

I have a few stations in my area that have gone off the air and a few others that will hang around until June. If Missouri is anything like Pittsburgh, he probably only has 2 or 3 local stations and may have lost two or more of them.

[ZeroCorpse @ Feb 20th 2009 3:03PM]

I can sympathize with the guy.

My local NBC affiliate switched to their permanent digital channel on the 17th, and in doing so they went from a nice, meaty UHF signal to a weak, bouncy VHF signal which I cannot receive anymore, thanks to the landscape and apartment buildings in my surroundings. I can't get any antenna (that my apartment allows me to have) to pick it up for more than a few minutes at time. I've effectively lost my NBC station on OTA.

So I had to pick up basic cable, which will be fine since I'm pretty sure my Samsung HDTV has a QAM tuner and I should be able to get my locals in HD with the basic subscription.

But over the past few days of my readjusting the antenna(s), reconnecting new ones, and rescanning for channels, I was just about ready to throw a hammer through my TV. If I couldn't get anything, ever, that would have been acceptable. What bugged me was that prior to them switching, I was getting their temporary digital channel, on UHF coming from the exact same location, without any problems. After the switch, it's like they turned the transmitter down to 1% power for people on this side of town.

Very frustrating. If you own a home, and do OTA, make sure you have a good outdoor antenna. If you are in an apartment and any of your locals switch to a VHF digital channel, you might want to consider cable... VHF sucks when it's bouncing off apartment buildings and walls, and you're stuck with an indoor antenna.

[SOOPERGOOMAN @ Feb 20th 2009 3:47PM]

Don't be a cheap ass buy your cable like the rest of us!

See that's whats wrong with YOUR society, too used to getting things for free and now that you have to pay you're all up in arms over it. It's TV, it isn't that great anymore and plus you can watch all your shows commercial free online, so really ask yourself: Do I really need cable tv?

[Glenn Tobey @ Feb 21st 2009 9:57AM]

We've had free TV almost since tvs were first made. Not everyone can afford cable.

[poppadot @ Feb 20th 2009 3:22PM]

If you live more than 30 miles from the broadcaster just get cable or stock up on dvd and vhs tapes from goodwill. Cause you ain't gettin enough signal to make it work without a good signal booster and a bit of line of sight luck.

This will be the biggest boondoggle foisted upon the rural populace since social security.

buy some stock in direct tv. those ugly dish things are going to multiply after this hits

[Xoyuji @ Feb 20th 2009 6:28PM]

Cable still doesn't offer local channels I know that for a fact in my area there are 18 local channels excluding sub channels and only 7 of them appear with cable and none with satellite

[lowbot @ Feb 21st 2009 5:14PM]

Rooftop antenna. Its not hard. If you rent then ask for landlord to install one. Its a one-time cost for lots of free programming.

The real problem here is that the digital cliff isnt as forgiving as the analog. People watching grainy analog channels that go in and out should expected to install an antenna. Our entire digital infrastructure cant be held back by some cheap hicks. Society advances. You cant leave you horse parked in the street anymore or have tigers as pets.

[poppadot @ Feb 22nd 2009 3:13PM]

so you may see the hicks in the sticks as below contempt, but consider the cost of law enforcement, criminal activity and social welfare that you find per person in chicago vs the rest of the entire state of Illinois and I say back to you that we can learn something from the hayseeds...

Besides, is it seriously realistic for each major market customer who has enjoyed rabbit ear reception to shell out to get the rooftop uglies just cause the feds override market demand and force them to? I'm talking anyone living beyond 10 miles will have more than some fuzzy screen~!

Try a hauppauge tuner on a laptop and tell me the quality is there to make it worth our while to force this on people.

[lwoodb @ Feb 20th 2009 5:07PM]

There's a map over at http://tvmap.org of the DTV stations that transitioned on the 17th. Looks like this guy was trying to get the CBS station there.

It's interesting that some areas of the country that you think would be all digital - like Silicon Valley - had only a few stations make the transition.

[sr @ Feb 20th 2009 5:14PM]

They should put a breathalyzer on guns. What the hell was he doing watching TV with a loaded gun beside him?

[Unknown @ Feb 20th 2009 6:53PM]

so the guy drank in *his* own home and shot *his* own gun in *his* own home at *his* own tv. freakin bunch of nannies.

[Glenn Tobey @ Feb 21st 2009 9:59AM]

Exactly I think it's utterly stupid they arrested this man.

[lowbot @ Feb 21st 2009 5:12PM]

Bullets go through walls. Want to shoot? Do it out in the country.

Grow up.

[Dan Derksen @ Feb 20th 2009 9:51PM]

of course, had he been not drunk but stoned he would've just calmly watched the blank screen for 3 hours before passing out, only to wake up and eat everything in his kitchen.

why is this shit illegal still? if the world's greatest swimmer to ever live can't enjoy inhaling smoke from a freaking plant without getting shit on by all the "responsible" people in the world, then what has this world come to? How else is the man supposed to eat 10,000 calories a day. For fuck sake's he has been training non-stop everyday for the last 10 years, let him get a little high. Had he been holding a glass of 100% moonshine in his hand drunk out of his mind everyone would have been ok with it. Hypocrits

[FILA @ Feb 20th 2009 10:53PM]

haha yea i heard this, i came close to punching or kicking my pc monitor before, throwing remotes, and thats all because Im watching Jeopardy, lol j/k

[Garst @ Feb 21st 2009 1:22PM]

Is that an opening scene from Mattlock? It just strikes me as how every episode starts.