DTV legislation: on again, off again

Yesterday we heard that the Hurricane Katrina situation knocked the planned DTV legislation to the back burner. Today, we're hearing the opposite because it's more important than ever that unused analog bandwidth be released for emergency response.

Representative Diane Watson from California indicated that Congress is still on track for the DTV activity that was scheduled for next week. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that if they are still on track, they are likely smokin' crack. You have got to be kidding me that the DTV work must be done next week when we have one the largest natural catastrophes in our history to deal with.

Folks, lets focus all of our efforts on the lives (and unfortunate deaths) of the Americans affected by Katrina. There's plenty of time for DTV talks in Washington later. We've been transitioning to DTV since 1996, so a few more weeks aren't going to hurt. As far as the analog bandwidth usage for emergency communications: yeah, we're all for it; just not right this second.