NEW YORK - TV shows were replaced by the hiss of static in perhaps 1 million U.S. homes Friday as stations ended their analog broadcasts and abandoned the transmission technology in use since the days of Milton Berle, Sid Caesar and Howdy Doody.
The vast majority of households that rely on antennas for their TV signals were prepared for the shutdown, but many people remained vexed by the challenge of setting up digital reception.
Jonathon York, manager at the Radio Shack store in the Carson Mall, said the demand for the digital converter boxes has dropped off.
"We sold a bunch about a month ago, and it pretty much died out," York said.
"Everyone else has pretty much switched to dish or cable, or are just forgetting about the deadline. There was a time when we had to order 60 a week."
Any set hooked up to cable or a satellite dish is unaffected by the end of analog broadcasts, but around 17 million U.S. households rely on antennas. Nielsen Co. said poor and minority households were less likely to be prepared for Friday's analog shutdown, as were households consisting of people younger than 35.
The government is accepting coupon requests and offering technical support at 1-888-CALL-FCC.
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