I watched this moment live today, just because it felt kind of important. Analog television broadcasts ended in Wilmington, NC today. At noon, they flipped the switch, and that was the end, after almost 70 years (counting from the granting of the first commercial television license on 7/1/1941 to NBC New York).

This was the dry run for the transition that the rest of the US will make on February 17, 2009… now about 160 days away. The photograph makes the ceremony appear ridiculous, but I saw the live coverage, and it was clear everyone was having a good time. (Who wouldn’t, with a big switch?)

This is the one of the few major broadcasting milestones I’ve experienced. There was the transition of the radio networks to satellites in 1980 – the Mutual Broadcasting System and NPR were first out of the gate; and I remember the end of the NBC Radio Network in 1987. I’ve probably skipped over a moment or two (the end of the cart machine, god be praised), but these two examples didn’t involve the obsolescence of an entire class of consumer equipment. Even color television was designed to be backward compatible.

Wilmington NC has a lower-than-average percentage of OTA viewers, so it was a good candidate to be the first, if you were looking for as smooth a transition as possible.

How many markets will have their own version of that big switch on February 17th? I’ll make a conservative guess and say ALL of them.

photo from Wilmington Star News Online