Valemount residents who pick up their TV with rabbit ears may be wondering what happened to their CBC channel.
There is good news and bad news, according to Andru McCracken, who works on maintenance issues for the Valemount Entertainment Society.
The good news is residents will get back their CBC. The bad news is, they will have to wait a few more months.
The Society has attempted to buy the equipment from CBC, but has thus far gotten no response. Without CBC’s equipment, the local society can still broadcast the channel, but it has to make room for it. Right now all the signals are full.
The Society recently purchased new digital broadcasting equipment that will open up several new channels and improve the quality of reception on your TV for those channels.
The digital technology is also more cost effective and energy efficient.
McCracken says moving channels to digital will require older TVs to add digital receiver boxes. The Society is working on buying these boxes for re-sale at an affordable price.
Anyone with a new television set – anything within the last five years – should be able to pick up the digital channels without any upgrades. CBC will continue to be on an analog channel. Watchers will only need a digital box to watch TSN and Discovery.
McCracken says it will likely be two months before CBC is back on the air and the digital transition occurs.
