One Last Chance to Beat The Digital Deadline-

The Freestore Foodbank usually offers food and clothing to those in need, a demographic that has seen a drastic shift this past year; but today, they are offering Cincinnatians a last chance to comply with the June 12, 2009 Digital conversion deadline.

By offering a free converter box with no strings attached, they are giving antenna television viewers one last chance to beat he digital deadline. They need only show up with the energy to stand in the rain and wait their turn.

The digital message has played loud and clear in a continuous loop across our television screens for nearly two years: Television broadcasting is changing forever and you need to do something about it! Still many senior citizens, persons otherwise out of the loop of information and those who just didn't pay attention will wake up tomorrow morning and wonder what happened to their favorite Saturday morning televisions shows.



How Did Anyone Miss the Message?-
Imagine being 85, old school indeed. You still use a rotary dial phone. Cable always seemed like a waste; besides the Price Is Right, As The World Turns and the rest of the shows you've watched for the past few decades, are on local channels and have come in perfectly fine on your old black and white set. On your fixed budget, you can barely afford food; so a new digital television is out of the question anyway.

Or imagine yourself an up and coming corporate type who used to have everything. You had a cable hook-up in every room, so your analog sets were not going to be a problem. But you got laid off a few months back, and found yourself a few paychecks away from poverty.

You let the frills go, of course; cable being the first of them. Your budget cutbacks do not allow a new digital television nor could you get your hands on one of those converter box coupons no matter how many times you dialed the toll free number. Besides local stores ran out of boxes a long time ago.

There are many scenarios of people who just didn't get the message or couldn't comply. Those are the people who will wake up to a blank screen on Saturday morning.

The Freestore Foodbank is Filling the Need-
Who knows how the message got passed along; but the line to get a free digital converter box started during an early morning Cincinnati rain. It began at the Freestore's Liberty Street loading dock and stretched nearly a block, then around the corner onto Walnut.

There are still people in Cincinnati who won't have complied with the digital conversion guidelines by the end of the day, but the Freestore Foodbank is doing what it can to help.