One week to go: Some DTV advice; Verszyla recovers

Rob Owen offers up some “last minute” advice on how to receive your local channels over the air. The remainder of the analog signals – WTAE, WPXI, KDKA, & WPCW will be shutting down next Friday at 11:59:59 p.m. WTAE and KDKA will keep a “night light” analog signal for 30 days with messages reminding viewers that they will need to get a converter box and antenna. Meanwhile, it will be WPCW’s first venture into digital as the allocation is Channel 11 – the 50+ year analog home of WIIC/WPXI. Incidentally, it’s not just about the converter box, it’s also about the antenna and how it’s pointed. One engineer offered the advice that the majority of the Pittsburgh signals come from the Northwest end of the city of Pittsburgh. WTAE and WPCB come from the Southeast and WQED is in Oakland. (Elevation is key!)

Meanwhile WTAE expects to lose some audience in Somerset and Cambria Counties. For those not getting Channel 4 (D-51) on the South Side slopes, Squirrel Hill and Lawrenceville, WTAE is planning on adding a repeater signal on WQED’s Oakland tower perhaps as soon as this summer.

If you get “out of town” signals…the article suggests that you consider yourself lucky. Visit tvfool.com for a list.

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KDKA Meteorologist Jeff Verszyla took a hit last week while playing softball. Verszyla suffered a concussion after another player’s knee met his face. “Just in time for HD,” Verszyla told the Post-Gazette. (The station is expected to begin HD broadcasts on June 15.) The weather man was knocked out by the collision and received 23 stitches. Recovery is expected to take a week or two but Verszyla hopes to be back June 22. Freelancer Dave Trygar has been called in to fill the gap.