Oregon Public Broadcasting

Oregon’s biggest TV stations unplugged their analog transmitters Friday, in favor of all-digital broadcasts. Kristian Foden-Vencil reports.

Thousands of viewers who watch TV over the air have seen their screens turn into a snow of static.

They now need a digital tuner to receive a signal. Oregon Public Broadcasting is running a statewide call center to help viewers.

Spokeswoman, Becky Chinn, says they had 600 calls the day before the change over and hundreds more soon after the switch.

Becky Chinn: “The largest issue today is about rescanning your TV because when everything switched over night a lot of TV signals went away. And so you need to rescan the TV and we’re just helping people through that. Because it involves the remote control, looking in the menu and finding the right thing and then just antennas and reception are another one.”

The change from analog to digital provides room on the broadcast spectrum for new TV and radio broadcasts, emergency communications and wireless internet.