Behind The Scenes Of The Digital TV Switch

WASHINGTON, DC (WUSA)-- Months of warnings about the digital television transition boiled down to a five minutes and a switch inside the transition tower of 9NEWS NOW.

The organized, timely effort on Friday afternoon began for our team around 11:30 when they went over their game plan.

"I'll shut the analog that was my era. We need somebody from the digital era," said Paul Monte-Bovi, a retired veteran of 9NEWS NOW. Monte-Bovi has seen a lot of television history, including working with analog television for decades.

Monte-Bovi was in charge of pushing a button that shut down analog. It was a symbolic gesture that speaks volumes. It marks the death of analog TV for WUSA9 (an action repeated thousands of times Friday at television stations across the country).

"From a technical standpoint it's been pretty orderly," said Victor Murphy 9NEWS NOW'S Director of Technology and Operations. "It's cut and dry. We know what we have to do and we've been prepared for a long time. We were ready to go on February 17th. The biggest challenge has been educating our viewers and I hope we've done a good job."

Murphy stood by just before 11:55, ready to call out the times for everyone standing in their places. As soon as he finished his ten second countdown, Monte-Bovi pushed the analog off-switch. Maintenance Technician Karen Peterson than switched the antenna from the analog transmitter to the digital transmitter. As soon as she was finished, Aubrey Bryant spent the next minute working to actually solidify that connection.

"This is going to be the hardest part doing that patch," said the maintenance technician before he yanked a pipe-looking structure from the wall. "This patch has been on there for years. So it's going to take a lot of physical work just to pull that patch off," said Bryant.

After he was finished, Technology Manager Richard Gorbutt and Studio Technician Tom Buckley pushed the final two buttons to turn on digital television, making the switch permanent.

"Everybody will get perfect TV now," said Buckley. "No snowy pictures, no ghosts."