Likely the last digital TV post for a while

Guess what today is? Yup, February 17. This was originally going to be the day that all full-power analog TV stations would go dark. While the main deadline has gotten pushed back to June 12, a pretty large chunk of analog transmitters (421 of them, to be exact) will be switched off for the last time today. The primary stations staying on the air will be O&Os (er, local stations that are owned and operated by the network), though one of the FCC’s goals was to keep one full-power analog channel on the air in each television market until the final June 12 shutoff date, primarily in the event of an emergency situation occurring.

However, as a fringe benefit, the FCC is now offering an official post-transition reception finder tool. It’s as fun to play with as any of the other online tools in this vein. We also recently stumbled upon RabbitEars.Info, a pretty interesting site that concisely lists, per market, the status of the channels that are in each of the 210 television markets in the USA.