TV or Not TV

Santa Fe Reporter
April 22, 2009

One year ago, the Albuquerque-Santa Fe media market was the ninth least prepared in the country for the digital television transition originally scheduled for Feb. 17 (now June 12).
Six months ago, Albuquerque-Santa Fe was the sixth least prepared.

This April, according to the Nielson Company, the region is the number one least prepared in the nation, with 9.4 percent of the population “completely unprepared.”

“We’re geographically spread out, so it is difficult to get information out,” New Mexico Media Literacy Project Executive Director Andrea Isabel Quijada says. “We’re also up against the fact that we’re one of the poorest states.”

Would New Mexico be better prepared had Gov. Bill Richardson ascended to the US Commerce Department, the branch in charge of DTV? “I would like to believe that if there were more people from New Mexico connected to power in Washington DC they’d be looking out for the people of New Mexico,” Quijada says.

NMMLP is campaigning for DTV converter box retailers—like Target and Best Buy—to drop the prices to $40 (the cost of the government DTV voucher). The project is also collecting stories from New Mexicans through its hotline: 505-828-3264.

Source: http://sfreporter.com/stories/briefs_april_22/4597/

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