Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

At the Target store at Warwick Mall, the shelves were empty, and have been since the middle of the weekend.

Down the road at Best Buy, which had been carrying antennas ranging from $10 to $93, it was the same story.

"On Friday, this whole rack was filled, The weekend really wiped us out," said Best Buy sales clerk Sergio Martinez.

"I started looking last week," said Deborah McGovern, of Cranston, after being told, once again, that there was nothing to plug into the digital converter for the TV set her mother has in the kitchen. "I bought the [converter box] eight months ago. When I went to hook it up last week, I realized I needed the antenna."

She had tried two Target stores, Benny's, CVS, Rite Aid, and Walgreens. "Everybody's out," she said. "Of course, in a couple of weeks there will be a ton of them."

The frustration level may be even higher tomorrow, when people who rely on over-the-air signals but don't have a newer television set or a converter box to hook up, discover that their sets are now most useful as oversized doorstops.

"We'll be busy tomorrow morning," Best Buy assistant manager Ricky Masotta predicted yesterday afternoon.

Antenna questions sparked a lot of inquiries this afternoon to the call center set up at the Channel 36 studios by the Rhode Island Broadcasters Association. But most of those inquires involved adjusting the antenna, not their availability, said RIBA executive director Lori Needham. She said she was able to buy four units at Best Buy on Monday.

The center opened at noon and the 20 phone lines quickly became tied up.

Around 12:30 p.m., when Channel 10 became the first to broadcast an informational program about making the switch, some callers had to wait 10 to 20 minutes to talk to someone, she said.

More calls came in when people still viewing Channel 6's analog signal saw an on-screen message that, in effect, told them that their programming was going to disappear in less than 12 hours.

By 3:45 p.m. things had quieted down. Only a half dozen phone lines were in use, even though the major stations were repeatedly broadcasting warnings about the impending switch on their analog channels.

The number of calls is expected to reach its peak tomorrow morning after the conversion takes effect.

The RIBA will start manning its phone lines at Channel 36 at 8 a.m. The numbers are 401-854-3636 and (toll free) 1-800-639-0036. People who call earlier will be forwarded to the Federal Communications Commission, where operators will be available to answer consumer questions.

Individual stations plan to be taking phone calls beginning around 6 a.m. or so.

Channel 6 will still have its analog signal active for 60 days, although it will not carry regular programming. Channel 64 plans to do the same for two weeks.

Channels 10 and 12 should be nothing but snow; they are scheduled to completely shut down their analog transmitters one minute before midnight.

Cable, satellite and FiOS customers should wake up this morning seeing no difference.