Tomorrow , Some will need this.... To Avoid This

Still in need of a digital converter?

Two city channels will have no picture

The other group includes elderly city dwellers - one of the groups for whom the coupons were intended.

City Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke has been working for months to help her constituents make the switch. But she said a number of the senior citizens in her district, which includes Charles Village and Waverly, still have not received their government coupons. And others who have installed the converters have reported poor reception, she said.

"A lot of my constituents are going to have to switch to other stations," Clarke said. "They're not ready. That's a real loss. TV is a major window to the outside world for many of them."

But the switch to digital might not be as simple as providing more vouchers. For older viewers in particular, the changes and the new equipment are hard to accept.

Eula Riggle, an 84-year-old retired secretary who lives in a Mount Vernon studio apartment, applied for a coupon and had a friend drive her to a nearby Rite Aid, where she bought a converter. But Riggle couldn't figure out how to set up the converter and ended up selling it instead.

"I'm an old-fashioned person," she said. "If they want you to have it, that's fine, I don't think they should tell you you have to have it. Whatever they do, they do. I'm just left out."