Some disgruntled viewers remain in the dark after last week's digital television switch-over.
"We were not able to watch 60 Minutes on Channel 13," said Hanuman Agrawal, 73, a retired Owings Mills resident. "My wife had to read her magazine and books. It was an enormous inconvenience."
Television stations say the problems are largely confined to households with antenna problems, or those where digital converter boxes have not been reset to account for frequency changes at some stations.
Jordan Wertlieb, president and general manager of WBAL, said they've received about 500 phone calls since Friday, and Jay Newman, vice president and general manager of WJZ, said they've fielded a couple of hundred. WMAR Channel 2 has not experienced significant difficulties, engineering director Paul Wilkinson said.
If the problem is with the antenna, moving the set to a different place in the room and making sure the rabbit ears are fully extended should fix it, Newman said. Otherwise, disconnect all equipment, re-scan the TV or converter box, reconnect them to the antenna and scan again.
"That will correct many but not all of these situations," Newman said.
Congress ordered television stations to cease broadcasting in analog to create more bandwidth for emergency responders, and to sell other space to wireless companies. Congress also authorized $2 billion for $40 coupons for consumers buying digital converters, and to publicize the change.
Stations are also working to increase signal strength to improve reception for some viewers. Installation of a new WJZ antenna on TV Hill should be completed in about three weeks, tripling the signal power, Newman said. WMAR is also installing a new antenna that should reach more distant audiences in about a month, Wilkinson said.
If viewers' problems persist, Wilkinson suggested re-scanning every day. Further help is available at the Federal Communications Commission's Web site, fcc.gov/dtv; at WBAL's Web site, wbaltv.com/digital/ and at WJZ's Web site, wjz.com/digital.
Baltimore Sun reporter Chris Kaltenbach contributed to this article.
