The "end is near," declared Federal Communications Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein at Tuesday's Open Commission meeting. Adelstein was referring to the DTV transition, scheduled to conclude on Friday, June 12, one month from now. There are still 927 full power television stations that have to make the jump from analog to digital by then. To get a sense of who is or isn't really ready for this apocalypse, the agency has called upon those broadcasters to run a "soft test" of the switch three times on Thursday, May 21.

During that day, broadcasters will interrupt their analog streams with an announcement perhaps similar in spirit to this: "Dear couch potatoes: If you are seeing this message it means you don't have digital TV, don't have cable or satellite, still haven't installed a converter box, or something's wrong with your set up. If TV watching is important to you, IT IS TRULY TIME for you to get it together, given that the last day of analog broadcasting is coming on June 12. For real."

The final draft will be a less dramatic read, no doubt. The agency's three current Commissioner's are aware, of course, that some innocent souls may not believe any warning, no matter how florid, given that the DTV date has already been changed once, from February 17 to the present deadline.

"It feels like we've gone down this road before, and it's 'd�j� vu all over again'," Adelstein conceded at the meeting. "Some of the 3.5 million unprepared households still refuse to believe that the June 12th transition date will hold. So today, I want to make clear to the American people, broadcasters and everyone involved that the end is near and certain."

Catch the wave

The FCC has asked broadcasters to conduct five minute tests at 7:25am, 12:30pm, and 6:25pm. But don't hover around your rabbit-eared boob tube counting on seeing them at those exact times. The National Association of Broadcasters sent Ars a message saying that it has an "understanding" with the FCC that some stations "may need some flexibility regarding the time of day and length of the test."

At Wednesday's meeting the FCC seemed pretty confident that it can take advantage of the collective freak-out it expects this trial run will generate. An "intermediate tidal wave," one agency staffer called it at the event. "We hope to get a great many calls on May 21st and really wake up a lot of people. As big as we can make the wave on May 21st, that will reduce the size of the wave on June 12."

4,000 operators will be standing by at 1-888-CALL-FCC to provide online assistance through three eight-hour shifts. A huge chunk of agency staff (180 employees) have been sent off to 49 markets that it has identified as least prepared for the Great Day. The Commission has awarded contracts to a dozen community organizations to set up 400 "walk-in centers" and 12,000 DTV help clinics to show people how to set up those converter boxes. And a slew of free, in-home technical assistance centers are on the way, which the FCC hopes can knock off over 200,000 installations between now and the conclusion of the transition.

In addition, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration says it has cleared out that humongous list of 4.2 million people waiting for converter box discount coupons that it accumulated in January after running out of cash (the American Reconstruction and Recovery Act has replenished its coffers to the tune of $650 million).

Are we having fun yet?

Commissioner Robert M. McDowell queried NTIA Associate Administrator Bernadette McGuire-Rivera about the state of readiness for those remaining estimated 3.5 million unready TV viewers. "Are we going to run out of money again?" he bluntly asked her.

She paused before answering. "Speaking for me," McGuire-Rivera said, very slowly, "I don't believe so." The NTIA has budgeted for a spike in the request rate as the final day approaches, she explained. The May 21 soft test could indicate more financial need—or not. This seemed to mollify McDowell, at least for the moment. "To be continued, then," he concluded.

Even interim Chair Michael Copps seemed relaxed and optimistic at the meeting, and believe us, that's saying something. Had the transition stayed at February 17, there would have been a "consumer meltdown," Copps declared. On the other hand, "there will still be some disruption." Some folks won't deal with this until after the fact, no matter how many PSAs they watch, Copps predicted. Others will lose coverage because stations will shift their signal ranges in the digital shift.

Then the agency's temp boss let his guard down for a moment. "You know, when January came around and I started presiding over this, I had some measure of trepidation and fear about where we might be headed, but it's actually turned into really an inspiring and in many ways an enjoyable thing," Copps admitted.

"...not to downplay the problems that we might run into and the seriousness of the effort," he quickly added.