By now you might be wondering if you need to replace that trusty console TV in your living room before next February. Sure, you watched the moon landing on it, but it’s got lots of life left in it... and the genuine pecan finish cabinet matches the furniture. Or maybe you have a small set in the bedroom and hate the idea of just tossing it out.
As the pitchman says: there’s some bad news and some good news.
The bad news is, the full power TV stations your older set receives will all be shut down next February... and unless you enjoy watching snow (and we already get enough of that around here!), you need to do something about it.
The good news is, all you need to do is hook up a little converter box to your TV... and it’s really easy to do. You can have the thing running in less than five minutes, a bit longer if you stop to read the directions. (Okay, I’m a guy... what did you expect?)
The better news is, the boxes are fairly inexpensive – right now, in the $50-60 range – and stores like Best Buy, Circuit City, Radio Shack, and WalMart have them on the shelves.
The best news... you can get up to two coupons from the federal government worth $40 each, so your final cost is only $10-20.
Take a minute and apply for your coupons here: https://www.dtv2009.gov. It takes about six weeks for them to show up in your mailbox... mine arrived two weeks ago. I applied for two coupons, and for some reason each coupon was mailed separately. Seems pretty inefficient, but maybe it’s just easier to do it that way.
The envelope stands out just enough from the credit card pitches that it didn’t get trashed, unopened, on arrival (we’re pretty brutal with junk mail). The coupon looks and works just like a gift card, and comes attached to a sheet listing a handful of stores in your area that sell eligible converter boxes. There’s also a flimsy sheet that lists manufacturers and model numbers of eligible converters.
Eligible? Why does that word keep popping up? What makes a converter eligible? A good question... for tomorrow. For now, I need to get back to my real job.
-- Jeff
