Wilmington, North Carolina, a coastal Carolina community and home of University of North Carolina at Wilmington, will be the first town in the nation to experience the shutdown of analog broadcast television signals and initiate DTV (digital television) broadcasts over the air.

The city was chosen because all five local channels have completed construction of their equipment for digital broadcast, and have been operating at full power and functionality the same as they will be after the transition on September 8th of this year.

If you have a newer television with a digital tuner, you should already be set for the transition. If you have not upgraded your television in the last few years, you’ll need to purchase a converter box to receive over-the-air digital broadcasts.

Note: If you already have cable or satellite, and don’t care about local broadcast channels, this changeover will not affect you at all. You’ll continue to receive your local channels through your cable or satellite system. If you use rabbit-ears in conjunction with your system, you’ll probably need to upgrade.

The good news is that at most consumer electronics stores where you can purchase a TV, you can usually ask for a rebate form from the government that will take off as much as $20 from the price of a converter box. I’ve seen them at Wal-mart and Best Buy so far, but your mileage may vary.

The final transition for everyone will be February 17th, 2009, according to an FCC press release. You still have plenty of time, but be sure to get that taken care of or you may find yourself without television programming to watch.

-The Raging Tech