WTVR: (804) 254-3600
  WWBT/WUPV: (804) 230-1212
  WRIC: (804) 330-8888
  WRLH: (804) 358-3535
On its Web site, WWBT suggests that if re-scanning, calling the station and other tips from the station fail, a home visit may be necessary. Call (888) CALL-FCC or go to http://www.dtv.gov.

Years in the making and days into the doing, television’s conversion to a digital transmission system is baffling many local viewers. One of the toughest transitions is occurring at NBC affiliate WWBT, where Vice President and General Manager Don Richards and staff members worked until midnight Saturday fielding calls from viewers. “It’s been a team effort,“ he said.

By now, either you have a TV picture or you don’t. The federally mandated conversion from analog to digital television was completed at all but one Richmond station by yesterday morning. The local CBS affiliate, WTVR, was scheduled to switch at 11:59 last night. Early risers yesterday might have noticed some issues with NBC 12 (WWBT), which flipped at 4 a.m. Technical glitches with the digital transmission affected satellite TV customers and some over-the-air viewers.

Green Planet Construction Inc.: (888) 508-1115 (through June 30)
  R&D Training & Technical Service Inc.: (866) 202-4596 (though June 30)
  Primex Technology Inc.: (888) 481-2772 (through June 30)
  Hernandez Consulting LLC: (866) 474-7286 (through July 31)

If you turn on your television and can’t receive your usual overthe-air signals, it means that you didn’t properly prepare for today’s national transition from analog to digital broadcast TV. The digital transition, scheduled since 2006 and postponed by the government from February until today, affects viewers who don’t have cable, fiber optics, a satellite dish or a television set with an internal digital tuner.

The four Richmond TV stations switching to digital today plan to have their offices staffed through the weekend to assist viewers. WUPV, the local CW affiliate, is pooling resources and personnel with WWBT and sharing the WWBT phone number. Local Fox affiliate WRLH already made the change in February but will have someone available during regular business hours to address digital-transition questions.

It’s the final countdown. In four days, the nationwide digital TV transition will be officially completed. That means if you don’t have cable, fiber optics, a satellite dish or a relatively new television set with an internal digital tuner, or haven’t yet installed a converter box, you no longer will get reception as of Friday. Ninety-two percent of all TV sets in the Richmond and Petersburg market are “ready sets,“ according to Nielsen Media Research’s May 24 report.

The agency that mails out coupons for digital TV converter boxes expects to eliminate its wait list in 2½ weeks. Helped by $650 million from the economic stimulus package, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration has started to mail out coupons to the 2.3 million households on the waiting list, said Bernadette McGuire-Rivera, associate administrator of the Office of Telecommunications and Information Applications.