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Even after the 6/12/09 extension, our local ABC affiliate had originally planned to turn off their analog transmitter on the original 2/17/09 cut-off date. However, I think the FCC wanted them to stay on, since they are the primary news station in the area.
At about 3 AM on the morning of 6/12, the old analog transmitter went off the air. I think they got it back on around 6 AM, only three hours before the 9 AM analog signal shutdown. Just before the shutdown, the station GM mentioned that, after the deadline extension, they hoped to be able to keep the analog transmitter on the air until 6/12 and that it decided to drop off the air just a few hours prior to it's scheduled shutdown. Then, they showed the old test pattern from '53; followed by a shot of the engineer pushing the button to kill the transmitter. Since that transmitter was from '74, I'm sure it probably was on it's last leg and I doubt they went to much expense maintaining it, since they knew the days of analog were numbered.
BTW, this station was the only one who did an "analog send-off". The other stations simply killed the transmitter during the middle of programming.
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