The opening scene in the movie Fahrenheit 451, directed by
François Truffaut, based on the
book of the same name shows shots of various television antennas while a narrating voice-over drones dully as the soundtrack.
To think of a day when antennas are no longer the defining social aesthetic displaying economical prestige, as it morphs through the decades, portraying the upper crust in its inception, and dwindling down by numbers to a staggeringly low percentage of economically challenged proletarians or anti-mass-television snobbery (or those seeking nostalgia for some inexplicable reason other than for nostalgia's sake - like having a rotary phone ring on a cellular phone).
Now there will be little to differentiate us. Worse than Orwell's
1984 as no part of society will
not under
watch.
FCC's New DTV Rules Allow for Some TV Disruption
The Federal Communications Commission released its final rules for the Feb. 17, 2009, switch to digital-TV transmission Monday, saying that it balanced the flexibility necessary for a complex and challenging undertaking, while requiring broadcasters "to maintain the best possible television service to the public and meet viewers’ over-the-air reception expectations after the transition date."
Democratic FCC commissioner Michael Copps -- who has been critical of the way the FCC and the National Telecommunications & Information Administration are handling the transition -- said the rules were one year overdue and that essentially pulling the plug for all stations at once was a "throw of the dice ... It is unfathomable to me that we are planning to turn off every analog signal in the country on a single day without running at least one test market first," saying that is now under discussion.
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