June 12, By the Numbers

Last Friday (6.12.2009) was a day of changing numbers for the broadcast industry, the federal government, and more than 114 million TV households in the United States as the analog world finally gave it up for the digital realm.

From a variety of sources (mostly the FCC itself), here is a numbers portrait of June 12, 2009…

750,000+ — June 8-12 total calls to the FCC DTV Hotline

317, 450 — June 12-only calls to the FCC DTV Hotline

145,403 — June 13 calls to the FCC DTV Hotline

50,000 (est.) – June 14 calls to the FCC DTV Hotline

2,000+ — June 12 calls to WLS-TV in Chicago (ch. 7)

4,000 – Call agents working at the FCC Hotline

200+ — FCC national outreach staff

8 min., 24 sec. — Length of typical FCC Hotline call

4 min., 36 sec. — Average wait-time for FCC Hotline call (overall)

1 min. 48 sec. – Average wait-time for Spanish-speaking call

971 — Number of full-power stations switching to DTV on June 12

121 — Number of stations providing analog “nightlight” service

87 — Number of markets providing analog “nightlight” service

20+ — Percentage of live-agent calls dealing with reception issue

3, 5, 1, 4, 26 — Chronological DMA rankings of markets with “largest volume of calls per TV household”: Chicago; Dallas; NYC; Philadelphia; and Baltimore

1,200 — Number of miles between WWL-TV’s tower in New Orleans and a startled viewer’s analog reception of WWL north of Toronto (apparently thanks to virtually all other analog ch. 4’s being off-air on June 12).