Nearly 1,000 television stations, including a number in the Los Angeles area, will change their frequencies over the next two years.
The first station to move its frequency is KJLA, which will make the change on July 23. The frequency changes will not affect people who watch TV on cable or satellite, but will affect the 77 million Americans who watch TV over the air.
Steve Gardner, a spokesman for TVAnswers.org, said the organization is working to educate people about how to rescan their TVs when the frequencies change. Gardner said although the process of rescanning a TV is simple, it’s still important.
“Your TV station needs to rescan in order to refind that station so that you can watch it,” he said. “Without the rescan, the station would just disappear and you would have no idea what happened to it or where it went and you would just not be able to see it anymore.”
Gardner said there are only about 15 crews in the country that can alter television towers to change the frequency they broadcast on. Because of the shortage of crews, many stations have a range of when they’ll make the change. The Federal Communications Commission requires that stations begin educating their viewers about the change at least 30 days before it takes effect.
Since channels will be changing frequencies at different times, viewers may need to rescan their TV’s multiple times. To complete this process, viewers should hit the settings button on their remotes and press the autotuned or rescan button. After a few minutes, the TV will find the new frequency and switch over.
Gardner said the change will particularly affect a number of demographic groups, including millennials and members of Gen X, who are embracing over the air TV as they continue to cut the cord.
“It affects more people than people realize,” he said. “77 million people watch over the air television, and it’s growing. Gen X and millennials are the two biggest groups that are moving into free, over the air television. There are some misconceptions that this is a small group, but 77 million is a significant number, and it’s getting larger.”
More information about the frequency changes can be found at TVAnswers.org.
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