Finally

ABCNews.com (along with every other news source) has the story of the death of analog television:

This is it. By the end of the day, 1,787 U.S. television stations will have completed the switch to Digital Television transmission, sending DTV signals over the airwaves and shutting down the analog transmitters they have used since television became a mass medium in the 1940s and '50s. The National Association of Broadcasters reports, from a survey completed last week, that of the 12.6 million households using broadcast signals, 88 percent are all set, with new television sets, antennae or set-top DTV converter boxes so they can watch the new, crisper television transmissions. About 1.75 million households, as of the survey's end, had not yet taken any action, many of them apparently waiting until the last minute.
But then there are people like Carl Huffman, a disabled Seattle aerospace worker who, with the clock ticking, still had not been able to get one of the converter boxes that were supposed to make the transition so simple. They generally cost $40 to $70.
"I depend on television for my information," he said, "and I'm not about to go out and buy a new television. Even the box is an expense. I have my disability check, and that's all." Huffman, 58, worked at the old aviation giant Martin Marietta, but became ill from a blood transfusion in 1988. It took a decade, he said, for doctors to figure out that the transfusion had given him AIDS. When he tried to get one of the $40 coupons offered by the government to defray the cost of a converter box, he said, "It's like there was a brick wall set up."
Broadcasters say digital television will allow for higher-quality video and audio on television, a greater number of broadcast channels, and more possibilities for transmission of data or programs to mobile devices. Many viewers have complained that digital broadcast signals do not travel as far as the analog signals they replace, and that they are easily cut off by the slightest interference, even rain. Surveys show that the number of people still unready for the transition has been cut in half since the transition was delayed from February. The Obama administration, with congressional help, put off the end of analog signals because, despite outreach efforts and a massive public-service campaign, it appeared likely that millions of Americans would turn on their television sets and see nothing but snow.
"Ninety-five percent of the country will be ready, and that's pretty good," said Mark Lloyd of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, an advocacy group that has been helping people through the transition. "We are, though, still concerned, especially about the poor, the elderly, those for whom English is not their first language, people who are disenfranchised." The Federal Communications Commission says about eleven percent of US households rely solely on over-the-air television signals; most of us use cable, satellite, fiber-optics, or other services to get television programs. The National Association of Broadcasters says the number of people affected by the transition is closer to a third of all Americans, as people may have several sets connected to cable service, but another upstairs or in the kitchen that still relies on old-fashioned rabbit ears.
On the other hand, there are a growing number of people, like Ben and Katie Hallen of Washington, D.C., who have moved beyond the ups and downs of conventional broadcasting. "We watch our television over the Internet," said Ben Hallen, an assistant professor at the Robert H. Smith Business School at the University of Maryland. "The transition is happening, but it really doesn't affect us." He and his wife, who live in Washington, D.C., found, a couple of years ago, that they were streaming programs on their laptops, getting movies from Netflix or Amazon, and using a Roku digital video player to transfer the streamed signal to their television set. "We're watching what we want to watch," he said. "For the weather, we just go online. For news, we read a lot of newspapers."
But the Hallens are at the other end of the country, and the broadcasting spectrum, from Carl Huffman. He finally got help from the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights to cut through the red tape, and was planning, in a few hours, to pick up a converter box and a new digital antenna. "My socializing is from my television," Huffman said. "There is no option. I have to do this."

Rico says he will be so happy once today is over, and he will no longer be bombarded with all those 'are you ready yet?' ads on the television. There will be, undoubtedly, a month or two of news stories on those few who couldn't, for one reason or another, make the transition, and then it'll be history...