Does anyone care that we're about to lose TV?

...Because I sure as shit don't.

The government-forced switch to digital looms a year from now, and hardly anyone is ready. I know only one household that says they've gotten a digital TV. It's at the point now where I'd just as soon lose TV reception than upgrade to a new set - except that my DVD player, which I need to watch older, better shows, won't work with the 1983 set I have now.

There's hardly any shows left I even watch, and just now it's dawning on me that they're jumping the shark. 'Cops' used to be much better, but ever since the scandal in which Bush's drug czar began coercing TV shows and magazines into smuggling "dry druggie" accusations into their material, it's gone downhill. I don't have cable, but I know it's just as bad as regular TV.

Technically, digital TV isn't even TV. The traditional definition of TV is analog. So it ain't TV. It's shit-V. In other words, the United States has in effect outlawed television.

Even if you get a digital set, there's going to be reception problems. Digital TV versus analog TV is like CD's versus records. Scratched records sound scratched; scratched CD's don't work at all. With digital, it's all or nothing. And it's going to be nothing much more often: Regulators could have developed a standard for better reception, much like a checksum that computer buffs may be familiar with. But the TV industry would never allow it, because the big stations are like the Mafia: They have territory. They don't want out-of-market stations competing with them. If your local network affiliate runs a slide of its logo over the first 5 minutes of your favorite show, the affiliate doesn't want you pulling in an out-of-town channel.

I'm really a stickler on that issue. It's been a conservative media market, and I know the value of trying to import a distant signal.

Quality of programming today is so awful that I'd be surprised if there aren't millions of Americans who give up TV altogether next year anyway.

The government should scrap the plan to switch to digital. It should also restore ownership limits that existed prior to the '90s: It should bring back the station ownership caps, and it should reinstate the rule that made it illegal for one company to own interests in more than one over-the-air network. Regulators must also bring back rules that limited how much advertising could be shown - and prohibit ads on stations licensed as noncommercial. (Unlike today, commercials on PBS were unheard of 30 years ago.) FCC rulings that bar stations from intentionally distorting news should be enforced.

On some of these issues (especially ownership caps), the states have the power to act, and should.

Goodbye, TV. My lifelong relationship with the medium appears to be sputtering to a sad end.