More than 32 Georgia television stations will join 103 other TV stations in  Alabama, South Carolina and Tennessee to air a 30-second announcement Saturday, August 2, during the 7 P.M. break, EST and 6 P.M. break  CST, informing the viewing audience of the upcoming transition to Digital Television (DTV).

Congress has mandated that on February 17, 2009 all full power TV broadcast stations must discontinue broadcasting in the analog standard.  For those viewers who receive their TV signals direct over-the air, a converter box will be needed to view the new digital TV broadcast. Nationally some 20 million homes will be affected.

Stations in every TV market in Georgia will be supporting this initiative  including Atlanta, Albany, Augusta, Columbus, Macon, Savannah, and Thomasville-Tallahassee.

The purpose of this August 2 simultaneous broadcast by participating stations in each respective time zone, is to maximize informing television viewers of the upcoming change. With 135 stations running a DTV message at the same time in these time zones, those vast audiences can, and will be, informed about the change.

This unprecedented cooperative effort of these 135 TV stations across four southeastern states was encouraged by the Atlanta Field Office of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The initiative is coordinated by the Georgia Association of Broadcasters (GAB), the Alabama Broadcasters Association (ABA), the South Carolina Broadcasters Association (SCBA) and the Tennessee Association of Broadcasters (TAB) with assistance from the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) in Washington, D.C.