• The Wall Street Journal, Thursday, June 4, 2009 9:32 AM

Thirty-five television stations will go dark after June 12, when the nation converts to all-digital broadcast TV, according to the FCC. Of those stations, 18 are experiencing financial difficulty. The other 17 stations are going dark for technical reasons -- they may be able to resurrect their digital signal by the end of the year, says FCC rep Eloise Gore. All but one of the 18 doomed stations are owned by Equity Media Holdings.

Transitioning to all-digital broadcasting is costly for TV stations because it requires new equipment and changes in how their broadcast towers are positioned. About half of the roughly 1,800 TV stations in the United States have already transitioned to an all-digital format since Feb. 17, the original date for the digital shift.

Seven of the TV stations that will go dark are affiliates of ABC, NBC, CBS or other major television network. Viewers who lose a large television network after June 12 can scan for that network on a subchannel of another TV station, accessible through a digital remote control menu.

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