How To Listen To Digital TV where a TV set is not desired or practical.

1. Get Your US Government Paid Converter Box Coupon to buy a Converter Box at Most Stores That Sell TVs. Make sure it is a model with with the two audio OUT plugs on the back. (Most have this I believe). Also it is best to get a model that has volume control. Some do, some don't.
2. Connect an antenna to the converter box. In poor reception areas, you may benefit from of these new digital amplifying antennas commonly available.
3. Connect your headphones or an audio system to the back of the digital converter box using adapter cable and plug from Radio Shack. Setup below is one of many variations.
   (Radio shack staff should be able to help you. Cost about $12 )

1. Scan in your Digital TV Stations. This is a one time only step. Connect a TV to the converter box following instructions with converter box. And do an auto scan (channel scan) following converter box instructions. Then get rid of the tv, you won't need that.
   I do believe that for most converter boxes, when you unplug electric cord from the converter box, the stations are stored in memory and are not lost.
   
2. Use the converter box's remote control to change channels and adjust the volume. That' right, the remote control on many digital converter boes has volume control as well as channel control. So you now have a "radio."
3. Be prepared for one drawback to this setup. You have to flip through the channels blindly with no screen or dial to show what channel you are on.
4. Instead of headphones you can also connect the audio out on the converter box to a stereo system with speakers. Radio Shack or other electronics stores should have the plugs for this.

This guide is brought to you by someone who listened to TV programs on a radio. I hope this solution helps someone out there. You do need good digital TV signal reception for this to work. And the rich digital stereo sound is dramatically better than the old mono-channel sound that came in on my radio all those years.

Background Information . .
Since the 1970s and possibly earlier, stores sold radios that had FM, AM and TV band tuning. People could listen into TV programs while at work or in other places where watching wasn't practical or allowed. For instance, many people listened to TV programs while at work. That tradition it appears has ended. When the digital transition happened, TV audio signals were no longer available on radios with TV band tuning. It was a great loss. Across the US, millions of radios with TV band tuning were made obsolete by the FCC ruling and nothing has been done to accomodate the TV band radio listening audience. The government failed the people in this regard. A call to the FCC digital TV transition help center got this caller a bewildered confused agent who did not even grasp the idea that radios had TV band capability and that people like me had been listening to TV audio on a radio with a TV band tuner. Instead he dealt with me as if I was one of the listeners to FM band simulcasts of TV audio and suggested I call the station about it to see if they would be restoring such broadcasts. Well even if they did, that's just a small percentage of TV stations that ever did simulcasts to begin with. So that is not a solution to the much greater loss I am trying to address. (See next paragraph). So even the FCC doesn't get it.

A confusing factor...some TV stations, here and there, never very many, around the US have been simulcasting their audio on an ordinary FM radio band for many years. But this was never a widespread practice. Only one of five stations in my area did this. So, some people who were listening to TV on radio weren't picking up the actual TV audio on a radio with TV band. They were instead picking up an FM band simulcast. This is in addition to the normal audio broadcast that goes out over the TV band.. For instance, my channel 6 station in Albany, NY simulcasted their audio signal on FM 87.7. So for this station, it didn't take a radio with TV band capability to hear their broadcast. People would listen while in their cars. That too ended after the digital transition in June 2009. But this channel 6 station may restore that FM broadcast/simulcast since so many people who listened in while driving are complaining to the station. Still, this FM band simulcasting was never widespread and the loss of TV band tuning on radios of ALL the TV audio broadcasts in an area is a much greater loss we hope will be dealt with soon.

You can E-mail me for comments, corrections, or questions. -Rick