WASILLA — When television stations made the switch from analog to digital broadcasting signals, Kevin Curtis was left in the dark.

The antenna on top of his home down Knik-Goose Bay Road used to work fine. It picked up his basketball and football games, and he never imagined paying for satellite dish for access to the hundreds of stations he wouldn’t watch anyway.

Then, the Federal Communications Commission mandated all television signals be broadcast in a digital form starting June 12. “I’ve been having a heck of a time trying to figure out what’s going on since the transition. What stations are around, what works, what do you need?” Curtis said.

Channels 2, 7 and 13 have been coming in fine, he said. It’s channels 11 and 33 that have been spotty at best, and he has given up on channel 4.

A self-described tinkerer with experience in electronics, Curtis has tried all the recommended remedies. He has a digital TV, an analog TV, multiple types of converter boxes, several antennas and even signal amplifiers.

“It’s just a mess. Trial and error gets expensive,” he said.

What’s the result of his tinkering? Still no channel 4. Channels 11 and 33 come in some of the time, but often it’s by using different equipment for the different channels. It is as maddening as getting different combinations of channels in different rooms of his house, he said.

“I live on the bluff. I can see Anchorage from my house. I can imagine if you are in a different location it would be worse,” Curtis said.

“We get about 20 people per day asking about it,” said Becky Lacrosse, who fields these questions at the Wasilla Radio Shack. “About a third of the people in the Valley cannot get channel 11. No one we’ve heard of can get channel 4.”

While most people know the tired mantra of getting a digital TV or a converter box for an older analog set, what they don’t know is you also need the right antenna, Lacrosse said. There are also amplifiers that can increase your chances, but there is only so much you can do, she said.

“The difference of digital signals is that you can’t adjust it. If you get it, you get it. If you don’t, you don’t,” Lacrosse said.

The general managers of the problem stations all say before you pull your wires out in frustration, call their technical directors.

Andy Tierney at KDMD, which broadcasts ION on channel 33 and Telemundo on channel 32, said he has worked with many frustrated viewers in the Valley. Often, he can guide them through their problems, but some people just fall outside their new coverage area. However, the station is moving to a broadcast tower in Eagle River later this month. This should dramatically improve their coverage to the north, Tierney said.

KTVA channel 11 received more than 500 calls on June 12, said general manager Jerry Bever. They have been working with everyone who has called and have solved 85 to 90 percent of the complaints, he said. The technical director is more than happy to walk viewers through what Bever called the 20 Questions game.

“Maybe they need to do a double re-scan. Maybe they have too many amplifiers, too many splitters, too old of an antenna,” Bever said. “It does get pretty technical.”

But, he conceded, there is only so much you can do for some viewers. Bever said they record the locations without coverage and are looking at options they have to improve their signal. However, there are no definite plans in the near future.

“They are frustrated, and I understand that. Television is a very important part of people’s lives. They get angry and don’t want to hear about how the government mandated us to do this, or the costs it took us to do this,” Bever said. “They just want it solved.”

Kirsten Bolton said KTBY channel 4 lost about 8,000 viewers in the Valley with the FCC mandated switch. For a business that runs on advertising sales, that’s a huge hit, she said.

Again, she said, viewers’ first recourse should be to call her station. But, again, there are some people who are beyond help. The switch changed the contour of their signal, and the digital signal is easily obstructed.

Like channel 11, channel 4 is looking at the option of a new signal tower directed at the Valley. However, this is still in the preliminary stages and is at least a year away.

Asked if he’s seen the writing on the wall and is considering a paid subscription service, Curtis is obstinate as ever.

“I don’t want to pay $50 a month. I will live without football if I have to,” he said. “That’s $600 a year. I’ll take a trip somewhere and see it first-hand.”

Contact Todd L. Disher at todd.disher@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.