You’re the guy who stays put on his lounge chair when the fire alarm rings, right?

Well, there’s no fire, but there is a change coming. On February 17, 2009 over the air TV signals will switch from analog to digital.

The commercials that are running sound pretty ominous. Let’s face it, if Bob Barker takes time from his PETA bit to warn you, there’s trouble in River City. You would think they were talking about something a bit more important than your TV service. I know what you’re thinking. It’s hard to believe I grew up with Andy Griffith, My Mother the Car, Bonanza, and Hawaii 5-0.

The full story can be found at www.dtv2009.gov or by calling (888) DTV-2009. We’ve all got some TV to watch, so I’ll summarize:

Still reading? If you use rabbit ears to get a TV signal for either your main TV or the sets sitting in your garage or spare bedroom, you need to do something. If you don’t, in six months you’ll be watching a really long snow storm. For those that grew up with 90210, snow is what you see on an old TV when there is no signal coming in. But, it’s not cool.

So, if you have any over-the-air (OTA) signal sets, sometime in the next six months you will need to buy a new digital ready TV or a converter box.

Buying a new TV probably makes sense. That old set that showed first runs of Starsky and Hutch, has a bad picture, uses a lot of energy, and never had a remote. A nice 19” flat screen digital ready TV can be found for around $300. Make sure you recycle the old TV. Drop it off at Goodwill or google “recycle TV” for other suggestions.

Just can’t throw away the Admiral? Go to Circuit City, Best Buy, or Walmart and buy a digital converter box for about 60 bucks. You plug your rabbit ears into the box and the box into your TV. Through the magic of our Asian friends, the over the air digital signals are dumbed-down to your analog TV. This will not likely improve your picture, but it’ll be better than the 24/7 Blizzard Channel.

Wait, there’s more. Because you didn’t ask for this, the panderers in DC will send you two rebates for up to $40 each on the purchase of converter boxes. Apply for the rebates at www.dtv2009.gov.

Fair warning, if you thinking of replacing your main TV you probably need to do a little research first. That’s because as part of this conversion several high definition choices are available. You probably should match your new TV’s capabilities with your viewing needs including using Blue-Ray DVD or game systems. You could do that at a store, but if you want to read more about the whole analog to digital technology before you shop, try www.hdtvinfoport.com or google “high definition basics”.

In the meantime, if your fire alarm is making a fuss you need to either call 911 or replace the battery.