700,000 People Call Digital TV Hot Line

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Nearly 700,000 people called a federal hot line this week, confused about the nationwide switch from analog to digital TV broadcasts that occurred Friday.

The Federal Communications Commission said Saturday that nearly 30 percent of the calls handled by agents from Monday to Friday were about how to operate the digital converter boxes needed to receive signals on older TVs.

The FCC said most of those callers' problems were resolved when they were told to re-scan the airwaves for digital frequencies.

The largest volume of calls came from the Chicago area, followed by Dallas-Ft. Worth, New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore.

About 317,450 people called the help line, 1-888-CALL-FCC, on Friday alone.

With 4,000 FCC staffers manning the phones Friday, the average wait time per call was 4.6 minutes.