Residents of the tiny Colorado town of McClave, which sits east of Pueblo near Las Animas, are leading the state’s charge into the digital age.
Among Colorado’s free-television users who will require a special converter box to continue watching when signals go all-digital Feb. 17, McClaverans have been best at redeeming the government coupons they requested to offset the expense, according to federal figures.
Redemption rates of the $40 government coupons toward the purchase of a converter box have been a sore spot among some in Congress who want the digital switch postponed at least until June. Congress is expected to consider the move this week.
Advocates of the delay say millions of Americans are ill-prepared for the flip, evidenced largely by the fact that just 44 percent of the 47.2 million coupons issued have been used.
Worse, coupon recipients who fail to redeem them before they expire can’t get a replacement, leaving them to bear the entire cost of a converter box, which starts at about $40.
And because the government can’t issue any more until the unclaimed ones expire, about 2 million requests sit idle in a logjam in which many coupons won’t arrive in time for the switch.
But not in little McClave, population 469, where 81 percent of the 32 coupons the government sent there had been redeemed as of Jan. 20, the highest rate in the state.
“We redeemed two coupons for our two televisions very early because that’s how we watch our local channels,” said Kirk Smith, 49, a farmer who uses a satellite dish for other programming.
“There wasn’t any point in waiting,” he said.
Smith said he learned of the coupons from television and radio advertisements and, so far, all has seemingly worked fine.
His in-laws, too, redeemed a converter box coupon at the local Wal-Mart, which sits 17 miles away in Lamar. For them, Smith said, the box is important because free television is the only reception they get.
Trailing behind McClave is the even smaller hamlet of Sedgwick, population 191, in the northeast corner of the state, where nearly 76 percent of the 33 coupons sent there have been redeemed.
And teeny-tiny Haswell, population 84, northwest of McClave, is third with 73 percent of its 15 coupons redeemed.
Worst redeemer: Silverton, population 531, along the Million Dollar Highway north of Durango. Of the 12 coupons sent there, none has been redeemed.
Statewide, though, Colorado isn’t much different than the rest of the country.
Coloradans asked for more than 665,000 coupons but only redeemed 293,000 of them, or 44.1 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications & Information Administration.
The ZIP code where the greatest number of converter- box coupons have been sent is in west Denver, figures show. Residents living in the 80219 ZIP have received 13,876 of them, yet redeemed just 42.2 percent of them.
The ZIP code includes portions of the Athmar Park, Barnum, Harvey Park, Ruby Hill, South Platte and Westwood neighborhoods.
David Migoya: 303-954-1506 or dmigoya@denverpost.com
By the numbers
44 percent of the 47.2 million coupons issued to Americans toward the purchase of a converter box have actually been redeemed
