News that President-elect Barack Obama wants to delay the conversion to digital television struck a responsive chord in Minnesota Thursday.

"It sounds to me like Minnesota's not quite ready," state Sen. Yvonne Prettner Solon, DFL-Duluth, said at a hearing of the Senate Energy, Utilities, Technology and Communications Committee in St. Paul.

Solon and other legislators heard that almost 18 percent of Minnesota households with TVs rely on over-the-air analog broadcasting, compared with about 12 percent nationwide. Many of those Minnesota TV watchers appear unprepared for the snowy reception they will get if they don't participate in converting their TVs to digital before the scheduled Feb. 18 conversion date.

Minnesotans who don't subscribe to cable or satellite TV service can avoid losing reception by purchasing a converter box that sells for $40 to $70. The federal government is offering two $40 coupons per household to defray the costs. But the $1.3 billion coupon program to subsidize the cost of converter boxes has run out of funds, placing more than one million requests for coupons on a national waiting list.

While the Twin Cities and the Duluth area have seen high request for the coupons, the Mankato market has been below average, said Tony Wilhelm, director of the Federal Communications Commission's coupon program at the Senate hearing.

Also on Thursday, Obama transition team co-chairman John Podesta said that with six weeks to go before the conversion authorized by Congress in 2005, officials remain concerned that elderly viewers, those in rural areas, people with low incomes and viewers with disabilities could be left in the dark.

In a letter to congressional leaders, Podesta called current government funding for both the coupon program and educational efforts "woefully inadequate." He said Obama plans to include resources to help consumers through the digital transition in his economic recovery package.

Mark Brunswick • 651-222-1636