"I can assure you that Congress has heard your message and we will do something about it," he told witnesses at the conclusion of his panel's hearing on informing consumers about the switchover, which occurs Feb. 17, 2009.

At the center of the storm is a $1.5 billion coupon program administered by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. The effort is designed to ease the cost of purchasing converter boxes that analog-dependent viewers will need to receive digital signals. NTIA will spend $5 million on consumer education, an amount that critics consider insufficient.

Skeptical senators, along with witnesses representing the elderly and minorities, blasted the initiative, which has only modest commitments from retailers to sell the boxes. They also expressed concern that NTIA and the television industry don't have a firm date for commencing public-service messages.

"If you ask me, there's a high potential for a train wreck here," Sens. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., demanded details from NTIA Chief John Kneuer about whether the devices have been field tested and how coupon fraud would be prevented. "I am really worried about this," she said. Kneuer assured her that the units would work and fraud would be mitigated.

"Imagine [the 2001 terrorist attacks] without TV coverage and you understand how important television is," said Nancy Zirkin, vice president and public policy director for the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.

Alex Nogales, president of the National Hispanic Media Coalition, complained that the United States will spend only two-and-a-half cents per American on consumer education about digital television, compared to Great Britain's expenditure of 33 cents per person for its transition.

Kneuer said domestic awareness would improve and added that Americans already are quite familiar with digital television. "But we certainly have more work to do," he conceded. Catherine Seidel, chief of the FCC's Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, emphasized that the agency already is taking steps to ensure that viewers don't lose signals.

"It is in our interests and the interests of Congress to make sure that no American loses access to television signals for a lack of education," Dennis Wharton, spokesman for the National Association of Broadcasters, said in an interview.