With the Downfall of Broadcast Television, Can My View of the Western Sky Finally be Liberated From Broadcast Towers?

With the downfall of broadcast television, can my view of the western sky finally be liberated from bombastically twinkling broadcast towers? Anyway, that prime hillside area would be better served by parks. I'm looking at you, Council Crest! — Or Else

I should probably begin by saying that when I hear someone start complaining about their view, I tend to reach for my revolver. If it's really that essential for you to have total control over everything that does or doesn't come into your field of vision, you need to either (a) buy an island, (b) put a bag over your head, or (c) seize the Iron Throne.

In any case, while trendy cord-cutters like you and me may not watch much broadcast TV (the abbreviation of art is "OTA," for "over the air"), plenty of folks still do. An FCC flack whom I recently spent a lazy morning pistol-whipping information out of told me that some 72 million Americans still watch plain old vanilla OTA TV at least some of the time.

Of course, these days it's more like artificial vanilla, since—to strain a metaphor—real, old-fashioned vanilla analog TV broadcasting went the way of the dodo in 2009, ushering in a generation of youngsters who have no idea what that staticky background on the HBO logo is supposed to represent.

It's also worth noting TV broadcasters of the world spent a buttload of money retooling their towers and transmitters to comply with that 2009 transition, effectively doubling down on the whole broadcast television paradigm.

Even if you could wave your Hulu remote and dispense with OTA TV tomorrow, most of those broadcast towers would live on, fulfilling their secondary purpose as radio broadcast antennas. I suppose now you want to silence OPB, you maniac!

Still, pity the poor broadcast-tower operators—they're pretty much the only entities whose daily business falls under the purview of not only the FCC but the FAA as well. If those twinkling red lights you hate should go out for even a few minutes without the proper paperwork having been filed with FAA, there's hell (and big fines) to pay.