ATHENS, Ohio -- Ohio University Public Television, WOUB-TV, will be off the air for approximately six to eight days beginning at 9 a.m. on Friday, July 12. The outage is due to the need to change out the existing antenna and transmission line and, at this time, one transmitter will be converted to a digital transmitter, better preparing WOUB-TV for the digital transmission conversion process.

WOUB apologizes to viewers for any inconvenience the outage may cause, but promises to keep the outage as short as possible.

The Athens area cable system, Time Warner, will not be affected during these transition periods, and WOUB-TV channel 20 will continue with regular programming by direct feed to the cable system. The counties in the region that will be affected during this sign off period will include: Athens, Fairfield, Gallia, Hocking, Jackson, Lawrence, Meigs, Morgan, Muskingum, Noble, Perry, Pickaway, Pike, Ross, Scioto, Vinton and Washington in Ohio; and Jackson, Mason, Pleasants, Wirt and Wood in western West Virginia.

The funding necessary to accomplish this replacement comes from a federal and state grants.

The Ohio University Telecommunications Center, a unit of the College of Communication, operates two television stations -- WOUB-TV/Channel 20 in Athens and WOUC-TV/Channel 44 in Cambridge -- one cable channel -- WOUB II -- and six radio stations -- WOUB-1340 AM, WOUB-91.3 FM, WOUC-89.1 FM, WOUH-91.9 FM, WOUL-89.1 FM and WOUZ-90.1 FM.