IT’S PAST TIME FOR A CHANGE IN TIME (4-2003)

Last Monday, I got myself a sandwich and sat down in my 
easy chair to watch “Whose Line is it, Anyway?” on the ABC 
Family Channel. But when I tuned my satellite receiver to 
channel 180, what I got instead was some hillbilly 
preacher.

The next day, my daughter wondered why her favorite 
Learning Channel program didn’t record while she was at 
school. She has it set to record the show every day so she 
can watch it when she gets home.

The culprit in both these TV disappointments turned out to 
be the time change, or more precisely, the lack of a time 
change in Indiana.

Local TV stations adjust for our state’s backward 
timekeeping habits by using tape delay playback in order to 
keep network programs on at the same time year around. But 
cable and satellite channels don’t do any adjusting, so it 
is up to the viewers to rearrange their schedules or reset 
their VCRs to compensate.

On the first Sunday in April each year, 94 percent of all 
the states in America, and a good deal of countries around 
the world, turn their clocks ahead one hour. Indiana does 
not. So we couch potatoes have to go through a sort of jet 
lag when it comes to our viewing schedules.

We have to reset the timers on our VCRs so that our daily 
or weekly recorded programs don’t get missed. The shows on 
cable or satellite come on an hour earlier than they do 
during the winter months. 

Other things get messed up as well. I work at the Job Corps 
center, and I assist students in getting their high school 
diplomas through an online program. As an instructor, I 
have to grade the students’ submissions on my computer. But 
since the company that puts the curriculum online is not in 
Indiana, all the time stamps connected to the students’ 
submissions are an hour off.

Occasionally, a VCR or a computer will automatically 
recognize when it’s time to turn the clock ahead or back, 
and do it for you automatically. That works great for every 
other state besides Indiana, Arizona, and Hawaii. But it 
messes things up for those of us in Indiana whose computers 
or VCRs aren’t smart enough to figure out that they are 
Hoosier devices.

Indiana is worse off than those other two states in another 
way. We have slices of several counties in different 
locations around the state that do observe Daylight Saving 
Time. That really makes it confusing for those who visit 
relatives in those areas, or in neighboring states.

Once again, Indiana’s time dilemma was debated in the 
General Assembly, but as usual, it didn’t get very far. And 
Rep. Julia Carson of Indianapolis has again introduced a 
bill in the House that would force Indiana to join the 
ranks of the other states and change time. But as it did 
the last time she introduced the bill, it is expected to 
fail.

The state Chamber of Commerce, business leaders, broadcast 
media, and many other powerful lobby groups consistently 
pressure our lawmakers to change Indiana’s time law. It 
only makes good commercial sense in this age of interstate 
and international commerce. 

It also makes sense to us couch potatoes who have to 
scratch our heads every April and October when the rest of 
the world changes clocks. Perhaps, if we’re lucky, our 
stick-in-the-mud lawmakers will come to their senses and 
bring Indiana’s time in step with everyplace else. Only 
time will tell.