The day of reckoning is close; come June 12th the analog airwaves will no longer be graced with the witty banter of sitcoms, daytime soaps evening news shows.

Instead stations nationwide will finally make the long talked about, and oft delayed, switch to digital television. If you haven't already taken the steps to make sure you don't see static next Friday, you better get moving.

A quick reminder: If you get your television from a cable or satellite operator or your existing TV has a digital tuner, you won't need a converter box and can return to your regularly scheduled programming.

To find out what consumers who aren't ready should do in the next week, WalletPop spoke to Nick DeVita, a manager at a Best Buy store in New York.

One of the most common questions he has heard from customers, aside from "Why?" is, "What's the difference in the converter boxes?"

It's all too easy to make fun of RadioShack. The home electronics chain endures with whole walls devoted to different kinds of wires, cables and connectors. A 2007 spoof , "Even CEO Can't Figure Out How RadioShack Still In Business," from The Onion has its chief executive saying, "I wouldn't think that people still buy enough strobe lights and extension cords to support an entire nationwide chain, but I guess they must."

Well, I certainly do. I'll go there for an ethernet cable, a cheap phone, an AC adapter, even a quick birthday present for a child's party. If I need some kind of component to get my ancient VCR hooked up to my new TV, I know where to turn.

RadioShack is a bridge from old technology to the new. The stores are ubiquitous and remain an easy stop for picking up items that can solve all sorts of electronics problems faced by modern families -- a phone with three handsets, a box to convert your television to receive digital signals (that was a big recent driver of sales).