"Chronicle" - the first in the market -- goes HD all the time

"Chronicle" is going to pop off the screen come Wednesday.

WCVB-TV's (Channel 5)nightly newsmagazine will be the first local show in the Boston market to produce high-definition programming in studio and in the field on a daily basis.

Even viewers without digital television sets will see clearer images and hear better sound.

The one drawback: WCVB has decided to "letter box" the show, meaning there will be a black strip across the top and the bottom of the screen like a film. That's always so annoying.

Hopefully the crisp images of all those New England icons the show profiles (Maine lobsterman and such) will help us forget the strips.

Three cheers for progress.