"About a year and a half ago, my wife bought a flat screen TV. Now, through no fault of our own, we'll have to buy additional equipment to run the TV."

Jim,
As I understand it, if you have cable or satellite TV, you shouldn't need to buy anything else. If you get your signal over the air, you will need a TV with an ATSC tuner or a converter box. If you bought a TV without an ATSC tuner, you saved money versus buying a TV that had one. Now you just have to pay up. You probably saved $100+ back then and now only have to pay $50 or so.

Finally, there was a earlier government deadline that required all 25" or larger TVs being manufactured after July 1, 2006 to have an ATSC tuner. [There were later deadlines for smaller TVs]. Unless you wife bought a close-out 18 months ago, it should have an ATSC tuner.