How do I hook up my television analog converter?

I feel kind of stupid asking this but I did what I thought was obvious and nothing happened.

First I hooked the 3 wires from the converter box to my television. I was expecting an instruction screen to come up that would be handled by the converter box remote. All I got was my regular televison reception. Then I switched the antenna connection to the converter box and it was like removing the antenna. I just lost reception.

Could someone help me so I don’t have to contemplate whether I should buy a new television, which I do not watch very often.