February 25, 1946, 80 years ago: The prewar U.S. 18-channel VHF (Very High Frequency) allocation is officially ended in favor of a new 13-channel VHF allocation, due to the appropriation of some frequencies by the military and the relocation of FM radio. Only five of the old channels are the same as new channels in terms of frequency, and none have the same number as before.
This opens the door for the 2 through 13 system that most of us would come to know. As known here in New Jersey while I was growing up:
* Channel 2 in New York: WCBW from 1941 to 1946, then WCBS; on CBS.
* Channel 3 in Philadelphia: WPTZ from 1941 to 1956, then WRCV until 1965, then KYW; NBC until 1995, then on CBS. This station, along with KDKA, Channel 2 in Pittsburgh, are the only CBS-affiliated stations east of the Mississippi River with "K" call signs.
* Channel 4 in New York: WNBT from 1941 to 1954, then WRCA until 1960, then WNBC; on NBC.
* Channel 5 in New York: WABD from 1944 to 1958, then WNEW until 1986, then WNYW; on DuMont until 1956, then Metromedia until 1986, then Fox.
* Channel 6 in Philadelphia: WFIL from 1947 to 1971, then WPVI; on ABC.
* Channel 7 in New York: WJZ from 1948 to 1953, then WABC; on ABC.
* Channel 8: None.
* Channel 9 in New York: WOR from 1949 to 1987, then WWOR; an "independent" station until 1995, then UPN until 2006, then MyNetwork TV. Studios moved from Manhattan to Secaucus, New Jersey in 1983.
* Channel 10 in Philadelphia: WCAU from 1948 onward; on NBC until 1995, then on CBS.
* Channel 11 in New York: WPIX from 1948 onward; Tribune Broadcasting until 1995, then The WB until 2006, then The CW.
* Channel 12 in Philadelphia: WHYY from 1957 onward; NET until 1970, then PBS. Moved to nearby Wilmington, Delaware in 1961.
* Channel 13 in New York: Actually based in Newark, New Jersey for its entire history. WATV from 1948 until 1958, then WNTA until 1962, then WNDT until 1970, then WNET. Independent through 1962, then NET until 1970, then PBS.
The nearest Channel 8 to New York was WTNH, an ABC affiliate in New Haven, Connecticut. The New York edition of TV Guide would list their programming, and also that of WFSB, Channel 3, the CBS affiliate in Hartford, Connecticut.
When I was growing up, closer to New York than to Philly, we were able to get the New York stations: 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11 and 13. The Philly stations were nearly impossible, although, if I turned the TV's antenna right, we got a fuzzy picture on Channel 6. In contrast, my grandparents lived down the Shore, about equidistant from the 2 cities, and got both cities' channels. On rare occasions, I was able to get a similarly fuzzy picture of the New Haven Channel 8.
Channels 14 to 83 were relegated to Ultra High Frequency (UHF). Many of these stations became public, and eventually part of PBS. In the New York area, the New Jersey Network was a subset of PBS, and had Channels 23 in Trenton, 50 in Camden, 52 in Montclair and 58 in New Brunswick. And there were 2 Spanish-language stations: Channel 41, Univision, and Channel 47, Telemundo, which has since entered into an agreement with NBC-4. Channel 68 became the 1st movies-only station, before deregulation in the 1980s made the cable explosion possible.
So what happened to Channel 1? It was removed from service in 1948. During the experimental era of TV operation, Channel 1 was moved around the lower VHF spectrum repeatedly, with the entire band displaced upward at one point due to an early 40 megaherz allocation for the FM broadcast band. After FM was moved to its current frequencies in 1946, TV Channel 1's last assigned band was 44 to 50 MHz. This allocation was short-lived.
Until 1948, Land Mobile Radio and television broadcasters shared the same frequencies, which caused interference. This shared allocation was eventually found to be unworkable, so the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reallocated the Channel 1 frequencies for public safety and land mobile use, and assigned TV channels 2 through 13 exclusively to broadcasters.
Aside from the shared frequency issue, this part of the VHF band was, and to some extent still is, prone to higher levels of radio-frequency interference RFI than even Channel 2 (System M).
As cable TV became a thing, more and more channels meant a greater spreading of the TV audience. TV ratings will never again be what they were in 1953, when more people watched the episode of I Love Lucy where "Little Ricky" was born than watched President Eisenhower's Inauguration the next day; or in 1964, when 73 million people watched The Beatles' debut on The Ed Sullivan Show; or in 1983, when 121 million people watched the final episode of M*A*S*H.
Eventually, depending on where people lived, Channels 2, 3 and 4 were made available for video game systems -- in the cases of New York and North and Central Jersey, 3; in those of Philadelphia and South Jersey, 2. Later, Channel 8 became used for very local programming, with "EBTV" running out of the East Brunswick Public Library starting in 1977. This later changed to Channel 3, until becoming Channel 26 on our local cable system.
1 comment:
Turning the antenna to catch Philly stations was important if you wanted to watch blacked-out NY Giants (always) or NY Jets (not as often) football games. A neighbor where we lived down the Shore, a rabid Giants fan, would do this routinely. I generally relied on the radio for Giants games, with Marty Glickman and Al DeRogatis calling the plays. Much later in life did I learn Glickman's life story.
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