History MediaNotes / AmericanTelevisionStations

While first proposed by German Paul Nipkow, television was invented[[note]]As in creating a useful system[[/note]] by American Philo Farnsworth, and it was in the United States where UsefulNotes/{{Television}} first emerged as a mass media.

* Lower channel numbers still have as much cache to broadcasters as they did when television started, mainly for perception; the biggest example is in UsefulNotes/{{Atlanta}}, where Creator/{{ABC}} affiliate WSB-TV on Channel 2 has dominated the market for years, while WANF, the Creator/{{CBS}} affiliate, really doesn't want anyone to know they're on Channel 46 (and has the ratings to prove it), and CW affiliate WUPA does everything they can to avoid mentioning they're on Channel 69, the highest and most infamous channel position in the digital age. The station in ''Film/{{UHF}}'' was on Channel 62, for a fictional example. However, the current CBS affiliate in UsefulNotes/{{Detroit}}, WWJ-TV, which is also on Channel 62, began to brand itself as "CBS 62" in 2012, after years of referring to itself as "CBS Detroit", presumably to be in line with the "CBS Mandate" of the network's O&O stations branding as "CBS #" (i.e. "CBS 2" in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago), though it would revert back to the "CBS Detroit" branding in 2022 in preparation for the (re)launch of its in-house news department.

Until the 1970s, most stations only operated from about 5 a.m. until about midnight or 1 a.m. While television stations were always licensed to operate 24/7, most did not. See UsefulNotes/ANSIStandardBroadcastTVSchedule for more details. This changed when the FCC changed its rules on advertising--Until the 1980s, a television station was restricted to 21 minutes of commercials per hour. In fact, they were ''required'' to list every time that they exceeded 21 minutes at any time. However, when this rule was in place, it typically was a technical error; e.g., a station at one time might have accidentally run 21:10 of advertising. The repeal of this rule allowed the stations to sell time during what would normally be off-air time to producers of infomercials. So stations that don't have enough material to fill the late-night time can sell the otherwise off-air time to infomercial producers.

** The license of WJIM, the CBS affiliate in Lansing, Michigan, became subject in 1973 to challenges by the American Civil Liberties Union, alleging that the owners, Gross Telecasting, prevented a number of prominent political figures from appearing on the station. Eight years later, in 1981, the FCC caught wind of the ACLU's challenges and revoked the station's license, but reversed its decision the following year. The ACLU agreed to a cash settlement in 1984, but not before Gross, whose reputation was pretty much wrecked by the controversy, went out of business and sold off the station. Under new ownership, the station became WLNS, which it still broadcasts as today.

* Another Channel 69 in San Diego, KSWB, is that market's Creator/{{Fox}} affiliate and has a false branding of "Fox 5" based on their much lower cable channel number, though in that market many of the stations are in UHF, so false cable channel brandings are normal. Many stations past Channel 30 usually use their cable channels rather than their real or PSIP channels so they can seem like they're a respectable operation, while Creator/{{Ion}} Television stations never give their channel numbers because they're usually past 14 nearly universally.

* Another Channel 69 in San Diego, KSWB, is that market's Creator/{{Fox}} affiliate and has a false branding of "Fox 5" based on their much lower cable channel number, though in that market many of the stations are in UHF, so false cable channel brandings are normal. Many stations past Channel 30 usually use their cable channels rather than their real or PSIP channels so they can seem like they're a respectable operation, while Creator/{{Ion}} Television stations never give their channel numbers because they're usually past 45 nearly universally.

With the lack of use and need by other services for the frequencies, the FCC dropped TV channels 70-83 in 1983 and released them for other services, so for several years the highest channel that could be assigned was 69. [[note]](When they were around, channels 70-83 were mostly used for repeater transmitters that increased the coverage of existing stations on lower channels, though a rare few stations used them as their main frequency. Three stations [WFMJ in Youngstown, OH; WLOK in Lima, OH; WTVU in Scranton, PA] operated on channel 73 for a short time in the 1950s before switching to lower frequencies. WMGT in Adams, MA was the highest-numbered UHF station in the U.S., operating on channel 74 briefly in 1954 before switching to channel 19. The highest-numbered UHF station in Canada was [[Creator/CityTV CITY-TV]] in UsefulNotes/{{Toronto}}, ON, which operated on channel 79 from 1972 to 1983 (moving to channel 57 afterwards), with a close second being CBEFT [[[Creator/{{CBC}} Radio Canada Windsor]]], which operated on channel 78 from 1976 to 1982.)[[/note]] With the creation in the late 1990s of digital television, and the 2009 conversion of analog broadcast television to digital, more of the high-end channel assignments are also being reassigned to other services, so currently the UHF band ends at Channel 51, with 52-69 assigned for other purposes. Channel 55 was bought by Qualcomm for their Flo TV mobile television service nationwide, a service that flopped for multiple reasons (including equipment costs and a monotonous schedule); Channel 55 was then sold to AT&T to expand their 4G cellular telephone footprint.

Another major change in the 1990s and beyond is that the FCC now allows duopolies, where one company can own two stations in the same market[[note]]The fact they could not was a plot point in the 80s-era film ''Film/{{UHF}}''[[/note]]. Originally, this was allowed only if the second station was at risk of failing, but in recent years, it's become pretty easy to get an FCC waiver under just about any circumstances. FOX owns [=MyNetworkTV=] O&Os in many of its major markets, and CBS owns five CW stations in markets [[note]]Philadelphia, San Francisco, Detroit, Sacramento and Pittsburgh[[/note]] where it also owns its station; the other three CW O&Os [[note]]in Atlanta, Seattle and St. Petersburg/Tampa[[/note]] are not paired up with Creator/{{CBS}} stations. A number of other companies, including Sinclair and Gray, own legal duopolies, and semi-legal ones (where they own a holding company that owns the second station in the market).

Another major change in the 1990s and beyond is that the FCC now allows duopolies, where one company can own two stations in the same market[[note]]The fact they could not was a plot point in the 80s-era film ''Film/{{UHF}}''[[/note]]. Originally, this was allowed only if the second station was at risk of failing, but in recent years, it's become pretty easy to get an FCC waiver under just about any circumstances. FOX owns [=MyNetworkTV=] O&Os in many of its major markets, and CBS owns five CW stations in markets [[note]]Philadelphia, San Francisco, Detroit, Sacramento and Pittsburgh[[/note]] where it also owns its station; the other three CW O&Os [[note]]in Atlanta, Seattle and St. Petersburg/Tampa[[/note]] are not paired up with Creator/{{CBS}} stations. A number of other companies, including Sinclair and Raycom, own legal duopolies, and semi-legal ones (where they own a holding company that owns the second station in the market).

* Lower channel numbers still have as much cache to broadcasters as they did when television started, mainly for perception; the biggest example is in UsefulNotes/{{Atlanta}}, where Creator/{{ABC}} affiliate WSB-TV on Channel 2 has dominated the market for years, while WGCL, the Creator/{{CBS}} affiliate, really doesn't want anyone to know they're on Channel 46 (and has the ratings to prove it), and CW affiliate WUPA does everything they can to avoid mentioning they're on Channel 69, the highest and most infamous channel position in the digital age. The station in ''Film/{{UHF}}'' was on Channel 62, for a fictional example. However, the current CBS affiliate in UsefulNotes/{{Detroit}}, WWJ-TV, which is also on Channel 62, began to brand itself as "CBS 62" in 2012, after years of referring to itself as "CBS Detroit", presumably to be in line with the "CBS Mandate" of the network's O&O stations branding as "CBS #" (i.e. "CBS 2" in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago), though it would revert back to the "CBS Detroit" branding in 2022 in preparation for the (re)launch of its in-house news department.

* Lower channel numbers still have as much cache to broadcasters as they did when television started, mainly for perception; the biggest example is in UsefulNotes/{{Atlanta}}, where Creator/{{ABC}} affiliate WSB-TV on Channel 2 has dominated the market for years, while WGCL, the Creator/{{CBS}} affiliate, really doesn't want anyone to know they're on Channel 46 (and has the ratings to prove it), and CW affiliate WUPA does everything they can to avoid mentioning they're on Channel 69, the highest and most infamous channel position in the digital age. The station in ''Film/{{UHF}}'' was on Channel 62, for a fictional example. However, the current CBS affiliate in UsefulNotes/{{Detroit}}, WWJ-TV, which is also on Channel 62, has began to brand itself as "CBS 62", after years of referring to itself as "CBS Detroit", presumably to be in line with the "CBS Mandate" of the network's O&O stations branding as "CBS #" (i.e. "CBS 2" in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago).

* A technology known as "PSIP" makes a digital TV set receiving a signal over the air display a "virtual channel" number (So even though KSNW is actually on digital channel 45, your TV will show it as being on channel 3). This isn't limited to stations that used to be on 2-6, by the way. Many digital TV stations are on frequencies that differ from what the TV will indicate (KFXJ in Pittsburg, Kansas, broadcasts on channel 13 but still identifies as "Fox 14").

** WBBM is the station founded by Paramount as WBKB-TV, which was originally owned by the studio's Chicago area theater chain Balaban and Katz. The TV station was included in the spin-off of United Paramount Theaters, which upon its purchase of ABC sold channel 2 to CBS and kept channel 7. WBBM was reunited with Paramount in 2000, following the acquisition of CBS by the studio's parent company since 1994, Viacom. These ties were broken in the 2006 split of Viacom, but re-established in the 2019 Viacom/CBS re-merger.

** Similarly, KDKA's ties to Paramount that they had as a [=DuMont=] O%O under the WDTV call letters were restored in the 2000 Viacom/CBS merger. Like the ties between WBBM and Paramount, they were broken again in 2006, but restored in 2019.

** Similarly, KDKA's ties to Paramount that they had as a DuMont O%O under the WDTV call letters were restored in the 2000 Viacom/CBS merger. Like the ties between WBBM and Paramount, they were broken again in 2006, but restored in 2019.

The above seven-station rule (for commercial stations) meant that even the networks could only own seven stations around the country. [[note]](This rule was one of the major reasons why the Creator/DuMont network never took off: they were partially owned by Creator/{{Paramount}}, who also operated their own network, which lead the FCC to count both the [=DuMont=] VHF O&Os [WABD in New York, WTTG in Washington, D.C, WDTV in Pittsburgh] and the Paramount VHF O&Os [KTLA in Los Angeles, WBKB in Chicago] towards the five VHF stations limit, forcing them to rely on barely-watched UHF stations and VHF stations which were already affiliated to other networks and would only air a select few shows in fringe time slots.)[[/note]] Typically they owned the three major markets (LA, Chicago and New York), but beyond that the locations differed. Currently, the four major networks own stations in the following markets:

Eventually the FCC developed the UHF television band, and added TV channels numbered 14 through 83. They also set up an allocation system: Each community in the United States was assigned a series of channel allocations, generally designed to prevent stations from interfering with each other, usually with 150 miles distance between two channels (UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}} shares the same channels as Wausau, Wisconsin, for instance). Also, to prevent interference with radio astronomy, Channel 37 has never been used - no stations had taken that channel before the FCC forbade its allocation in 1963. [[note]](The initial post-freeze channel allocations gave channel 37 to 19 communities and a few of these received applications, but all of those fell through or were still pending by the time the FCC disallowed channel 37 allocations. Most other NTSC-M nations have also restricted use of channel 37; PAL/SECAM nations use a different frequency outside the range set aside for radio astronomy, while NTSC-J's equivalent of channel 36 is used by some Creator/TVAsahi stations in Japan.)[[/note]]

Eventually the FCC developed the UHF television band, and added TV channels numbered 14 through 83. They also set up an allocation system: Each community in the United States was assigned a series of channel allocations, generally designed to prevent stations from interfering with each other, usually with 150 miles distance between two channels (UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}} shares the same channels as Wausau, Wisconsin, for instance). Also, to prevent interference with radio astronomy, Channel 37 has never been used - no stations had taken that channel before the FCC forbade its allocation in 1963.

** The most apparent modern-day example is WAZE in Evansville, Indiana, an affiliate of Creator/TheCW. After being bought by a group of brothers which dealt in shady business, the station suffered and by the time of the digital transition, only had their digital tower broadcasting to a short range, not even getting to Evansville (or, even more of an EpicFail, at its' worse not even reaching past the ''parking lot of the transmitter facility''). The FCC finally pulled the license in 2011 when it was obvious the full digital signal would never be ready. The 'station' went on under a shoestring network of low-power analog transmitters, but also lost CBS and Warner Bros. syndicated programming because the owners couldn't pay the bill for it, meaning programming such as Byron Allen's network of NoBudget programming and the long-canceled ''Judge Hatchett'' was supposed to attract viewers, and the station became a local joke. By 2013, the brothers ran out of money and gave up on the low-power shoestring network, leaving the CW with the ability to finally sign up with a station with a functioning technical staff and digital transmitter; in this case WTVW.

** The most apparent modern-day example is WAZE in Evansville, Indiana, an affiliate of Creator/TheCW. After being bought by a group of brothers which dealt in shady business, the station suffered and by the time of the digital transition, only had their digital tower broadcasting to a short range, not even getting to Evansville. The FCC finally pulled the license in 2011 when it was obvious the full digital signal would never be ready. The 'station' went on under a shoestring network of low-power analog transmitters, but also lost CBS and Warner Bros. syndicated programming because the owners couldn't pay the bill for it, meaning programming such as Byron Allen's network of NoBudget programming and the long-canceled ''Judge Hatchett'' was supposed to attract viewers, and the station became a local joke. By 2013, the brothers ran out of money and gave up on the low-power shoestring network, leaving the CW with the ability to finally sign up with a station with a functioning technical staff and digital transmitter; in this case WTVW.

** The original WHDH on Channel 5 in UsefulNotes/{{Boston}} (known for producing the ''Bozo the Clown'' show that was syndicated to stations that did not produce their own ''Bozo'' show) was thrown off the air in 1972 after years of struggle with the FCC due to accusations that they wrongfully influenced them (they had to renew their license every six months; licenses in that era usually lasted three years). Its replacement on Channel 5, WCVB, won the license by promising unparalleled public interest programming that was much more than WHDH already did. The WHDH letters are now assigned to the Creator/{{NBC}} affiliate on Channel 7, formerly known as WNAC, then WNEV after RKO General had to sell off the station.

** The license of WJIM, the CBS affiliate in Lansing, Michigan, became subject in 1973 to challenges by the American Civil Liberties Union, alleging that the owners, Gross Telecasting, prevented a number of prominent political figures from appearing on the station. Eight years later, in 1981, the FCC initially revoked the station's license, but reversed its decision the following year. The ACLU agreed to a cash settlement in 1984, but not before Gross went out of business and sold off the station. Under new ownership, the station became WLNS, which it still broadcasts as today.

* Creator/{{FOX}}: New York (WNYW), Los Angeles (KTTV), Chicago (WFLD), Philadelphia (WTXF), Dallas-Fort Worth (KDFW), San Francisco (KTVU), Atlanta (WAGA), Washington DC (WTTG), Houston (KRIV), Detroit (WJBK), Phoenix (KSAZ), Tampa-St. Petersburg (WTVT), Minneapolis-St. Paul (KMSP), Orlando (WOFL), Austin (KTBC), Ocala-Gainesville (WOGX), Charlotte (WJZY);

During the late 1930s, television in the United States more-or-less took off. A few full-time television stations were started as early as 1938. In 1941, these were finally allowed to broadcast in a commercial basis -- the first one was a test card showing a Bulova watch (Bulova paid only $7 to run its ad, but it was a start.)

** The chain of Equity Broadcasting went bankrupt in 2009, nearly killing the Retro Television Network. As the company never built digital transmitters for many of their stations, Creator/{{Fox}} nearly became unwatchable in the state of {{Montana}} until the local ABC affiliate stepped in to put it on their digital subchannels, and Creator/MyNetworkTV took a heavy hit in the state of Arkansas.

** The ABC affiliate in UsefulNotes/{{Miami}} was founded as WPST in 1957, but had to be sold off in 1961 when it turned out that the original owner's attorney bribed the (by then former) FCC commissioner to get the license. It signed back on as WLBW under new ownership and is today still on the air as WPLG.

With the lack of use and need by other services for the frequencies, the FCC dropped TV channels 70-83 in 1983 and released them for other services, so for several years the highest channel that could be assigned was 69. [[note]](When they were around, channels 70-83 were mostly used for repeater transmitters that increased the coverage of existing stations on lower channels, though a rare few stations used them as their main frequency. Three stations [WFMJ in Youngstown, OH; WLOK in Lima, OH; WTVU in Scranton, PA] operated on channel 73 for a short time in the 1950s before switching to lower frequencies. WMGT in Adams, MA was the highest-numbered UHF station in the U.S., operating on channel 74 briefly in 1954 before switching to channel 19. The highest-numbered UHF station in Canada was [[Creator/CityTv CITY]] in UsefulNotes/{{Toronto}}, ON, which operated on channel 79 from 1972 to 1983, with a close second being CBEFT [[[Creator/{{CBC}} Radio Canada Windsor]]], which operated on channel 78 from 1976 to 1982.)[[/note]] With the creation in the late 1990s of digital television, and the 2009 conversion of analog broadcast television to digital, more of the high-end channel assignments are also being reassigned to other services, so currently the UHF band ends at Channel 51, with 52-69 assigned for other purposes. Channel 55 was bought by Qualcomm for their Flo TV mobile television service nationwide, a service that flopped for multiple reasons (including equipment costs and a monotonous schedule); Channel 55 was then sold to AT&T to expand their 4G cellular telephone footprint.