kHz - MHz - Channel number

[JeeperOne]

FM technically has a channel system of 200-300, otherwise I don't know why we chose frequency. Perhaps it just appeals better or something.

I think it just seems to be more appealing & simpler for broadcasters to say something like "Mix 100" for 100.3 than "Mix 250" (Or whatever channel 100.3 is)

 

[JeeperOne]

Well, before there were kHz and MHz, we used kc’s and Mc’s.😊

Numbering was just easier in this case, especially since the TV tuners clicked into place for each channel, unlike radio.

That's because clicking into place wasn't nor isn't required for radio because a radio station requires only one frequency to broadcast whereas a TV station requires MANY to broadcast (Even in the Digital era we're in today)

 

[JeeperOne]

W9XAL Kansas City (First National Television)

early television

www.earlytelevision.org

There was a (mechanical) TV station in this band on here, and 65 years later, one of the 1st ATSC 1.0 DTV stations.


Kirk Bayne

Note the reference to "HIgh Definition" Television from the clippings on that page. Hilarious lol

 

[JeeperOne]

although one could make the same argument for 600, 610, 620 etc. KHz for AM radio.

One would have to wonder what channel(s) those would be if KOGO or WTMJ had to ID themselves by the channel they were on rather the frequency they're on

To say NOTHING of how KEPN 1600 would have to ID themselves as if they were required to ID by the channel number instead of the frequency

 

[raccoonradio]

Channel numbers used for FM translators.
In Boston area two 101.3s:
W267CD Milford
W267CE Cambridge

In early 80s sign on carts for WMWM
Salem MA said "91.7 MHz, on channel 219..."

List of channel numbers assigned to FM frequencies in North America - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[K.M. Richards]

47 CFR § 73.1201, which governs station identifications, still allows FM stations to include the channel number between their call letters and community of license.

Several of the FM stations I worked for in the 1970s and early 1980s that still did nightly sign-offs/ons liked to make a big deal out of it by giving both the frequency and channel numbers during same.

 

[CentralFL]

Well, before there were kHz and MHz, we used kc’s and Mc’s.😊

In the early days of radio, wavelength was used instead of frequency. Later both would be used together—I recall shortwave stations announcing both frequencies and wavelengths in the 1960s and 70s. The use of wavelength as a descriptor faded away in the 1980s onward.

Probably much less potential for confusion by using actual frequency, especially with different kinds of radios around the world. Channel numbering would likely be inconsistent and arbitrary.

Channel numbers for TV made sense due to the wide frequency band each channel occupied. And remember in the analog days, each channel had two separate transmitters for audio and video on different frequencies. Numbering was just easier in this case, especially since the TV tuners clicked into place for each channel, unlike radio.

Radio Luxembourg, which targeted the UK at 1439 khz (adjusted to 1440 later) on the MW (AM) band, called itself "the Great 208" through the 1980s. 208 being their wavelength.

 

[davideduardo]

FM stations announced channel numbers until at least the mid 1960s, from what I remember. Why, I have no idea, because nobody had a radio dial that showed them by that time. They make sense for translators because a callsign like W300xx is less cumbersome than W1079xx.

My first job in radio in 1959 was at WCUY, 92.3, in Cleveland. It... and no other local FM at the time... used the channel number.

 

[Michi]

My first job in radio in 1959 was at WCUY, 92.3, in Cleveland. It... and no other local FM at the time... used the channel number.

If they still did it today... I could imagine the jingles... (KHJ logo) "TRIPLE TWO 'C U Y..."

 

[secondchoice]

Didn't the old annolog TV channels actually have slightly "high" or "low" frequency stations on the same channel for extra "spacing"? That would really make frequently

 

[secondchoice]

Sorry above post was not completed.

I meant to say the old VHF TV frequency were not always exactly the same. I remember there was a "ring dial" around the old portable TVs where you would "find tune" an OTA channel and adjust the rabbit ears.

 

[KeithE4]

Didn't the old annolog TV channels actually have slightly "high" or "low" frequency stations on the same channel for extra "spacing"? That would really make frequently

The FCC sometimes assigned the video carrier frequency to + or - 10 kHz from the nominal frequency. It supposedly reduced interference between stations that were relatively close-by on the same channel. Some tuners could track them with no adjustment, but others couldn't. Older TVs had more issues with it, from what I remember, and they required fine tuning more than newer tuners did.

 

[tvnut]

Note the reference to "HIgh Definition" Television from the clippings on that page. Hilarious lol

Every advancement in television has billed itself as high-definition in press releases, if not on the air: From mechanical to electronic, BBC 405, U.S. 343 to 441 to 525, BBC 625, right up to ATSC. High def, every last one of 'em.