Oddities in Non-Commercial Channel Allocations

[KeithE4]

Although it's been a long time since I've seen a listing (just for Illinois) of the final 1952 channel allocations, another "oddity" is that here in Illinois you have a major city (Rockford) that lacks its own PBS station (relying on cable carriage in that market of primarily WHA-21 Madison and WTTW-11 Chicago). I would have supposed that Rockford was allocated a non-commercial ETV channel in the final 1952 allocations. Does anyone know for sure? (I remember that part of a thread over a year ago on this board was devoted to discussion of why Rockford lacked a PBS station).

I believe the final analog allocations for the Rockford market included Ch. 65 in Freeport and Ch. 48 in DeKalb as non-comms. I don't believe either channel has ever had a CP. IIRC, Northern Illinois University applied for Ch. 48 sometime in the '70s but it was never granted.

 

[oldschooler1]

<quote>You'll notice there is no commercial or non-commercial allocations for channel 37.
The frequency for channel 37 is assigned for radio astronomy.</quote>

Isn't there also something odd/unique about ch. 15? I thought I remembered reading something years ago that ch. 15 had some oddities to it, and that's why there aren't many ch. 15's across the U.S.

 

[w9wi]

Although it's been a long time since I've seen a listing (just for Illinois) of the final 1952 channel allocations, another "oddity" is that here in Illinois you have a major city (Rockford) that lacks its own PBS station (relying on cable carriage in that market of primarily WHA-21 Madison and WTTW-11 Chicago). I would have supposed that Rockford was allocated a non-commercial ETV channel in the final 1952 allocations. Does anyone know for sure? (I remember that part of a thread over a year ago on this board was devoted to discussion of why Rockford lacked a PBS station).

I have a copy of the entire table.

Reserved allotments in Illinois:
Carbondale 61
Champaign-Urbana 12
Chicago 11
De Kalb 67
Peoria 37
Rockford 45
Springfield 26

As KeithE4 says, there were channels for Freeport and De Kalb (but not Rockford) in the final analog table, though the De Kalb channel was 33. How Rockford lost its only reserved channel I have no idea.

Addressing "oldschooler1"'s post about channel 15, I don't know of anything particularly unusual about that channel. It is in the "T-band" that's used for land-mobile in some larger markets, but so are the other channels between 14 and 20.

There are 30 records for full-power U.S. TV stations on channel 15. There are 26 for channel 25, 23 for channel 35.

 

[KeithE4]

As KeithE4 says, there were channels for Freeport and De Kalb (but not Rockford) in the final analog table, though the De Kalb channel was 33. How Rockford lost its only reserved channel I have no idea.

DeKalb has both 33 and 48 allocated as NCE channels in the (presumably) final analog table. Since 33 was used in Madison WI until the mid '60s, I assume that either 48 was allocated first or DeKalb had no allocation at all until WMTV Madison moved from 33 to 15.

 

[radiorob2.0]

Kentucky Educational Television had a translator in Cowan Creek, KY. Speaking of KET, one of it founders shared a story on the challenges of Pike County, in the far eastern part of the state. It's the largest county and has many communities buried in "hollers". Engineers became frustrated trying to cover an area where terrain required an antenna atop a mountain to receive a station twenty miles away. The 1968 cost prohibitive, tongue 'n cheek suggested solution was to launch a satellite to adequately cover the county.