Channel 1

In North America, channel 1 is a former broadcast (over-the-air) television channel (44–50 MHz, with visual at 45.25 and aural at 49.75).

History

When the U.S. Federal Communications Commission initially allocated broadcast television frequencies, channel 1 was logically the first channel. These U.S. TV stations originally broadcast on channel 1
* W2XBS / WNBT (today's WNBC-TV), New York City, now on channel 4, 1938–1946;
* W6XAO (today's KCBS-TV), Los Angeles, now on channel 2;
* W9XZV, Chicago, 1939–1945?; [" [http://www.earlytelevision.org/w9xzv.html Zenith Enters FM and TV Broadcasting] ", "The Zenith Story" (1954).]
* KARO, Riverside, California; no current VHF allocation;
* WSBE, South Bend, Indiana; no current VHF allocation.

In 1940, the FCC reassigned the 44–50 MHz area of the frequency range from television to the FM broadcast band. Television's channel 1 frequency range was moved to 50–56 MHz (see table below). Experimental television stations in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles were affected. ["Threat to Television Is Feared in Frequency Modulation Order", "New York Times", May 21, 1940, p. 23. "Gives Du Mont Right to Television Here", "New York Times, July 21, 1940, p. 28.]

The first post-World War II telecommunications conferences formally allocated TV frequencies in 1945–1946. In 1945, the FCC decided to reserve channel 1 for low-power community television stations, and moved existing channel 1 stations to higher frequencies. Community stations covered smaller cities and were allowed less radiated power.Channel 1 location assignments, intended for community stations, included:
* Bridgeport, Connecticut
* Canton, Ohio
* Fall River/New Bedford, Massachusetts
* Manchester, New Hampshire
* Racine/Kenosha, Wisconsin (never used)
* Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
* South Bend, Indiana
* Springfield/Holyoke, Massachusetts
* Springfield, Ohio
* Trenton, New Jersey
* York, Pennsylvania

A shared (non-primary) allocation

From 1945 to 1948 TV stations in the U.S. shared Channel 1 and other channels with fixed and mobile services. The FCC decided in 1948 that a primary (non-shared) allocation of the VHF radio spectrum was needed for television broadcasting. Except for select VHF frequencies in Alaska and Hawaii (and some overseas territories) the FCC-administered VHF band is primarily allocated for television broadcasting to this day.

The FCC in May 1948 formally changed the rules on TV band allocations based on propagation knowledge gained during the era of shared-user allocations. The 44-50MHz band used by Channel 1 was replaced by lower-power narrowband users.

Channel 1 was reassigned to fixed and mobile services (44-50 MHz) in order to end their former shared use of other VHF TV frequencies. Rather than renumber the TV channel table, it was decided to merely remove Channel 1 from the table.

Canada did not start experimental broadcast television broadcasts until after the US had decommissioned Channel 1 (44-50 MHz) for television use. This TV channel was never used in Latin America, South Korea and the Philippines as TV broadcasting did not start in these areas until the 1950s.

Table of US FCC allocation of VHF band

Channel	1938-1940	1940-1946	1946-1948	since 1948
1	44-50	50-56	44-50
2	50-56	60-66	54-60	54-60
3	66-72	66-72	60-66	60-66
4	78-84	78-84	66-72	66-72
5	84-90	84-90	76-82	76-82
6	96-102	96-102	82-88	82-88
7	102-108	102-108	174-180	174-180
8	156-162	162-168	180-186	180-186
9	162-168	180-186	186-192	186-192
10	180-186	186-192	192-198	192-198
11	186-192	204-210	198-204	198-204
12	204-210	210-216	204-210	204-210
13	210-216	230-236	210-216	210-216
14	234-240	236-242
15	240-246	258-264
16	258-264	264-270
17	264-270	282-288
18	282-288	288-294
19	288-294

Cable TV allocation issues

"Legacy issues with System M cable TV"
* North American cable television frequencies (analog System M) include a formally defined and allocated Channel 1.
* Cable TV's use of Channel 1 is rare and its frequency assignment (HRC, IRC, ICCclarifyme, STDclarifyme, EIAclarifyme, etc) is sometimes inconsistent.
* The On Demand services of providers such as Comcast are allocated on EPG's on Channel 1, and are marketed as such.

System M cable TV in North America uses frequencies
* between Channel 6 (82-88 MHz) and Channel 7 (174-180 MHz)
* between Channel 13 (210-216 MHz) and Channel 14 (470-476 MHz)for additional standard 6 MHz channels. This normally places cable converter channels 14-22 (midband) directly below VHF channel 7 in frequency and places the remaining converter channels (superband) directly above VHF channel 13.

Interference issues

* These cable channels overlap assorted other over-the-air uses, including FM broadcasting, aeronautical, police and amateur radio bands, and the 45 MHz Intermediate Frequency that had become commonplace in television receivers.
* North American cable systems must avoid interference to (and from) these other services.
* The range from 88 - 120MHz is avoided for cable television channels on most systems, as many are carrying FM stereo radio signals to their subscribers using the standard 88-108 MHz FM broadcast band.

Other reassigned channels

Channel 1 is also not the only "missing" channel. No stations are assigned to UHF Channel 37 (608 to 614 MHz), which is reserved for radio astronomy. It remains on TV sets and tuners.

Other channels have been removed and reassigned as well, but only from the higher UHF bands. Channels 14 to 83 (sans 37), from 470 to 890 MHz, were originally added by the FCC in 1952 for the rapidly-expanding TV service in the United States. [" [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,889476,00.html TV Thaw] ", "Time", April 21, 1952.] In the 1980s, channels 70 to 83 (806 to 890 MHz) were removed for AMPS mobile phone services (leading to one side of some conversations being heard on older TV sets on those channels). In Canada, Channels 64 to 68 are no longer in use. In Brazil, South Korea and the Philippines, Channels 60 to 69 are no longer used.

In Europe, other recently abandoned TV channels are being used for DAB digital radio, in VHF band III.

Current uses

In the 1990s, it was decided that digital television would be limited to the current channels Channel 2 through Channel 51, so that another 18 channels (Channel 52 to Channel 69, 698 to 806 MHz) could be auctioned for private use such as mobile phone services, and/or given to emergency services such as police radios. Renumbering in this case is not relevant, as virtual channels can maintain the original analog TV station brand number, despite the fact that the station actually transmits on another channel.

Technically, the ATSC standard allows for a major virtual channel number from 1 - 99, followed by a separator ('.' or '-') and a digital subchannel number from 1 - 99 (for broadcast TV) or 1 - 999 (datacasting or cable TV). As such, it does not preclude the creation of a virtual channel 1.1 or a virtual channel 37.1::"The major_channel_number shall be between 1 and 99. The value of major_channel_number shall be set such that in no case is a major_channel_number / minor_channel_number pair duplicated within the TVCT." [ [http://www.atsc.org/standards/a65.html ATSC standard A/65C] , page 32, Advanced Television Systems Committee, May 2006.]

However, the specification does not define any criteria to determine whom (if anyone) could ultimately be assigned the 1.1 virtual channel series for over-the-air broadcast in a local community; it merely defines a procedure to allocate virtual channels 02-69 based on holders of the corresponding (former) analogue NTSC licenses and designates virtual channels 70-99 for possible use to carry additional, unrelated programming via the facilities of these same broadcasters.

The situation for cable television differs in that channel numbering is at the discretion of the cable system operator.

Digital cable subscribers in many areas, such as those serviced by Comcast and Charter Communications, can find video on demand content at Channel 1. The TV Guide Channel is also often found on a cable system's Channel 1.

Cable subscribers in the New York area receive local news channel NY1 on channel one (actually 101), served by Time Warner Cable and Cablevision. The physical channel number is 10, but converter boxes convert to channel one.

Japanese public broadcaster NHK General TV broadcasts on Channel 1 in Tokyo and other cities. The Japanese Channel 1 is assigned to the frequency 90 to 96 MHz, just above the Japanese FM band which is 76 to 90 MHz.

Channel 1 in US popular culture

* In one of the final episodes of "Mork and Mindy", Kalnik of Neptune asks Mindy, employed in the broadcasting industry, why there is no Channel 1. Mindy is not familiar with this aspect of television history, and stumbles through remarks about the government administering television.
* In one of the episodes of "Step by Step", Cody ask to Frank why channel 1 does not exist, and Frank does not know how to respond to him.
* The comic strip "Funky Winkerbean" features a weatherman who broadcasts on channel 1.
* The mock television studio at the Boston Children's Museum was once "branded" as "WKID Channel 1".
* "Channel One" is the name of a TV station/network (it's not completely clear which) in the movie "The Groove Tube".
* Captain Kangaroo had an animated friend, "Fred," (animated in real time via a 2-dimensional rubber puppet process called "Aniforms"), who originally lived on "Channel 1" on a TV set behind the Treasure House blackboard.
* Channel One News is the brand name of a company that provides TV/VCRs to schools and airs a 12 minute program of news and commercials to the students.
* An episode of "The Real Ghostbusters" entitled "Station Identification" involved ghosts using Channel 1 as a portal to people's homes.

References

External links

* [http://www.tech-notes.tv/History&Trivia/Channel%20One/Channel_1.htm What ever happened to Channel 1?] - J. W. Reiser, based on a Radio Electronics article of the same name by David A. Ferre
* [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_372b.html Why is there no Channel One on television?] - Cecil Adams
* [http://jeff560.tripod.com/tvch1.html What became of Channel 1?] - Jeff Miller
* [http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/channel1.asp What Happened to Channel 1?] - Snopes.com