UHF (film): Difference between revisions

** By the late 1960s, three stations per major city was no longer enough, due to the need to accommodate educational television (NET and its eventual successor, [[PBS]]) and programming in other languages (such as Spanish). In the largest cities, there were more stations than viable mainstream networks, leaving more than a few struggling big-city "independents" to fill most of their schedules with live sports and old movies. The strongest stations, established early by the existing NBC and CBS network AM radio affiliates, tended to hold the prime spots at the lower end of the VHF dial. ABC often landed on high-VHF channels (to the point where the single-line '7' in a circle is a distinctive logo for many ABC owned-and-operated stations) while PBS, independents or niche broadcasters were relegated to the UHF wilderness. In some places (such as NYC and Philadelphia), PBS member stations obtained out-of-state licences (WNET 13 Newark NJ, WHYY 12 Wilmington DE) just to grab the last available VHF spot; the Educational Broadcasting Corporation paid more than $6 million for an existing (but seventh-ranked locally) Newark station, inheriting 13 Newark's obligations to serve New Jersey as part of the deal.

** More than a few home antenna installations began with a huge, professionally-installed VHF antenna on the roof, to which a bent metal coathanger of a folded dipole dangling from the back of the set was added later to get the lone educational UHF station in the early days. UHF was merely an afterthought; the new-for-1964 TVs had the tuners in the US (but not necessarily in Canada) but they were often deployed to replace an old 12-channel TV and re-use the existing VHF antenna. Oh look, it's [[Sesame Street|Big Bird]] on channel "U", why does he look all fuzzy? Even if an antenna were designed for proper "82 channel" coverage the best that could be done was "up to 100 miles VHF, 60 miles UHF" as the longer-wavelength VHF signal was more capable of bending a bit to get around obstacles. (This is likely still true today, but digital low-VHF stations have their own technical issues.)

** The launch of [[FOX]] TV as a fourth US commercial network in 1986 was a tipping point; it ensured that twelve VHF TV channels (which had been enough for three stations in each major market) were no longer adequate. Fox was built on a core group of owned-and-operated stations which trace their ancestry to the failed [[DuMont]] network thirty years prior, but its parent News Corporation has deeper pockets and could buy better programming. Many former independents were quick to join the nascent fourth major commercial US network. By 1994, Fox was openly poaching affiliates from the established networks and outbidding CBS for NFL games. New World Communications switched a dozen of its stations from CBS to Fox, forcing CBS onto UHF in Atlanta, Austin and Cleveland. CBS ended up on a very poor UHF channel assignment in Milwaukee and ended up purchasing U-62 station WGPR Detroit (now WWJ-TV) outright for $24 million out of pure desperation. Yup, the same frequency way up the dial which "Weird Al" figured no sane broadcaster would want only five years earlier. Oh well.

** Satellite TV was also a major "equaliser" as UHF stations like Ted Turner's WTBS 17 Atlanta got picked up nationally. Canadian cable companies were prone to pulling stations from Shaw's CANCOM satellite feed and dumping "U-62 Détroit" into distant communities as far afield as Newfoundland. Eventually, in some cases the Détroit HDTV feeds started turning up on cable in Canadian border communities which already had perfectly viable in-region US stations which would have been more than adequate.