This list of over-the-air television broadcast frequencies for the North American VHF and UHF bands is what has been in place since the 1950s. *The absence of Channel 1 marking on TV tuning dials has forever been an enigma to most people who wondered why only Channels 2 through 13 were included. The simple explanation is that when the Channel 1 band of 44−50 MHz was originally assigned to television by the FCC, it lied within the recently vacated 42−50 MHz FM radio band. It was used by early TV broadcast experimenters while awaiting all FM stations to switch to their new 88−108 MHz spectrum allocation. Manufacturers decided to exclude Channel 1 out of an abundance of caution, and never did adopt it. The FCC subsequently re-assigned 42−50 MHz to another service.

A full-size version of the very nicely done chart to the right showing worldwide VHF television bands can be found on Wikipedia

*Note: The lower end of each OTA TV broadcast band is 1.25 MHz below the video carrier frequency and the upper end is 0.25 MHz above the audio frequency. For example, Channel 2 occupies 45.25-1.25 through through 49.75+0.25 (44 to 50 MHz).

Posted December 13, 2017