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107-464: For 2009, the biggest development for local TV was content pooling. NBC-Fox partnerships are called Local News Service. Since 2000, Fox News, ABC and CBS have been partners in a national news pool partnership. In January 2009, NBC Local Media and Fox Television Stations set up the first Local News Service with their Philadelphia stations after testing since the summer 2008. Fox and NBC then added other markets where they both own stations. In March,

214-671: A local news sharing service starting with their Philadelphia stations after testing since the summer of 2008. Footage will be made available to other local media. On July 29, 2009, NBC Local Integrated Media replaced the standard station extension websites with city centric websites using nbc city .com web addresses. In February 2010, the NBC stations launched a new website, theFeast.com, a restaurant news, blog and aggregate critic feature. Additional vertical websites were also launched including The Goods and The 20. Stations are encouraged by Local Media to develop their own specialized websites. The 20

321-581: A Nonstop subchannel and beyond to other markets. An NBC executive indicated that the independent formatted Nonstop channels were doing well but needed separate 24/7 programming. The Network will have daytime retro reruns and evening lifestyle shows. Local stations will be able to pre-empt the national programming. By July 2012, NBC was also considering renaming the Network to "Bob TV" or some other name. With Comcast purchasing controlling interest from GE of NBCUniversal in 2011, NBC stations were required by

428-408: A UHF Yagi antenna with similar gain is often found placed in front of it, occupying perhaps 1 m. Modern UHF-only antennas often use the bedspring array and are less than a meter on a side. Another effect due to the shorter wavelength is that UHF signals can pass through smaller openings than VHF. These openings are the spaces between any metal in the area, including lines of nails or screws in

535-624: A UHF frequency. Over time a number of former television channels in the upper UHF band have been re-designated for other uses. Channel 37 was never used in the US and some other countries in order to prevent interference with radio astronomy . In 1983, the US FCC reassigned channels 70 through 83 to the Land Mobile Radio System . In 2009, with the move to digital television complete in the US, channels 52 through 69 were reallocated as

642-557: A bidding war to acquire WTVJ , the then-CBS affiliate in Miami. NBC had been unhappy with its longtime affiliate WSVN for heavily preempting the network's daytime lineup. However, both WTVJ's and WSVN's respective affiliation contracts with CBS and NBC did not expire until December 31, 1988. As a result, NBC faced the prospect of having to run WTVJ as a CBS affiliate for over a year. This did not sit well with either NBC or CBS, and both approached WSVN's parent Sunbeam Television about ending

749-616: A controlling interest in KXAS to NBC, and NBC contributed KNSD to the resulting partnership. Owing to their controlling stake in the partnership, NBC took operational control of both stations. In February 2013, LIN pulled out of the joint venture with NBCUniversal as part of a corporate reorganization, giving NBC full ownership of KXAS and KNSD. LIN paid NBC around $ 100 million to allow for the transaction. The stations remain under this name for FCC licensing purposes, along with WYCN-LD. UHF television broadcasting UHF television broadcasting

856-402: A corporate reorganization, giving NBCUniversal 100% ownership of the venture's two stations, KNSD and KXAS-TV . In July 2013, NBCOTS and Telemundo's owned-and-operated station group were brought together under a newly formed division called NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations , headed by NBC TV Station president Valari Staab, and NECN was transferred into NBC Stations. In 2014, WKAQ ,

963-609: A drop that was only partially compensated for by field upgrades or the availability of external UHF converters for separate purchase. Plummeting inclusion of UHF tuners in sets placed VHF–UHF intermixture at grave risk of failure. On the transmission side, UHF stations were also found to have issues involving transmission distance and strength. The FCC tried solving this problem by allowing the lower-powered UHF stations to broadcast with more power, but VHF continued to have more stations. Advertisers soon caught on to this and did most of their business with VHF stations since UHF tuner adoption

1070-557: A form of reverse compensation , instead of the then-normal mode of networks paying their affiliates. Rather than give in to NBC's demands, Young decided not to renew KRON's affiliation contract, which was set to expire at the beginning of 2002. KNTV then approached NBC with a proposal to pay $ 37 million annually to become the network's affiliate. NBC would then buy KNTV outright in December 2001 just before KRON's affiliation ended. In 2004, Vivendi Universal Entertainment (a division of

1177-512: A huge setback after a forced move from a 42–50 MHz allocation to an 88–108 MHz allocation in 1946. This had rendered all pre-1946 FM transmitters and receivers obsolete, and there was heavy resistance to moving FM a second time. Aeronautical radio is located above 108 MHz; military aeronautical radio used 225–400 MHz. Additional public safety, commercial land-mobile, and amateur radio services had allocations in Band II . It

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1284-460: A length so that the desired radio signal will create a standing wave of electrical current within them. This means that antennas have a natural size, normally 1 ⁄ 2 of a wavelength long, which maximizes performance. Antennas designed to receive the same signal will almost always have similar dimensions. Because the antenna size is based on the wavelength, UHF broadcasting can be received with much smaller antennas than VHF while still having

1391-605: A paid UHF station offers foreign programs not shown on local TV and commencing regular service in January 1993, but it was closed down as a result from intense competition from the rival Sky Cable . From 2001 to the present, more channels were established, regional stations are established in the provinces which specialize news, public service and free programming. With Digital TV was introduced, all UHF channels will allocate their frequencies and can be served for broadcast companies such as ABS-CBN, GMA Network and TV5 , among others as

1498-647: A satellite feed directly from their U.S. military bases in Japan), at the time when Mount Pinatubo erupted and became abandoned. Commercial UHF stations began in May, 1992, as DWCP-TV on channel 21 became the first local UHF TV station in Metro Manila by the Southern Broadcasting Network as SBN-21 (then Talk TV ) and commenced free programing, the second channel, DWKC-TV (on channel 31) of

1605-410: A sharp "blip" of noise, but leaves the signal clear at other times. This normally comes from local electrical sources, and can be mitigated by turning them off. This means that at a given received power, a UHF analog signal will appear worse than VHF, often significantly. For these reasons, in order to allow UHF stations to provide the same ground coverage as VHF, ideally about 60 miles (97 km),

1712-646: A three-way transaction between Westinghouse, CBS, and NBC in 1995. Westinghouse's Philadelphia station KYW-TV switched from NBC to CBS. CBS traded its previous Philadelphia station, WCAU-TV , to NBC in return for KCNC in Denver and KUTV in Salt Lake City, while KUSA and KSL-TV affiliated with NBC. The swap in Philadelphia was delayed when CBS discovered it would face a massive capital gains tax bill if it sold WCAU to NBC outright. In 1996, NBC bought

1819-552: A year". The freeze would give the FCC and broadcasting interests time to address questions such as the allocation of additional channel frequencies, and the selection of a color television standard. At the time of the freeze, less than 100 stations were on the air, but stations already under construction would be allowed to complete work. All but one of these was on the VHF band; on December 29, 1949, KC2XAK of Bridgeport, Connecticut , became

1926-566: Is for the top special interest articles and the Goods is a group buying website launched in May. In late 2010 and early 2011, eight more NBC O&O stations adopted the Nonstop digital subchannel format including the three California as one network. Each stations' Nonstop subchannel has eight hours of local programming along with core programming from affiliated production companies, LXTV : Talk Stoop , First Look and Open House. In Summer 2011,

2033-611: Is one of a loosely knit group of free commercial terrestrial television stations that is not a member of the major national networks keyed in Tokyo and Osaka . Japan's original broadcasters were VHF. Although some experimental broadcasts were made as early as 1939, NHK (founded in 1926 as a radio network modeled on the BBC) began regular VHF television broadcasting in 1953. Its two terrestrial television services ( NHK General TV and NHK Educational TV ) appear on VHF 1 and 3, respectively, in

2140-488: Is operated mostly by local governments or metropolitan newspapers with less outside control. Compared with major network stations, Japan's UHF independents have more restrictive programming acquisition budgets and lower average ratings; they are also more likely to broadcast single episode or short-series UHF anime (many of which serve to promote DVD's or other product tie-ins) and brokered programming such as religion and infomercials . Japanese terrestrial television

2247-495: Is the division of NBCUniversal Owned TV Stations ( NBCUniversal ), a subsidiary of Comcast that oversees the NBC owned-and-operated television stations , Cozi TV network, LXTV and Skycastle Entertainment, its in-house marketing and promotion company. NBCUniversal's Telemundo owned-and-operated stations are held in the separate Telemundo Station Group . The NBC television network's owned-and-operated television stations group

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2354-669: Is the only NBC-owned station that does not have its own 4 p.m. news; however, it added a 4:30 p.m. newscast in September 2022. On January 7, 2016, NBCOTS announced that it would launch an NBC-owned station in Boston , NBC Boston, on January 1, 2017, replacing affiliate WHDH . It was originally rumored that NBC would air primary on a WNEU channel, however on November 1, it was announced that NBC would use Boston-area translator WBTS-LD (acquired from WNEU's former operator ZGS Communications ), with WNEU airing NBC Boston on its DT2 channel for

2461-418: Is the use of ultra high frequency (UHF) radio for over-the-air transmission of television signals . UHF frequencies are used for both analog and digital television broadcasts. UHF channels are typically given higher channel numbers, like the US arrangement with VHF channels (initially) 1 to 13, and UHF channels (initially) numbered 14 to 83. Compared with an equivalent VHF television transmitter, to cover

2568-889: Is usually allocated for VCRs, decoder units (i.e. the ASTRO and MiTV set top boxes ) and other devices that have an RF signal generator (i.e. game consoles). Refer to Australian and New Zealand television frequencies for more information. UHF broadcasting was introduced in the Philippines in the early 1960s when FEN Philippines began broadcasts on channel 17 in Pampanga and Zambales (as in Subic and Clark bases), and channel 43 in Bulacan and also in Metro Manila on Channel 50 until 1991 (most of its programs and newscasts are from

2675-559: The American Broadcasting Company and DuMont Television Network , the need for additional TV channels in major markets was urgent. For proponents of educational TV broadcasting, the difficulties in competing with commercial broadcasters for the increasingly scarce VHF channels was also a problem. Allocating more of the VHF band (30 to 300 MHz ) by moving existing radio communication users away seemed to be impossible. FM radio broadcasting had already suffered

2782-675: The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). The UHF band is now used extensively as ABC , SBS, commercial and public-access television services have expanded, particularly through regional areas. The first Canadian television network was publicly owned Radio-Canada, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation . Its stations, as well as that of the first private networks ( CTV and TVA , created in 1961), are primarily VHF. More recent third-network operators that initially signed on in

2889-661: The Federal Communications Commission to develop partnership agreements with nonprofit news organizations. TheFeast website was transferred to NBCU affiliate DailyCandy.com in November. In December, four NBC stations indicated their non-profit news partners with the partnership modeled after KNSD and Voice of San Diego's preexisting one. With the success of the NECN advertising partnership in April 2012,

2996-528: The Fox Broadcasting Company agreed to a multi-year, multi-station affiliation deal with New World Communications , resulting in most of New World's stations switching to Fox. This set off the 1994–1996 United States broadcast TV realignment , a chain of affiliation changes across the country and other multi-station affiliation deals for the next couple of years. In Philadelphia, Westinghouse Broadcasting 's affiliate deal with CBS resulted in

3103-676: The National Telecommunications Commission plans to migrate all VHF channels to digital UHF channels before December 31, 2015, though this was delayed several times. Digital terrestrial television services are currently in development by the major broadcasting companies before the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) will be passed by law. South Africa only received analog TV service from 1976 onwards. There were three TV channels: TV1 (now SABC1), TV2 (now SABC2), TV3 (now SABC3), and later came

3210-782: The New Hampshire side of the DMA. After the FCC's 2016 spectrum auction , NBCOTS purchased the former WYCN-CD license which now had channel-sharing rights with WGBX yielding strong coverage in the Boston market, then reshuffled programming across NBCOTS and Telemundo Station Group assets in eastern New England, leaving NBC programming on the new WBTS-CD and returning the WNEU and WYCN-LD licenses primarily to Spanish-language programming. Stations are listed in alphabetical order by state and city of license . Station Venture Holdings, LLC

3317-783: The Radio Mindanao Network was launched on October 31 of the same year as CTV-31 from 1992 to 2000 (then E! from 2000 to 2003 and BEAM in 2011). The third channel, DZRJ-TV (channel 29) was also launched in 1993 for the Rajah Broadcasting Network, Inc. which specializes niche programing (mostly infomercials, foreign shows and cartoons). Two more channels include DWDB-TV (channel 27) of GMA Network, Inc. (as Citynet Television from 1995 to 1999 and EMC from 1999 to 2001) and DWAC-TV (channel 23) of ABS-CBN (as Studio 23 ) between August 27, 1995 and October 12, 1996, as fourth and fifth UHF stations, and

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3424-737: The Republic of Ireland , UHF was introduced in 1978 to augment the existing RTÉ One VHF 625-line transmissions and to provide extra frequencies for the new RTÉ Two channel. The first UHF transmitter site was Cairn Hill in County Longford , followed by Three Rock Mountain in South County Dublin . These sites were followed by Clermont Carn in County Louth and Holywell Hill in County Donegal in 1981. Since

3531-433: The backward compatible NTSC standard led to these channels being released for any television use in 1952. Early receivers were generally less efficient at UHF band reception, and the signals are also subject to more environmental interference. Additionally, the signals are less susceptible to diffraction effects, which can improve reception at long range. UHF generally had less clear signals, and for some markets, became

3638-516: The digital transition was completed in August 2011. Digital Audio Broadcasting , deployed on a very limited scale in Canada in 2005 and largely abandoned, uses UHF frequencies in the L band from 1452 to 1492 MHz. There are currently no VHF Band III digital radio stations in Canada as, unlike in much of Europe, these frequencies are among the most popular for use by television stations. In

3745-444: The 1930s with regular commercial broadcasting in cities such as New York and Chicago in 1941. Efforts at TV broadcasting on any channel were drastically curtailed once World War II began, due largely to lack of available receivers. The upper five VHF channels were removed from the FCC allocation list during the war with those frequencies re-allocated for military use, leaving thirteen channels (1 through 13) as of May 1945. The end of

3852-434: The 1970s or 1980s were often relegated to UHF, or (if they were to attempt to deploy on VHF) to reduced power or stations in outlying areas . Canada's VHF spectrum was already crowded with both domestic broadcasts and numerous American TV stations along the border. The use of UHF to provide programming that otherwise would not be available, such as province-wide educational services (BC's Knowledge: channel, or TVOntario -

3959-436: The 700 MHz band for cellular telephone service. In 2011, Channel 51 was removed to prevent interference with the 700 MHz cellular band. Additionally, in 2019 the US removed channels 38 through 50 to use them for cellular phone service. Thus UHF TV in the US now only includes channels 14 through 36. The most common type of antennas rely on the concept of resonance . Conductors, normally metal wires or rods, are cut to

4066-594: The 82 channels possible under the standard 6 MHz bandwidth. CBS Vice President Adrian Murphy told the FCC: "I would say that it would be better to have two networks in color" instead of the four or more networks possible with narrower bandwidths in UHF. In October 1948, the Federal Communications Commission stopped accepting applications for new stations, a freeze expected to last "six months to

4173-609: The 82 new UHF-TV stations in the United States broadcasting as of June 1954, only 24 of them remained a year later. The majority of the 165 UHF stations to begin telecasting between 1952 and 1959 did not survive. Not until the passage of the 1962 All-Channel Receiver Act did FCC regulations require all new TV sets sold in the U.S. to have built-in UHF tuners that could receive channels 14–83. Even though that requirement came into effect on April 30, 1964, there were only about 170 full-service UHF stations in operation in 1971. In

4280-930: The Cleveland stations on June 19, 1965. Instead of restoring the previous WNBK and WTAM identities, the stations' new call letters became WKYC-AM-FM-TV, mostly as a nod to Westinghouse's stewardship of the stations. NBC would later sell off the WKYC radio stations in 1972, 51 percent of WKYC-TV in 1990, and then the remaining 49 percent in 1999. With the FCC encouraging the networks to expand their owned-and-operated holdings to include UHF stations , NBC purchased WBUF in Buffalo, New York, in 1955 and WKNB (now WVIT ) in New Britain, Connecticut, in 1956. The network then renamed WKNB to WNBC (for New Britain, Connecticut) in 1957. But with UHF being not viable for broadcasting at

4387-438: The FCC allowed UHF broadcasters to operate at much higher power levels. For analog signals in the United States, VHF signals on channels 2 to 6, the low-VHF range, were limited to 100 kW, high-VHF on channels 7 to 13 to 316 kW, and UHF to 5 MW, well over 10 times the power of the low-VHF transmitter power limit. This greatly increased the cost of transmitting in these frequencies, both in electrical cost as well as

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4494-672: The French company Vivendi Universal , now Vivendi), decided to sell an 80% stake to NBC's parent company, General Electric. The sale and resulting merger formed NBC Universal . The new company was 80% owned by GE, and 20% owned by Vivendi. The television divisions of NBC and Universal Television were combined to form NBC Universal Television . In 2006, NBC Universal sold four of its smaller-market owned-and-operated stations (WVTM, WNCN, WCMH, and WJAR) to Media General . In November 2007, TVSD changed its name to NBC Local Media. In March 2008, Local Media decided to focus on growing websites and

4601-644: The Telemundo-owned station in San Juan, Puerto Rico , began airing a simulcast of New York City sister station WNBC on one of its digital sub-channels with the branding of NBC Puerto Rico , making WKAQ also a de facto NBC-owned station (under NBCUniversal's corporate structure, WKAQ remains as part of the Telemundo-owned stations group instead of NBCOTS). With four NBC-owned stations already airing 4 p.m. newscasts, WNBC , KNBC , WTVJ , and WVIT also added 4 p.m. newscasts in May 2016. As of 2020 , KNTV

4708-823: The Tokyo region. Privately owned Japanese VHF TV stations were most often built by large national newspapers with Tokyo stations exerting a large degree of control over national programming. The number of VHF broadcasters varied depending on the prefecture. For example, in the Kanto region , there were seven VHF channels available. Outside of Tokyo, Osaka , Nagoya , and Fukuoka , most prefectures had four privately owned television stations, with three of them broadcasting on UHF. Almost all prefectures had at least one privately owned VHF television station (except for Saga ). The independent stations broadcast in analogue UHF, unlike major networks, which were historically broadcast primarily in analogue VHF . The loose coalition of UHF independents

4815-431: The US, the FCC initially wanted to move all stations to UHF. This would have required a large number of stations to move out of their current VHF channel assignments. Moving from one UHF channel to another is a fairly simple exercise and generally costs little to accomplish. Moving from VHF to UHF is a much more expensive proposition, generally requiring all new equipment, and a dramatic increase in power in order to maintain

4922-468: The United States, UHF stations gained a reputation for local ownership, nonprofessional operations, small audiences and weak signal propagation. While UHF-TV was available to American TV broadcasters in today's form since 1952, affiliates of the 1950s four largest American TV networks ( NBC , CBS , ABC , and DuMont ) preferentially transmitted on VHF wherever it was available. All available VHF-TV allocations were already in use in most large TV markets by

5029-406: The VHF band because of their bandwidth demands; more significantly, it offered the possibility for sufficient numbers of conventional 6 MHz channels to support the FCC's goals of a "truly nationwide and competitive service". CBS was not trying to maximize broadcast (or network) competition through freer market entry. Instead CBS's 16 MHz channels would have allowed only 27 UHF channels versus

5136-400: The VHF stations, losing $ 10,500,000 in 1953. More stations left the air than opened, and sixty percent of television industry losses from 1953 to 1956 came from UHF stations. TV network affiliations were difficult to get in many locations; the UHF stations with major-network affiliation would often lose these affiliations in favor of any viable new VHF TV station that entered the same market. Of

5243-623: The analogue television switchoff on October 24, 2012, all digital terrestrial TV is on UHF only, although VHF allocations exist. The UHF band has been used in parts of Ireland for television deflector systems bringing British television signals to towns and rural areas that cannot receive these signals directly. However, since the introduction of free to air satellite transmission of UK TV channels these deflectors have largely ceased operation. In Japan, an Independent UHF Station ( ja:全国独立UHF放送協議会 , Zenkoku Dokuritsu Yū-eichi-efu Hōsō Kyōgi-kai , literally National Independent UHF Broadcasting Forum)

5350-431: The base assumption that a UHF television station was functionally equivalent to a VHF one. To allocate four to as many as seven VHF channels to each of the largest cities would mean forcing the smaller, intervening cities completely onto UHF channels, while an allocation scheme that sought to assign one or two VHF channels in each smaller city would force VHF and UHF stations to compete in most markets. The largest cities with

5457-797: The broadcasting holdings of The Outlet Company , bringing WCMH in Columbus, Ohio, WJAR in Providence, Rhode Island, and WNCN in Goldsboro, North Carolina into the fold. NBC also made a 1996 deal with New World to acquire KNSD in San Diego and WVTM-TV in Birmingham, Alabama. In 1997, NBC and LIN Television Corporation formed Station Venture Holdings with LIN's KXAS in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex and NBC's KNSD. As part of

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5564-617: The channel crowding problem, the following cities were never allocated any VHF-TV stations at all, due to technical reasons found by the FCC: Huntsville, Alabama ; Peoria, Illinois ; Fort Wayne, Indiana ; South Bend, Indiana , Lexington, Kentucky ; Springfield, Massachusetts ; Elmira, New York ; Youngstown, Ohio ; Scranton / Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania ; and Yakima, Washington . Other cites were able to receive only one VHF broadcast station. The entire state of New Jersey would receive only one VHF broadcast station of its own (which

5671-441: The company started to sell national advertising on behalf of affiliated cable channel, New England Cable News (NECN). In June, Local Media's new president. Valari Staab. renamed the company to NBC Owned Television Stations (NBCOTS). On November 3, 2011, NBCOTS announced that its seven local Nonstop subchannels would become a single national network, Nonstop Network. The Network will also add its stations that currently do not have

5778-482: The complex over-lapping led to the fifth and final network having a significantly reduced national coverage compared to the other networks, with reduced picture quality in many areas and the use of wide-band aerials often required. The launch of digital terrestrial television in 1998 saw the continued use of UHF for television, with six multiplexes allocated for the service, all within the UHF band. Analogue transmissions have ceased completely since 2012 after which

5885-523: The conversion period was over. This adds some complexity to the system as a whole, as the antennas needed to receive VHF and UHF are very different. In Australia, UHF was first anticipated in the mid-1970s with TV channels 27–69. The first UHF TV broadcasts in Australia were operated by Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) on channel 28 in Sydney and Melbourne starting in 1980, and translator stations for

5992-548: The deal, LIN sold a controlling interest in KXAS to NBC, and NBC contributed KNSD to the resulting partnership. In the San Francisco Bay Area, NBC had long sought to buy its affiliate KRON from the deYoung family, publishers of the San Francisco Chronicle , but the deYoungs turned down NBC's offers each time. In 1999, the deYoung family announced the liquidation of their assets, and thus

6099-668: The division and the Comcast Sports Group extended the partnership nationwide with four additional markets where there are both a Comcast SportsNet channel and an NBC-owned station ( New England , Mid-Atlantic , Northwest , and Philadelphia ). On October 24, 2012, NBCOTS announced it will relaunch the NBC Nonstop network as Cozi TV , which will feature classic TV shows, movies and, original programming. In February 2013, LIN Media pulled out of its Station Venture Operations joint venture with NBCUniversal as part of

6206-624: The downside, higher frequencies are less susceptible to diffraction. This means that the signals will not bend around obstructions as readily as a VHF signal. This is a particular problem for receivers located in depressions and valleys. Normally the upper edge of the landform acts as a knife-edge and causes the signal to diffract downwards. VHF signals will be seen by antennas in the valley, whereas UHF bends about 1 ⁄ 10 as much, and far less signal will be received. The same effect also makes UHF signals more difficult to receive around obstructions. VHF will quickly diffract around trees and poles and

6313-565: The first UHF originating station in Canada), Télé-Québec , French language programming outside Québec and ethnic/multilingual television services), has therefore become common. Third networks such as Quatre-Saisons or Global often will rely heavily on UHF stations as repeaters or as a local presence in large cities where VHF spectrum is largely already full. The original digital terrestrial television stations were all UHF broadcasts, although some digital broadcasts returned to VHF channels after

6420-411: The first and only pre-1950 UHF television station to operate on a regular daily schedule. Existing FCC rules at the time of the freeze had designated 42 UHF channels, designated 14–55, between 475–890 MHz. Ultimately, the question the FCC faced of how to allocate bandwidth for new television licenses would not take "months" to resolve, but several years. To newer entrants into TV broadcasting such as

6527-483: The first commercial UHF television station on the air was KPTV , Channel 27, in Portland, Oregon , on September 18, 1952. Early in 1953, 35% of televisions sold contained a UHF tuner compliant with 1952 rules, lending hope to the idea that intermixture of UHF and VHF stations might succeed. Several problems with early UHF tuners became evident. One was poor image frequency rejection in superheterodyne receivers with

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6634-732: The first local news pool not formed by the NBC-Fox alliance was formed in Columbus, OH by Media General 's WCMH-TV and Sinclair Broadcast Group 's WSYX and WTTE . On April 1, Fox Stations entered into its first pooling agreements without NBC in Phoenix ( KSAZ-TV ) with Scripps ' KNXV-TV and Meredith 's KPHO-TV and in Detroit ( WJBK ) with Scripps's WXYZ-TV . The Fox ( WFLD )-NBC ( WMAQ-TV ) partnership on May 11 started its Chicago pool its first with outside members: Tribune 's WGN-TV and CBS 's WBBM-TV . On June 29, 2009, six weeks after

6741-601: The fourth, Etv. In the UK, UHF television began in 1964 following a plan by the General Post Office to allocate sets of frequencies for 625-lined television to regions across the country, so as to accommodate four national networks with regional variations (the VHF allocations allowed for only two such networks using 405 lines ). The UK UHF channels would range from 21 to 68 (later extended to 69) and regional allocations were in general grouped close together to allow for

6848-471: The home of smaller broadcasters who were not willing to bid on the more coveted VHF allocations. These issues are greatly reduced with digital television, and today most over-the-air broadcasts take place on UHF, while VHF channels are being retired. To avoid giving the impression that channels were disappearing, digital broadcast systems have a virtual channel concept, allowing stations to display their original VHF channel number while actually broadcasting on

6955-539: The independent UHF station phenomenon; a fictional UHF station was also parodied in the 1980 film Pray TV . Some cities did develop successful independent UHF stations, many of these located in or near state capital cities, or served by nearby major rural regions. These included Montgomery , Alabama ; Frankfort , Kentucky ; Dover , Delaware ; Lincoln , Nebraska ; Topeka , Kansas ; Jefferson City , Missouri ; Lansing , Michigan ; Harrisburg , Pennsylvania ; Madison , Wisconsin ; and Springfield , Illinois . In

7062-400: The late 1950s and early 1960s) and the fall in television prices saw most households use a UHF set by the end of that decade. With the second and last VHF television service having launched in 1955, VHF TV was finally decommissioned for good in 1985 with no plans for it to return to use. The launch of Channel 5 in 1997 added a fifth national television network to UHF, requiring deviation from

7169-566: The late 1990s, freeing up the frequency for other uses. UHF was not commonly used in the Klang Valley until 1994 (despite TV3's signal also being available over UHF Channel 29, as TV3 transmitted over VHF Channel 12 in the Klang Valley). 1994 saw the introduction of the channel MetroVision (which ceased transmission in 1999, got bought over by TV3's parent company – System Televisyen Malaysia Berhad – and relaunched as 8TV in 2004). This

7276-500: The license freeze enacted in 1949 to end. Through the entire three-and-a-half-year freeze period, KC2XAK remained the only UHF television station in regular operation. When the FCC television license freeze ended in 1952, a huge backlog of potential stations applied, many allocated to the UHF band as defined by the 1952 rules. The first commercially licensed UHF television station was WWLP in Springfield, Massachusetts ; however,

7383-464: The meantime, these shortcomings led to "UHF taboos", which in effect limited each metropolitan area to only moderately more UHF stations than VHF ones, despite the much higher number of channels. Television sets in the United States were not mandated to include UHF tuners until 1964. With UHF's reputation for reception problems, the fraction of new TV receivers that were factory-equipped with all-channel tuners dropped from 35% in early 1953 to 9% by 1958,

7490-538: The mid-1950s, owing to FCC spacing rules to avoid co-channel and adjacent channel interference between VHF TV stations in the same or nearby cities. Two VHF TV stations on the same channel needed to be 160 or more miles apart, and two VHF TV stations on adjacent channel frequencies needed to be 60 or more miles apart. UHF stations in major population centers of the United States were usually either educational network or independent TV stations. The movie UHF (starring "Weird Al" Yankovic and Michael Richards ) parodied

7597-497: The most sets in use benefitted most from VHF allocations. For example, New York City, Washington-Baltimore, Los Angeles, and San Francisco received seven VHF stations apiece, and Chicago was allocated five, with the other two of those channels going to Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Rockford, Illinois . FCC rules published on April 11, 1952, defined the final modern-day UHF allocation of 70 channels, 14 through 83, with 6 MHz separation. It used standard NTSC standards. This would allow

7704-458: The neighbouring region. Initial uptake of UHF television was very slow: Differing propagation characteristics between VHF and UHF meant new additional transmitters needed to be built, often at different locations to the then-established VHF sites, and in general with a larger number of relay stations to fill the greater number of gaps in coverage that came with the new band. This led to poor picture quality in bad coverage areas, and many years before

7811-464: The network jumped into the bidding war for KRON. NBC was seen as the frontrunner, but it was outbid at the last minute by Young Broadcasting . NBC president and chief executive officer Bob Wright had previously warned that if NBC did not succeed in buying KRON, it would require any prospective buyer to uphold specific terms if it wanted to retain the NBC affiliation. After Young won the bidding, NBC demanded yearly payments of $ 10 million from Young,

7918-489: The opening of World War II . These were used in experimental television receivers in the UK in the 1930s, and became widely used during the war as radar receivers. Surplus tubes flooded the market in the post-war era. At the same time, the development of color television was taking its first steps, initially based on incompatible transmission systems. The US FCC set aside a block of the then-unused and now-practical UHF frequencies for color television use. The introduction of

8025-399: The order of $ 400,000). For this reason, channels in the high-VHF region were kept for television use. The power of the stations on these channels was also reduced, to 160 kW, about one-third of the earlier limit. Stations making the transition generally acquired a second channel allocation in the upper UHF region to test their new equipment, and then moved into the low-UHF or high-VHF once

8132-403: The original frequency allocation plan of the early 1960s and the allocation of UHF frequencies previously not used for television (such as UK Channels 35 and 37, previously reserved for RF modulators in devices such as domestic videocassette recorders , requiring an expensive VCR re-tuning programme funded by the new network). A lack of capacity within the band to accommodate a fifth service with

8239-637: The poor economic conditions at the time, the WTVJ sale was canceled. WVIT also remained unsold. LXTV was acquired in January 2008 by Local Media followed in March by the purchase of Skycastle Entertainment, Local Media's former outside sales and marketing firm. After NBC Weather Plus was shut down in late 2008, WNBC launched a replacement programming of local information, news and livestyle as NBC New York Nonstop in March 2009 using LXTV programs. In January 2009, Local Media and Fox Television Stations set up

8346-537: The prefectures of Iwate , Miyagi , and Fukushima were switched off on 31 March 2012. UHF broadcasting was used outside Kuala Lumpur and the Klang Valley by private TV station TV3 in the late 1980s, with the government stations only transmitting in VHF (Bands 1 and 3) and the 450 MHz range being occupied by the ATUR cellular phone service operated by Telekom Malaysia . The ATUR service ceased operation in

8453-450: The received energy immediately downstream will be about 40% of the original signal. In comparison, UHF blockage by the same obstruction will result on the order of 10% being received. Another difference is the nature of the electrical and radio noise encountered on the two frequency bands. UHF bands are subject to constant levels of low-level noise that appear as "snow" on an analog screen. VHF more commonly sees impulse noise that produces

8560-497: The revenue decline. However, the member stations may use the local news services as a reason for even more reduction in personnel. Others say that it will be difficult for rivals to work together. a. Also share in an "aerial news footage partnership" h. Helicopter shares 1. WANF, then called WGCL-TV, dropped out of the news share pool. NBC Owned Television Stations NBC Owned Television Stations (formerly NBC Local Media and NBC Television Stations Division ( TVSD ) )

8667-428: The roof and walls, electrical wiring, and the frames of doors and windows. A metal-framed window will present almost no barrier to a UHF signal, while a VHF signal may be attenuated or strongly diffracted. For stations with strong signals, UHF antennas mounted beside the television are relatively useful, and medium-distance signals 25–50 kilometres (16–31 mi) away can often be picked up by attic mounted antennas. On

8774-520: The same gain . For instance, Channel 2 in the North American television frequencies is at 54 MHz, which corresponds to a wavelength of 5.5 m, and thus requires dipole antenna about 2.75 m across. In comparison, the lowest channel in the UHF band, Channel 14, is on 470 MHz, a wavelength of 64 cm, or a dipole length of only 32 cm. A powerful VHF antenna using the log-periodic design might be as long as 3 m, while

8881-425: The same geographic area with a UHF transmitter requires a higher effective radiated power , implying a more powerful transmitter or a more complex antenna. However, the additional channels allow more broadcasters in a given region without causing objectionable mutual interference. UHF broadcasting became possible due to the introduction of new high-frequency vacuum tubes developed by Philips immediately prior to

8988-402: The same service area. DTV offsets the latter to a great degree, with the current FCC power limitations at 1 MW for UHF, 1 ⁄ 5 the former limits. Nevertheless, moving from a 100 kW low-VHF analog signal to a 1 MW UHF signal is still a considerable change, which some broadcasters estimated could cost up to $ 4 million per station (although most estimates were much lower, on

9095-500: The service achieved full national coverage. In addition to this, the only exclusively UHF service, BBC2, would run for only a few hours a day and run alternative programming for minority audiences in contrast to the more populist schedules of BBC1 and ITV. However the 1970s saw a large increase in UHF TV viewing while VHF took a significant decline: The appeal of colour, which was never introduced to VHF (despite preliminary plans to do so in

9202-450: The signal to correct for these errors. This works well with the type of constant low-level interference found on UHF, which FEC can effectively eliminate. In comparison, VHF noise is largely unpredictable, consisting of periods of little noise followed by periods of almost complete signal loss. Forward error correction cannot easily address this situation. For this reason, DTV broadcasting was initially going to take place entirely on UHF. In

9309-505: The sixth and the last, DWDZ-TV (channel 47) of the Associated Broadcasting Company in 1999, but it was silent in 2003. UHF channels in Metro Manila were used as an alternative to cable television which offered free programing for households in the target markets and became popular in the 1990s. Similarly, pay services were also introduced in late 1992, when DWBC-TV on channel 68 began initial transmissions as

9416-465: The standard intermediate frequency of 45.75 MHz. Another was very poor adjacent-channel rejection and channel selectivity by early tuner designs and manufactures. These problems were so significant that UHF-TV stations in the same geographic area were usually assigned a minimum of six channels apart from one another. Technical problems with the design of vacuum tubes for operation at high UHF frequencies were beginning to be addressed in 1954, but in

9523-480: The start of the Atlanta group, WGCL-TV exited the pool as they considered it restraining their ability to differentiation. The Orlando local news service launched July 16, 2009 is the first to include a local news cable channel, Central Florida News 13 . There is some concern that these agreements will cause local news coverage to be overly similar "or will enhance it." The involved stations claim that it will help

9630-673: The station's NBC affiliation contract early. However, Sunbeam balked because they did not want to lose NBC's strong lineup of sports programming that year, including the 1988 Summer Olympics . In the aftermath, WTVJ became an NBC owned-and-operated television station, CBS took over ownership of WCIX (now WFOR-TV ), and WSVN took over the Fox affiliation from WCIX. Also in 1987, General Electric transferred both KCNC-TV and WTVJ from General Electric Property Management to NBC itself, becoming an owned-and-operated TV station. In 1994, NBC took over majority control of KUTV in Salt Lake City. That same year,

9737-401: The stations by allowing more specialized reporting by not tying up resourcing for routine events. Many of the stations involved have reduced news staff due to decreased advertising revenue. Fracturing audiences will continue the revenue decline and the need to continue to reduce costs. These partnerships are a natural solution along with outsourcing and other partnerships and content sharing to

9844-482: The time (due to the fact that most television sets of the time were not equipped with UHF tuners), NBC shut down WBUF in 1958 and then sold the New Britain station in 1959. NBC would then re-purchase the station in New Britain, the present-day WVIT, in 1997. General Electric bought NBC in 1986, resulting in GE's station in Denver, KCNC-TV , becoming part of NBC's owned-and-operated stations group. One year later, NBC won

9951-402: The time of the 1948 FCC freeze. With the knowledge that UHF channel allocation would be necessary to expand television coverage, and with the knowledge that by 1949 VHF television was an entrenched standard, the FCC proposed intermixture , licensing both VHF and UHF stations in a single city. Intermixture would rely on consumers rapidly adopting television sets with UHF tuning capability, and on

10058-465: The top ten market stations, placing WTVJ in Miami and WVIT in Hartford up for sale. Post-Newsweek Stations agreed to buy WTVJ, which would have created a duopoly between WTVJ and Post-Newsweek-owned WPLG . However, FCC ownership rules prohibited the ownership of two of the four highest-rated television stations in a single market in terms of overall audience share. With the lack of FCC approval and

10165-410: The upfront cost of the equipment needed to reach those power levels. The introduction of digital television (DTV) changed the relative outcome of these effects. DTV systems use a system known as forward error correction (FEC) which adds information to the signal to allow it to correct errors. This works well if the error rate is well known, in which case a fixed amount of extra information is added to

10272-411: The use of aerials designed to receive a specific sub-band with greater efficiency than wider-band aerials could. Aerial manufacturers would therefore divide the band into over-lapping groups; A (channels 21–34), B (39–53), C/D (48–68) and E (39–68). The first service to use UHF was BBC2 in 1964 followed by BBC1 and ITV (both already broadcast on VHF) in 1969 and Channel 4 / S4C in 1982. PAL colour

10379-455: The vacated capacity was used for additional digital television services and put into alternative use, such as mobile telecommunications or internet services. Bandwidth for television in the United States was allocated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 1937, solely in the VHF (Very High Frequency) band, across 18 channels. American television broadcasting began experimentally in

10486-514: The war brought rapid expansion in the nascent broadcast television industry. Thirteen VHF channels was found to be insufficient to support the desired expansion of broadcast television across the United States. Interference and channel crowding in densely populated areas (such as the eastern mid-Atlantic states) was a particular problem. This bandwidth crunch was made even worse by the need to re-allocate VHF Channel 1 to land-mobile radio systems in 1948 due to radio-interference problems. To illustrate

10593-439: Was a joint venture between NBC and LIN Television Corporation that operated two NBC-affiliated television stations, KNSD and KXAS-TV . These stations under the joint venture were still considered owned-and-operated stations, as NBC held a majority stake in the venture. WBTS-LD (now Telemundo station WYCN-LD ) was added to this venture in November 2016 as the licensee for that station. The venture began in 1997 when LIN sold

10700-555: Was a top-10 television and radio market at the time, NBC had long wanted to "trade up" its holdings to a larger market. Also, Philadelphia was the largest market in which it did not own a station. The swap became official on January 22, 1956, as NBC moved its operations (including much of its Cleveland staff) to Philadelphia, with WPTZ becoming WRCV-TV. Westinghouse took over the WNBK/WTAM operation and changed its call letters to KYW-AM-FM-TV on February 13, 1956. NBC re-assumed control of

10807-423: Was converted entirely to digital UHF starting in December 2003, with all analogue television signals (both VHF and UHF) being terminated between 2010 and 2012. The analogue translators in northeastern Ishikawa Prefecture were shut down as part of a technical trial on 24 July 2010; analogue signals in the rest of that prefecture and 43 other prefectures were terminated on 24 July 2011. The analogue transmitters in

10914-426: Was flagging. While the more-established broadcasters were operating profitably on VHF channels as affiliates of the two largest TV networks (at the time, NBC and CBS), most of the original UHF local stations of the 1950s soon went bankrupt, limited by the range their signals could travel, the lack of UHF tuners in most TV sets and the paucity of advertisers willing to spend money on them. UHF stations fell quickly behind

11021-574: Was followed by Ntv7 in 1998 (also acquired by TV3's parent company in 2005) and recently Channel 9 (which started in 2003, ceased transmission in 2005, was also acquired by TV3's parent company shortly after, and came back as TV9 in early 2006). At current count, there are 6 distinct UHF signals receivable by an analog TV set in the Klang Valley: Channel 27 (8TV), Channel 29 (TV3 UHF transmission), Channel 37 (NTV7), Channel 42 (TV9), Channel 55 (TV Alhijrah) and Channel 39 (WBC). Channel 35

11128-416: Was impractical and uneconomic to require these well-established VHF users to move to other frequencies, such as the 300 MHz – 3 GHz UHF band. All of this made expansion of broadcast television channels into the UHF band inevitable, though the technology and broadcasting characteristics of UHF was at this time largely unproven. Even the television standard to use to broadcast on UHF was in question at

11235-867: Was initially formed by as "NBC Television Stations Division (TVSD)". WNBT (now known as WNBC ) in New York City, the oldest continuously operating commercial television station in the United States, first came on the air on July 1, 1941. NBC then established four other owned-and-operated stations: WNBW (now WRC-TV ) in Washington, D.C. in 1947, WNBQ (now WMAQ-TV ) in Chicago and WNBK (now WKYC ) in Cleveland in 1948, and KNBH (now KNBC ) in Los Angeles in 1949. In May 1955, NBC agreed to trade WNBK and WTAM-AM-FM to Westinghouse in return for KYW radio and WPTZ television in Philadelphia. Although Cleveland

11342-403: Was introduced on UHF only in 1967 (for BBC2) and 1969 (for BBC1 & ITV). As a consequence of achieving maximum national coverage, signals from one region would typically over-lap with that of another, which was accommodated for by allocating a different set of channels in each adjacent area, often resulting in greater choice for viewers when a network in one region aired different programmes to

11449-525: Was to ultimately become WNET 13 Newark ). Similarly, Delaware also had only one VHF station. Meanwhile, UHF broadcasting until 1949 was designated as experimental. In the fall of 1944, the Columbia Broadcasting System proposed a high-definition black and white system on the UHF band employing 750–1,000 scanning lines that offered the possibility of higher-definition monochrome and color broadcasting, both then were precluded from

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