zlacker

Yes, in broadcast (over the air) TV, only every other channel was allocated in a given area. That's why most devices that connected to a TV (computers, VCRs, etc.) could use either channel 3 or channel 4 because one of the two would be unused.

>>SoftTa+(OP)
There were some exceptions, though, as the VHF TV channels aren't all contiguous. In North America, there's a gap between channels 4 and 5; and channels 6 and 7 are separated by the bands for several radio services (FM, aviation, amateur, and marine).

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cc/VHF_Usag...

>>Thinki+rP
Hm, didn't know that. But I still remember the channels we had when I was a kid:

2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 13, and UHF 30.

I also remember that depending on the radio, you could sometimes pick up the audio for I think VHF channel 6 at the low end of the FM dial.

>>SoftTa+wS
Yep, that was a thing with NTSC-M analog channel 6, which had the audio at 87.75MHz, just below the nominal bottom of the FM range at 88.1MHz. I used to listen to the 10 o'clock news that way.

>>SoftTa+wS
ISTR we had 2,4,5,9,11, and 30 (UHF). Channels 2-5 were ABC, CBS, and NBC. Channel 9 was PBS, and 11 and 30 were local stations that weren't affiliated with any of the major networks.