UHF Channel 75.....R.I.P?
There are no longer any TV stations authorized to operate on UHF Channel 75. The last one was K75CL Forsyth, Montana, a translator of KTVQ/Channel 2, Billings, Montana. It seems to have disappeared sometime since the end of 1999. Contacts at KTVQ-TV have indicated that the station has been off-the-air considerably longer.
Four other UHF-TV Channels are rapidly approaching extinction, namely Channels 78, 81, 82 and 83, which only have one station each. (How many of these stations above Channel 70 are still operating is an open question).
By the way, the application to allocated UHF Channel 37 in Meridian, Idaho (currently assigned by the FCC strictly for radio-astronomy, nationwide) to Meridian, Idaho has also disappeared. FCC policies has long prohibited the assignment of this channel.
As a rule, Channels 70-83 have been reassigned for the land mobile and cellular telephone industry since 1970's. However, many "grandfathered" translators still operated for many years since the cellular service was introduced. In the United States, there has not been full-service (full-powered) UHF-TV station since the late 1950's. Those who operated on these higher channels either moved to a much lower channel or simply ceased to exist. The general rule of thumb was, the higher the channel number, the higher power would be needed to do the job. As a result, the higher channels were re-assigned for the translator service. When Channels 70 through 83 were reassigned, the translator service was re-assigned to Channels 55 through 69 on a secondary basis. Today, UHF translators can be found anywhere on the band, again as a secondary service. With DTV now a reality, many UHF translators may have to move or cease operating once the transition to DTV has been completed.
Re-written by Peter Q. George
with information written and provided by Doug Smith and Ryan Grabow