A project I created that chronicles North American TV history via a multi-page document...

[Justin Hill]

Using Google Sheets and various historical records kept on various TV stations online, I've managed to create something that encapsulates the changes in the timeline of broadcast TV in North America from 1940 to the present day. Each page of this project consists of a decade of changes to over-the-air broadcast TV depicted in yearly changes to channel numbers, callsigns and network affiliation switches (including the "big switch" from 1994 to 1996 involving Fox) to various broadcast markets mostly in the U.S. and Canada along with some related changes in Mexico, The Caribbean and in some U.S. dependencies, with the biggest notable change in the mid-late 2000s and beyond being the introduction of subchannels as broadcast TV shifted from the NTSC standard to the ATSC standard. This project took me a few years to finish.

Here it is:
View: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oqmUFcx2AtVqfS6A6VWcC-3gAu_oa5YAa-ouD1EN6cM/edit?gid=262755525#gid=262755525

 

[dishstaller]

That was pretty interesting to look back at when our area got certain channels.
My favorite channel was one that I only got to watch when we visited my Grandparents down in Tampa....ch 44, WTOG. It was an independent station and carried all kinds of older shows. Of course back then, once a show was cancelled, you never saw it again so a channel like this was super cool. But they also had a show where they showcased older horror movies. If memory serves, it was called Creature Feature and was hosted by Dr. Paul Bearer. Good memories.

 

[FTA4PA]

Great job!

 

[Trip]

This is fantastic. I'm going to nitpick one thing, WNVC and WNVT were in the DC market until the Incentive Auction, at which point they moved into Charlottesville and Richmond. I'm not sure how you would show that change of market in the spreadsheet, but I don't think during the 1990s, for example, they should be in Charlottesville and Richmond; rather, they should be in DC.

Otherwise, I'm going to have to spend some time looking at this. I really like it. Excellent work!

- Trip

 

[N5XZS]

Just a suggestion, just push back further in time like starting world first video transmission from 1926 to 1940 to fill in gaps TV history.

That way it's looks more thorough in the timeline periods.

 

[Justin Hill]

Just a suggestion, just push back further in time like starting world first video transmission from 1926 to 1940 to fill in gaps TV history.

That way it's looks more thorough in the timeline periods.

I would, but it wouldn't be easy, as those experimental TV stations have very little information about them, with so many of them being short-lived, plus many of them don't have channel numbers.

List of experimental television stations - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[N5XZS]

The best way to do it is focus on well known experimental stations here in USA and UK and just compiled the informations from time period 1926 to 1940.

 

[Justin Hill]

The best way to do it is focus on well known experimental stations here in USA and UK and just compiled the informations from time period 1926 to 1940.

My focus is on North America (U.S./Canada/Mexico)