Until 1948, Land Mobile Radio and television broadcasters shared the same frequencies, which caused interference.
Aside from the shared frequency issue, this part of the VHF band was (and to some extent still is) prone to higher levels of radio-frequency interference (RFI) than even Channel 2 (System M).
[1] Commercial TV allocations were made by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) under the NTSC system on July 1, 1941.
While a handful of construction permits were issued for this final version of Channel 1, no station ever actually broadcast on it before it was removed from use in 1948.
Community television stations covered smaller cities and were allowed to use less radiated power.
The FCC decided in 1948 that a primary (non-shared) allocation of the VHF radio spectrum was needed for television broadcasting.
Channel 1 was reassigned to fixed and mobile services (44–50 MHz) in order to end their former shared use of other VHF TV frequencies.
[8] As of September 2000, the Federal Spectrum Use of the band (which is regulated by the NTIA and not the FCC)[9] was as follows: FCC (NON-Federal) allocations for the band: There is also a conflict with the de facto intermediate frequency for system M television, where receiver tuners shift and flip the incoming signal onto 41.25 MHz (analogue audio) and 45.75 MHz (analogue video) after the initial RF amplifier.
This standard was adopted due to image frequency problems when UHF television broadcasting initially struggled to life in 1952.