Channel 73 was formerly used by a handful of television stations in North America which broadcast on 824-830 MHz. It was removed from television use in 1983 and the frequencies reassigned to analog mobile telephony.

As higher frequencies were less able to diffract around terrestrial obstacles, very few stations originated on channel 73. The channel was available when the UHF TV band opened in 1953, but the few who did use UHF 73 initially soon moved to lower frequencies or went dark:

  • WFMJ-TV (NBC Youngstown) was launched on March 8, 1953, on channel 73. The station moved to its current channel, 21, on August 7, 1954.
  • WLOK-TV (NBC Lima, Ohio) broadcast on channel 73 from April 18, 1953, until December 8, 1954. On April 24, 1955, the station became WIMA-TV, moving to channel 35. It is now WLIO, digital VHF 8.[1][2]
  • WTVU 73 in Scranton, Pennsylvania originally broadcast from August 17, 1953, to July 1, 1955 (1kW TPO) as an independent and (very briefly) as a DuMont affiliate; it is no longer operational.

For much of the history of UHF TV broadcasting in the United States, channel 70–83 served primarily as a "translator band" for repeater transmitters filling gaps in coverage for existing stations:

In Auburn, Indiana, 3ABN affiliate W26DH-D formerly numbered its digital subchannels in a 73.x virtual channel pattern; the station had no ties to the historical UHF channel 73. W26DH-D is now using 26 as its virtual channel.

References

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