Channel 78 was removed from television use in 1983, but was formerly used by television stations in North America which broadcast on UHF frequencies 854–860 MHz.
There was one full-power originating station on this frequency in Canada. CBEFT (Radio-CanadaWindsor) first aired on Channel 78 in 1976, moving to channel 54 in 1982. By 1996, the station had become a simple rebroadcaster of CBOFTOttawa-Hull. Later a CBLFT rebroadcaster, it had been moved to channel 35 due to the reassignment of UHF TV channels 52–69 to mobile telephony in 2009; it remained full-power analogue until closing down (along with all of CBC/Radio Canada's rebroadcasters) in 2012.
In the United States, channels 70-83 had served primarily as a "translator band" containing repeater transmitters to fill gaps in coverage for existing stations. These transmitters were forced to change frequency repeatedly, as stations which had moved from 70–83 due to the 1983 introduction of analogue mobile telephony typically had to move again by 2011 due to the loss of UHF TV channels 52–69 to cellular telephones. While as low-power television stations these were not required to convert to digital operation on the 2009 US transition date, most were adversely affected by the upstream full-power stations conversion. Many have gone silent.
WTTW (PBS Chicago) operated a channel 78 repeater from 1964 to 1972, now defunct.[1] Coverage is now provided directly by the main transmitters for the two Chicago PBS member stations (channels 11 and 20), housed at the Sears Tower upon its completion in 1973.
KOCO-TV (ABCOklahoma City) rebroadcaster K78BK Seiling, Oklahoma had moved to K55EZ channel 55. Rebroadcasters for this region have been moved to digital channels K19GZ-D, K41KS-D, K43KU-D, K47LB-D and K49DO-D, all operated by KFOR-TV.[9]