Buzz
In the days before the advent of Netflix, Hulu, and Roku sticks, people got their entertainment through analog television. Tuning in meant cycling through different cable or over-the-air channels, hoping to catch something interesting. For video game enthusiasts, it was about making sure the TV was set to channel 3 (or 4) for their Nintendo to appear on screen.
Yet one channel was almost always missing—channel 37. If you stumbled upon it, you’d likely just encounter static. Much like a building with a missing 13th floor, this oddity could leave you confused. (Then you’d probably end up watching Matlock or ALF and forget about it.) But there was a solid reason why no TV could pick up channel 37: the U.S. government forbade it.
In a story for Vice’s Motherboard, Ernie Smith explains the situation. To broadcast channel 37, it would need to operate on the 610 MHz frequency. Unfortunately, this was the same frequency used by the University of Illinois’s Vermilion River Observatory, located near Danville. This frequency, along with 410 MHz and 1.4 GHz, is heavily used for radio astronomy.
To put it simply, if channel 37 had occupied the 610 MHz frequency within a 600-mile radius of the observatory, it would have interfered with their massive 400-foot telescope. This vast area covered nearly the entire East Coast and major cities like Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis, and Washington, D.C.
A functional channel 37 would have blocked one of the three key 'panes' in the metaphorical window into the universe—just so people could watch Gilligan's Island.
Broadcasters didn’t seem concerned with scientific progress and frequently pushed for channel 37 to be used. However, science fought back and gained the backing of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) starting in 1960, when UHF signals were becoming widespread. Even efforts to reach a compromise—allowing a station to use the band but restricting its broadcasting hours—angered scientists. Ultimately, the FCC sided with them and permanently blocked any use of the channel 37 frequency.
Even though the Vermilion River Observatory closed in 1980, the ban still stands. Of course, you'd have to be using an analog television and receiving over-the-air signals to even care about it.
