The phrase "channel dial" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used when referring to a device or control that adjusts the channel on a television or radio.
Example: "To change the channel, simply turn the channel dial located on the front of the TV."
Alternatives: "tuning knob" or "channel selector."
Changing the channel without a dial is a lost art.
Without broadcast, you're just "another channel on a dial," with no relationship to the local community brought about by local affiliate stations under the umbrella of a broadcast network.
A year or two ago, people didn't know how to stream Netflix in their homes, yet now many are using Netflix as if it were another channel on the dial.
Keep going with that, and you will wind up "clicking" through most of the channels on your dial.
The appeal of the new music shows, in particular, is not a departure from what glued audiences to "American Bandstand" back when there were only three channels on the dial.
The theoretical framework developed in this paper is applied to a practical example: the downlink channel of a dial-up PCM modem connection where the inputs to the channel are quantized and the outputs are real.
"In New York, we have more channels on the dial than there are people meters in our footprint," she said.
There is no Discovery Channel on the food dial.
If given another 10 years to spread unchecked, Clear Channel might cover the dial from end to end, not just in some cities, but coast to coast.
So, as a condition of the deal, Comcast had to agree to something called "neighborhooding" – they had to promise to locate their own channels in the same part of the dial as competing channels, instead of giving their own programming favorable locations and relegating the competition to the outer reaches of the cable channel lineup where viewers would never be able to find it.
With more than a dozen all-news channels on the television dial, the last thing this compact country would seem to need is another one.
