The Jargon File (version 4.4.7, 29 Dec 2003):

channel hopping
 n.

    [common; IRC, GEnie] To rapidly switch channels on IRC, or a GEnie chat
    board, just as a social butterfly might hop from one group to another at a
    party. This term may derive from the TV watcher's idiom, channel surfing.


The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (30 December 2018):

channel hopping

    To rapidly switch channels on IRC, or a GEnie chat
   board.  This term may derive from the TV idiom, "channel
   surfing".

   [Jargon File]

   (1994-11-29)