Network Broadcasting 1934 American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T)

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Silent. 'How telephone transmission lines are used to convey network programs to radio stations located in various sections of the country.

Opening scenes indicate the wide variety of modern uses of the radio. There follows a scene of an excited family listening to a radio program in 1922. On a map the principal broadcasting networks and lines of transmission are shown.

The next sequence shows the need for special transmission lines to carry the wide frequency range of radio programs...'

Originally a public domain film from the National Archives or Library of Congress Prelinger Archives, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and one-pass brightness-contrast-color correction & mild video noise reduction applied.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadcast_network

Wikipedia license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

A terrestrial network (or broadcast network in the United States) is a group of radio stations, television stations, or other electronic media outlets, that form an agreement to air, or broadcast, content from a centralized source...

Streaming media, Internet radio, and webcasting are sometimes considered forms of broadcasting despite the lack of terrestrial stations; its practitioners may also be called "broadcasters" or even "broadcast networks"...

Following the introduction of radio broadcasting in the early 1920s, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) developed the first radio network, linking together individual stations with specially prepared long-distance telephone lines in what at the time was called a "chain". The key station was AT&T's WEAF (now WFAN) in New York City...

In 1924, the Eveready Hour was broadcast over 12 stations, primarily located in the U.S. Northeast. Eveready Hour was the first commercially sponsored variety show in the history of broadcasting. By 1925, AT&T had linked together 26 stations in its network.

AT&T eventually decided to concentrate on its most profitable business, telephones, and in 1926 sold its broadcasting interests to the Radio Corporation of America (RCA). RCA's purchase included an agreement to lease AT&T phone lines.

RCA's "WJZ Chain"

In 1922 the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) followed AT&T's network model lead, and formed a small competing network centered on its New York City station, WJZ (now WABC). However, conflict resulted as RCA had a limited ability to lease lines from AT&T, and often had to use telegraph lines to connect stations, which had inferior acoustical properties.

NBC

After acquiring WEAF and AT&T's network assets in 1926, RCA created the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) and reorganized the WEAF chain (with WGR, WTIC, WTAG, WEEI, WJAR, WZAN, WFI-WLIT, WCAE, WRC, WTAM, WSAI, WWJ, WGN, WOC, KSD, WDAF, WCCO) as the NBC Red network and the WJZ chain as the NBC Blue network (with WBZ, WBZA, KYW, KDKA). (One explanation for the color designations is that they reflected the red and blue push pins used on a map that AT&T originally used to designate the affiliated stations on the two networks.)

On 23 December 1928, NBC instituted the first permanent transcontinental network. As of September 1938, when there were 154 NBC outlets; 23 composed the basic Red network and 24 composed the basic Blue network. Supplementing these basic networks were 107 stations, of which one was available only to the basic Red network, six were available only to the basic Blue network, and the remainder available to either. NBC also had a chain of shortwave stations, called the "NBC White Network", in the 1930s.

In 1941, the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) Report on Chain Broadcasting reviewed the alleged monopolistic practices of the radio networks. The FCC was concerned NBC Red and NBC Blue were anti-competitive. Because the FCC did not have the power to directly regulate networks, it decided to enact regulations affecting the stations, and adopted standards intended to force NBC to relinquish one of its networks. In 1943, the Supreme Court upheld the FCC's power to enforce its chain broadcasting regulations. As a consequence, NBC Blue was sold to Edward Noble who later named it the American Broadcasting Company (ABC). After NBC Blue was divested the remaining NBC Red network was renamed the NBC Radio Network.

CBS

In 1927, United Independent Broadcasters, Inc., supported by the Columbia Phonograph Record Company, started a new network of 16 stations (WOR New York, WFBL Syracuse, WMAK Buffalo-Lockport, WNAC Boston, WEAN Providence, WCAU Philadelphia, WJAS Pittsburgh, WCAO Baltimore, WADC Akron, WAIU Columbus, WKRC Cincinnati, WGHP Detroit, WOWO Fort Wayne, WMAQ Chicago, KMOX St. Louis, KOIL Council Bluffs) named the Columbia Phonographic Broadcasting System.

In 1928 William S. Paley assumed control of the network...