The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is an American ^ b. English is the de facto language of American government and the sole language spoken at home by 80% of Americans age five and older. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language television network A television network is a telecommunications network for distribution of television content, whereby a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay TV providers. Until the mid-1980s, television programming in most countries of the world was dominated by a small number of broadcast networks. Many early television. Created in 1943 from the former NBC The National Broadcasting Company is an American television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices in Burbank, California. It is sometimes referred to as the "Peacock Network" due to its stylized peacock logo, created originally for color Blue radio network The Blue Network was the on-air name of an American radio production and distribution service from 1942 to 1945, which traced its formal origins back to 1927. It was born of a divestiture, arising from anti-trust litigation, of one of the two radio networks owned by the National Broadcasting Company, and is the direct predecessor of the American, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company , also known simply as Disney, is the largest media and entertainment conglomerate in the world. Founded on October 16, 1923 by brothers Walt Disney and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, the company was reincorporated as Walt Disney Productions in 1929. Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group The Disney/ABC Television Group manages all of The Walt Disney Company's worldwide entertainment and news television properties. The group includes the ABC Television Network ; the Disney Channels Worldwide global kids’ TV business (including, among others, Playhouse Disney and Disney XD; ABC Family and SOAPnet; as well as television. It first broadcast on television in 1948. Corporate headquarters are in the Upper West Side The Upper West Side is a neighborhood of the borough of Manhattan in New York City that lies between Central Park and the Hudson River above West 59th Street and below West 125th Street. It encompasses the neighborhood of Morningside Heights of Manhattan Manhattan is one of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on Manhattan Island at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York. It consists of Manhattan Island and several small adjacent islands: Roosevelt Island, Randall's Island, in New York City New York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over global commerce, finance, media, culture, art, fashion, research, education, and entertainment. As host of the,^[1] while programming offices are in Burbank, California Burbank is located in two distinct areas, with its downtown, civic center and key neighborhoods nestled on the slopes and foothills that rise to the Verdugo Mountains, and other areas located in flatlands at the eastern end of the San Fernando Valley, 12 miles north of Downtown Los Angeles adjacent to the Walt Disney Studios The Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California, United States, serve as the international headquarters for media conglomerate The Walt Disney Company and the corporate headquarters of The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company , also known simply as Disney, is the largest media and entertainment conglomerate in the world. Founded on October 16, 1923 by brothers Walt Disney and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, the company was reincorporated as Walt Disney Productions in 1929. Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader.

The formal name of the operation is American Broadcasting Companies, Inc., and that name appears on copyright notices for its in-house network productions and on all official documents of the company, including paychecks and contracts. A separate entity named ABC Inc., formerly Capital Cities/ABC Inc., is that firm's direct parent company, and that company is owned in turn by Disney. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Alphabet Network", due to the letters "ABC" being the first three letters of the Latin alphabet, in order.

History

Creating ABC

From the organization of the first true radio networks in the late 1920s, broadcasting in the United States was dominated by two companies, CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major American television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of the company's logo. It has also been called the " and RCA RCA Corporation, founded as Radio Corporation of America, was an electronics company in existence from 1919 to 1986. Currently, the RCA trademark is owned by the French conglomerate Technicolor SA through RCA Trademark Management S.A., a company owned by Technicolor. The trademark is used by Sony Music Entertainment and Technicolor, which licenses's NBC The National Broadcasting Company is an American television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices in Burbank, California. It is sometimes referred to as the "Peacock Network" due to its stylized peacock logo, created originally for color. Before NBC's 1926 formation, RCA had acquired AT&T AT&T Inc. is the largest provider of fixed telephony in the United States, and also provides broadband and subscription television services. AT&T is the second largest provider of mobile telephony service in the United States, with over 90.1 million wireless customers, and more than 210 million total customers's New York City New York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over global commerce, finance, media, culture, art, fashion, research, education, and entertainment. As host of the station WEAF (later WNBC, now CBS-owned WFAN). With WEAF came a loosely organized system feeding programming to other stations in the northeastern U.S. RCA, before the acquisition of the WEAF group in mid-1926, had previously owned a second such group, with WJZ in New York as the lead station (purchased by RCA in 1923 from Westinghouse Founded in 1886 as Westinghouse Electric Company and later renamed Westinghouse Electric Corporation by George Westinghouse. The company purchased CBS in 1995 and was renamed CBS Corporation in 1997. George Westinghouse had previously founded the Westinghouse Air Brake Company) . These were the foundations of RCA's two distinct programming services, the NBC "Red" and NBC "Blue The Blue Network was the on-air name of an American radio production and distribution service from 1942 to 1945, which traced its formal origins back to 1927. It was born of a divestiture, arising from anti-trust litigation, of one of the two radio networks owned by the National Broadcasting Company, and is the direct predecessor of the American" networks. Legend has it that the color designations originated from the color of the push-pins early engineers used to designate affiliates of WEAF (red pins) and WJZ (blue pins).

After years of study, the FCC The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, directed and empowered by Congressional statute (see 47 U.S.C. § 151 and 47 U.S.C. § 154), and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, in 1940 issued a "Report on Chain Broadcasting." Finding that NBC Red, NBC Blue, CBS, and MBS The Mutual Broadcasting System was an American radio network, in operation from 1934 to 1999. In the golden age of U.S. radio drama, MBS was best known as the original network home of The Lone Ranger and The Adventures of Superman and as the long-time radio residence of The Shadow. For many years, it was a national broadcaster for Major League dominated American broadcasting, this report proposed "divorcement", requiring the sale by RCA of one of its chains. NBC Red was the larger radio network, carrying the leading entertainment and music programs. In addition, many Red affiliates were high-powered, clear-channel In the Bahamas, Canada, Mexico, and the United States, a clear-channel station is an AM radio station which is given extraordinary protection from interference to its nighttime signal. Clear-channel stations are sometimes known colloquially as blowtorches stations, heard nationwide. NBC Blue offered most of the company's news and cultural programs, many of them "sustaining" or unsponsored. Among other findings, the FCC claimed RCA used NBC Blue to suppress competition against NBC Red. The FCC did not regulate or license networks directly. However, it could influence them by means of its hold over individual stations. Consequently, the FCC issued a ruling that "no license shall be issued to a standard broadcast station affiliated with a network which maintains more than one network." NBC argued this indirect style of regulation was illegal and appealed to the courts. However, the FCC won on appeal, and NBC was forced to sell one of its networks. It opted to sell NBC Blue.

The task of selling of NBC Blue was given to Mark Woods; throughout 1942 and 1943, NBC Red and NBC Blue divided their assets. A price of $8 million was put on the assets of the Blue group, and Woods shopped the Blue package around to potential buyers. One such, investment bank Dillon, Read made an offer of $7.5 million, but Woods and RCA chief David Sarnoff David Sarnoff was an American businessman and pioneer of American commercial radio and television. He founded the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) and throughout most of his career he led the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in various capacities from shortly after its founding in 1919 until his retirement in 1970 held firm at $8 million. The Blue package contained leases on land-lines and on studio facilities in New York, Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C. , formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States, founded on July 16, 1790. The City of Washington was originally a separate municipality within the Territory of Columbia until an act of Congress in 1871 effectively merged the City and the, Chicago Chicago ( /ʃɨˈkɑːɡoʊ/ or /ʃɨˈkɔːɡoʊ/) is the largest city in both Illinois and the Midwest, and the third most populous city in the United States, with over 2.8 million residents. Its metropolitan area, commonly named "Chicagoland", is the 26th most populous in the world, home to an estimated 9.7 million people spread and Los Angeles Los Angeles is the second most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of California and the western United States, with a population of 3.83 million within its administrative limits on a land area of 498.3 square miles (1,290.6 km2). The urban area of Los Angeles extends beyond the administrative city limits with a; contracts with talent and with about sixty affiliates; the trademark and "good will" associated with the Blue name; and licenses for three stations (WJZ in New York, San Francisco's San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the fourth most populous city in California and the 12th most populous city in the United States, with a 2008 estimated population of 808,977. The only consolidated city-county in California, it encompasses a land area of 46.7 square miles on the northern end of the San Francisco KGO KGO is a news/talk-format radio station radio with offices and studios in San Francisco, California. Unlike most other American news/talk stations, KGO originates nearly all of its own programming locally. Since 1978, KGO radio has received Arbitron's number-one ranking in the Bay Area. Operating with 50,000 watts of power as a clear channel, and WENR in Chicago — really a half-station, since WENR shared time and a frequency with "Prairie Farmer" station WLS WLS is a Chicago clear-channel AM station on 890 kHz. It uses C-QUAM AM stereo and transmits with 50,000 watts from transmitter and towers on the south edge of Tinley Park, Illinois, with which it would later merge under full ABC ownership after World War II).

RCA finally found a buyer in Edward Noble, owner of Life Savers Life Savers is an American brand of ring-shaped mints and artificially fruit-flavored hard candy. The candy is known for its distinctive packaging, coming in aluminum foil rolls candy and the Rexall Rexall was a chain of North American drugstores, and the name of their store-branded products. The stores, having roots in the federation of United Drug Stores starting in 1902, licensed the Rexall brand name to as many as 12,000 drug stores across the United States from 1920 to 1977 drugstore chain. In order to complete the station-license transfer, Noble had to sell the New York radio station that he owned, WMCA WMCA, 570 AM, is a radio station in New York City, most known for its "Good Guys" Top 40 era in the 1960s. It is currently owned by Salem Communications and plays a Christian radio format. Its three-tower transmitter site is located on the Hackensack River, in Kearny, New Jersey. Also, FCC hearings were required. Controversy ensued over Noble's intention to keep Mark Woods on as president, which led to the suggestion that Woods would continue to work with (and for) his former employers. This had the potential to derail the sale. During the hearings, Woods said the new network would not sell airtime to the American Federation of Labor The American Federation of Labor was one of the first federations of labor unions in the United States. It was founded in Columbus, Ohio in December 1886 by an alliance of craft unions disaffected from the Knights of Labor, a national labor association. Samuel Gompers of the Cigar Makers' International Union was elected president of the Federation. Noble evaded questioning on similar points by hiding behind the NAB The National Association of Broadcasters is a trade association representing the interests of for-profit, over-the-air radio and television broadcasters in the United States. The NAB represents more than 8,300 terrestrial radio and television stations as well as broadcast networks code. Frustrated, the chairman advised Noble to do some rethinking. Apparently he did, and the sale closed on October 12, 1943. The new network, known simply as "The Blue Network", was owned by the American Broadcasting System, a company Noble formed for the deal. It sold airtime to organized labor.

In mid-1944, Noble renamed his network American Broadcasting Company. This set off a flurry of re-naming; to avoid confusion, CBS changed the call-letters of its New York flagship, WABC-AM 880, to WCBS-AM WCBS , often referred to as "WCBS Newsradio 880", is a radio station in New York City. Owned by CBS Radio, the station broadcasts on a clear channel and is the flagship station of the CBS Radio Network. Its studios are located within the CBS Broadcast Center in midtown Manhattan, and the transmitter is located on High Island in the Bronx, in 1946. In 1953, WJZ in New York and its sister television station took on the abandoned call-letters WABC WABC , known as "NewsTalkRadio 77," is a radio station in New York City. Owned by the Citadel Broadcasting Corporation, the station broadcasts on a clear channel and is the flagship station of Citadel Media (formerly ABC Radio Networks). WABC shares studio facilities with sister station WPLJ (95.5 FM) and former sister stations WEPN and and WABC-TV WABC-TV, channel 7, is the flagship station of the Walt Disney Company-owned American Broadcasting Company, located in New York City. WABC-TV is best known in broadcasting circles for its highly successful version of the Eyewitness News format and for its morning show Live with Regis and Kelly, syndicated nationally by corporate cousin Disney-ABC. Westinghouse reclaimed the WJZ callsign when it acquired a Baltimore television station in 1959.

ABC Radio Citadel Media is an American radio network owned and operated by Citadel Broadcasting. It currently controls many of the assets of the former ABC Radio Networks, which Citadel bought in June 2007. Prominent national network programming heard through Citadel includes Mark Levin, Don Imus, Bob Brinker and Sean Hannity began slowly; with few "hit" shows, it had to build an audience. Noble paid to acquire more stations, among them Detroit's WXYZ WXYT is an AM radio station located in Detroit, Michigan. Its transmitter is in Monroe County at Ash Township and operations and studios are at CBS Radio's facilities in Southfield, Michigan. The station is owned by CBS Radio Inc. (formerly Infinity Broadcasting) and used the on-air nickname "1270-XYT The Sports Station" until October 200, which had been an NBC (Blue)/ABC affiliate since 1935. WXYZ was a profitable operation and was known as where The Lone Ranger The Lone Ranger is an American radio and television show created by George W. Trendle and developed by Fran Striker, Sergeant Preston and The Green Hornet The Green Hornet is a masked superhero, created by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker for an American radio program in the 1930s. The character also has appeared in film serials in the 1940s, a network television program in the 1960s, and multiple comic book series from the 1940s to the present . Though various incarnations sometimes change originated (although these programs were not included in the sale). Noble also bought KECA (now KABC KABC 790 AM is a Los Angeles radio station, and a West Coast flagship station for the Citadel Broadcasting company. A pioneer of the talk radio format, the station went "all-talk" in 1960 and was one of the first stations to do so. KABC is one of many Disney/ABC Radio stations that has now merged with Citadel Broadcasting but remains an) in Los Angeles, to give the network a Hollywood production base. Counter-programming became an ABC specialty, for example, placing a raucous quiz-show like Stop the Music! against more thoughtful fare on NBC and CBS. Unlike the other networks, ABC pre-recorded many programs; advances in tape-recording brought back from conquered Germany meant that the audio quality of tape could not be distinguished from "live" broadcasts. As a result, several high-rated stars who wanted freedom from rigid schedules, among them Bing Crosby Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor whose career stretched more than half a century from 1926 until his death in 1977. Crosby's unique bass-baritone voice made him the best-selling recording artist until well into the rock era, with over half a billion records in circulation, moved to ABC. Though still rated fourth, by the late 1940s ABC had begun to close in on the better-established networks.

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