Misplaced Pages

#732267

234-505: CBS was founded as a radio network in 1927 and then expanded to television in the 1940s. Although it primarily remained an independent company throughout most of the 20th century, Paramount Pictures temporarily held a 49 percent ownership stake from 1929 to 1932. However, in 1995 the Westinghouse Electric Corporation acquired the company, becoming CBS Corporation (after selling certain assets). In 2000, CBS sold again to

468-489: A fourth commercial network . Paramount Pictures purchased the Hughes Television Network (HTN) including its satellite time in planning for PTVS in 1976. Paramount sold HTN to Madison Square Garden Corporation in 1979. But Diller believed strongly in the concept, and so took his fourth-network idea with him when he moved to 20th Century Fox in 1984, where Fox's then freshly installed proprietor, Rupert Murdoch

702-574: A 1956 remake of his 1923 film The Ten Commandments . DeMille died in 1959. Like some other studios, Paramount saw little value in its film library and sold 764 of its pre-1950 films to MCA Inc. / EMKA, Ltd. (known today as Universal Television ) in February 1958. By the early 1960s, Paramount's future was doubtful. The high-risk movie business was wobbly; the theater chain was long gone; investments in DuMont and in early pay-television came to nothing; and

936-475: A Deal (1963–1968 and 1990–1991, as well as a short-lived prime-time revival in 2003), Jeopardy! (1964–1975 and 1978–1979), The Hollywood Squares (1966–1980), Wheel of Fortune (1975–1989 and 1991), Password Plus/Super Password (1979–1982 and 1984–1989), Sale of the Century (1969–1973 and 1983–1989) and Scrabble (1984–1990 and 1993). The last game show ever to air as part of NBC's daytime schedule

1170-416: A Lesser God and The Accused . During this period, responsibility for running the studio passed from Eisner and Katzenberg to Frank Mancuso, Sr. (1984) and Ned Tanen (1984) to Stanley R. Jaffe (1991) and Sherry Lansing (1992). More so than most, Paramount's slate of films included many remakes and television spin-offs ; while sometimes commercially successful, there have been few compelling films of

1404-464: A Paramount network from 25 years earlier. In 1999, Viacom bought out United Television's interests, and handed responsibility for the start-up network to the newly acquired CBS unit, which Viacom bought in 2000 – an ironic confluence of events as Paramount had once invested in CBS, and Viacom had once been the syndication arm of CBS, as well. During this period the studio acquired some 30 TV stations to support

1638-804: A Saturday edition of Today . Most of the series featured on the TNBC lineup were executive produced by Peter Engel (such as City Guys , Hang Time , California Dreams , One World and the Saved by the Bell sequel, Saved by the Bell: The New Class ), with the lineup being designed from the start to meet the earliest form of the FCC's educational programming guidelines under the Children's Television Act . NBA Inside Stuff , an analysis and interview program aimed at teens that

1872-514: A bid for a merger with Paramount Communications; this quickly escalated into a bidding war with Barry Diller 's QVC . But Viacom prevailed, ultimately paying $ 10 billion for the Paramount holdings. Viacom and Paramount had planned to merge as early as 1989. Paramount is the last major film studio located in Hollywood proper. When Paramount moved to its present home in 1927, it was in the heart of

2106-752: A bush and saying Boo!" Before the United States joined World War II , in 1940, CBS recruited Edmund A. Chester from his position as Bureau Chief for Latin America at the Associated Press to serve as Director of Latin American Relations and Director of Short Wave Broadcasts for the CBS radio network. In this capacity, Chester coordinated the development of the Network of the Americas (La Cadena de las Americas) with

2340-594: A co-branded version of InfoSpace to deliver minimal portal content. In mid-2007, NBCi.com began to mirror the main NBC.com website; NBCi.com was eventually redirected to the NBC.com domain in 2010. Only one legacy of this direction remains in the website of then-O&O WCMH-TV in Columbus, Ohio (now owned by Nexstar ), which continues to use the URL "nbc4i.com". NBC has used a number of logos throughout its history; early logos used by

2574-413: A commercial station in 1946, and changed that station's call sign to WBBM-TV , moving the CBS affiliation away from WGN-TV . WCBS-TV would ultimately be the only station (as of 2013) built and signed on by CBS. The rest of the stations would be acquired by CBS, either in an ownership stake or outright purchase. In television's early years, the network bought Washington, D.C. affiliate WOIC (now WUSA ) in

SECTION 10

#1732923361733

2808-475: A company specializing in search engines that learned from searches initiated by its users, for $ 32 million. The experiment lasted roughly one season; after its failure, NBCi's operations were folded back into NBC. The NBC Television portion of the website reverted to NBC.com. However, the NBCi website continued in operation as a portal for NBC-branded content (NBCi.com would be redirected to NBCi.msnbc.com), using

3042-651: A controlling interest in NBCUniversal in 2011 and acquired GE's remaining stake in 2013. NBC is the home broadcaster of some of the longest continuously running American television series , including the news program Meet the Press (debuted 1947); Today (debuted 1952); The Tonight Show (debuted nationally 1954); and Saturday Night Live (debuted 1975). The drama series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit , which debuted in 1999, began its 26th season in October 2024 and

3276-420: A different idea, designed to get CBS programs emanating from as many radio sets as possible: he would give the sustaining programs away for free, provided the station would run every sponsored show, and accept CBS's check for doing so. CBS soon had more affiliates than either NBC Red or NBC Blue . Paley valued style and taste, and in 1929, once he had his affiliates happy and his company's creditworthiness on

3510-572: A digital subchannel or because a primary feed NBC affiliate has not yet upgraded their transmission equipment to allow content to be presented in HD. NBC's master feed has not fully converted to 1080p or 2160p ultra-high-definition television (UHD). However, some NBC stations have already begun broadcasting at 1080p via ATSC 3.0 multiplex stations. One notable example is WRAL-TV in Raleigh, North Carolina (a station that re-joined NBC in February 2016), which

3744-445: A few new hits over the next couple of years, including Kate & Allie , Newhart , Cagney & Lacey , Scarecrow and Mrs. King , and Murder, She Wrote . However, this resurgence was short-lived, as CBS had become mired in debt as a result of a failed takeover effort by Ted Turner , which CBS chairman Thomas Wyman successfully helped to fend off. The network sold its St. Louis owned-and-operated station KMOX-TV, and allowed

3978-486: A few smaller markets, such as Binghamton, New York ( WBGH-CD ), Jackson, Tennessee ( WNBJ-LD ) and Juneau, Alaska ( KATH-LD ), that do not have enough full-power stations to support a standalone affiliate. In some markets, these stations also maintain digital simulcasts on a subchannel of a co-owned/co-managed full-power television station. Southern New Hampshire receives NBC programming via network-owned WBTS-CD , licensed to serve Nashua ; while nominally licensed as

4212-677: A five-month battle with QVC , and completed the merger in July. At the time, Paramount's holdings included Paramount Pictures, Madison Square Garden , the New York Rangers , the New York Knicks , and the Simon & Schuster publishing house. The deal had been planned as early as 1989, when the company was still known as Gulf and Western. Though Davis was named a member of the board of National Amusements , which controlled Viacom, he ceased to manage

4446-605: A foot in the door at the networks, the newly reincorporated Paramount Television eventually became known as a specialist in half-hour situation comedies. In 1968, Paramount formed Films Distributing Corp to distribute sensitive film product, including Sin With a Stranger , which was one of the first films to receive an X rating in the United States when the MPAA introduced their new rating system . In 1970, Paramount teamed with Universal Pictures to form Cinema International Corporation ,

4680-589: A heavily advertised online venture serving as an attempt to launch a web portal . This move saw NBC partner with Xoom.com (not to be confused with the current money transfer service ), e-mail.com, AllBusiness.com , and Snap.com (eventually acquiring all four companies outright; not to be confused with the current-day parent of Snapchat ) to launch a multi-faceted internet portal with e-mail, web hosting, community, chat and personalization capabilities, and news content. Subsequently, in April 2000, NBC purchased GlobalBrain,

4914-536: A joint venture with The Washington Post in 1950, only to sell its stake to the newspaper in 1954 due to tighter FCC ownership regulations. CBS would also temporarily return to relying on its own UHF technology by owning WXIX in Milwaukee (now CW affiliate WVTV ) and WHCT in Hartford (now Univision affiliate WUVN ). However, as UHF was not viable for broadcasting at the time (due to the fact that most television sets of

SECTION 20

#1732923361733

5148-558: A lease for $ 1.5 million. Since NBC was the broadcast arm of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), its chief David Sarnoff approached his decisions as both a broadcaster and as a hardware executive; NBC's affiliates all had the latest RCA broadcasting equipment, and were often the best-established stations, or were on " clear channel " frequencies. Yet Sarnoff's affiliates were mistrustful of him. Paley had no such split loyalties: his and his affiliates' success rose and fell with

5382-432: A lively history, has been turned into a post-production and music-scoring facility for Warners, known simply as "The Lot". For a time the semi-industrial neighborhood around Paramount was in decline, but has now come back. The recently refurbished studio has come to symbolize Hollywood for many visitors, and its studio tour is a popular attraction. In 1983, Gulf and Western began a restructuring process that would transform

5616-522: A low-power class A station, it transmits a full-power signal under a channel share with the WGBH Educational Foundation and its secondary Boston station WGBX-TV from Needham, Massachusetts , and serves as the NBC station for the entire Boston market. Until 2019, NBC operated a low-powered station in Boston, WBTS-LD (now WYCN-LD ), which aimed to serve as its station in that market while using

5850-408: A mid-ocean voyage, he rushed to the ship's radio room and cabled New York to sign Crosby immediately to a contract for a daily radio show. While the CBS primetime lineup featured music, comedy and variety shows, the daytime schedule was a direct conduit into American homes – and into the hearts and minds of American women. For many, it was the bulk of their adult human contact during the course of

6084-478: A month as the 1929 stock market crash sent all stock value tumbling. It galvanized Paley and his troops, who had no alternative but to "turn the network around and earn the $ 2,000,000 in two years... This is the atmosphere in which the CBS of today was born." The near-bankrupt film studio sold its CBS shares back to the network in 1932. In the first year of Paley's watch, CBS's gross earnings more than tripled, going from $ 1.4 million to $ 4.7 million. Much of

6318-412: A movie factory, turning out sixty to seventy pictures a year. Such were the benefits of having a huge theater chain to fill, and of block booking to persuade other chains to go along. In 1933, Mae West would also add greatly to Paramount's success with her suggestive movies She Done Him Wrong and I'm No Angel . However, the sex appeal West gave in these movies would also lead to the enforcement of

6552-461: A national reach of 88.91% of all households in the United States (or 277,821,345 Americans with at least one television set). Since January 24, 2022, when CBS affiliate WBKB-TV in Alpena, Michigan affiliated its DT2 subchannel with NBC, NBC is, to date, the only major network with an in-market affiliate in every designated market area in the United States. Currently, New Jersey and Delaware are

6786-465: A network of additional full-power stations to cover the market in full (including Merrimack, New Hampshire -licensed Telemundo station WNEU , which transmitted WBTS on a second subchannel); NBC purchased the Nashua station (formerly WYCN-CD) in early 2018 after the FCC spectrum auction , and in 2019 relocated WYCN-LD to Providence, Rhode Island to serve as a Telemundo station for that market. Tegna Media

7020-515: A new Saturday morning block programmed by Litton Entertainment under the Children's Television Act. It's called The More You Know , inspired by the name of brand extension of The More You Know —a series of public service campaigns first launched by NBC in 1989. The block premiered on October 8, 2016, replacing NBC Kids block (originally October 1, 2016, but postponed due to the NBC network coverage of

7254-480: A new company that would distribute films by the two studios outside the United States. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer would become a partner in the mid-1970s. Both Paramount and CIC entered the video market with Paramount Home Video (now Paramount Home Entertainment ) and CIC Video , respectively. Robert Evans abandoned his position as head of production in 1974; his successor, Richard Sylbert , proved to be too literary and too tasteful for Gulf and Western's Bluhdorn. By 1976,

History of CBS - Misplaced Pages Continue

7488-512: A new, television-trained team was in place headed by Barry Diller and his "Killer-Dillers", as they were called by admirers or "Dillettes" as they were called by detractors. These associates, made up of Michael Eisner , Jeffrey Katzenberg , Dawn Steel and Don Simpson would each go on and head up major movie studios of their own later in their careers. The Paramount specialty was now simpler. " High concept " pictures such as Saturday Night Fever and Grease hit big, hard, and fast all over

7722-467: A practice imposed by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission in which a pay television provider supplants an American station's signal with a feed from a Canadian station/network airing a particular program in the same time slot to protect domestic advertising revenue. Some of these affiliates are also receivable over the air in southern areas of the country located near

7956-403: A requirement for closets that would accommodate 300 suits and 100 shirts, and had special racks for 100 neckties. As Paley grew more remote, he installed a series of buffer executives who sequentially assumed more and more power at CBS: first Ed Klauber, then Paul Kesten, and finally Frank Stanton . Second only to Paley as the author of CBS's style and ambitions in its first half-century, Stanton

8190-697: A second channel, the Sci-Fi Channel (now known as Syfy ), in 1992. As its name implied, it focused on films and television series within the science fiction genre. Much of the initial programming was owned either by Paramount or Universal. Paramount bought one more television station in 1993: Cox Enterprises ' WKBD-TV in Detroit, Michigan, at the time an affiliate of the Fox Broadcasting Company . In February 1994, Viacom acquired 50.1% of Paramount Communications Inc. shares for $ 9.75 billion, following

8424-794: A separate digital channel, available on satellite and cable providers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, which shut down as a TV station in the end of 2009. NBC programming is available in Mexico through free-to-air affiliates in markets located within proximity to the Mexico–United States border (such as KYMA-DT / Yuma, Arizona ; KGNS-TV / Laredo, Texas ; KTSM / El Paso, Texas ; KVEO / Brownsville, Texas ; and KNSD / San Diego ), whose signals are readily receivable over-the-air in border areas of northern Mexico. Some U.S.-based border affiliates are also available on subscription television providers throughout

8658-511: A series of Jack London movies. Paramount was the first successful nationwide distributor; until this time, films were sold on a statewide or regional basis, which had proved costly to film producers. Also, Famous Players and Lasky were privately owned while Paramount was a corporation. In 1916, Zukor engineered a three-way merger of his Famous Players, the Lasky Company, and Paramount. Zukor and Lasky bought Hodkinson out of Paramount, and merged

8892-401: A shift toward radio sponsorship. A 1942 act by Congress made advertising expenses a tax benefit, which sent even automobile and tire manufacturers – who had no products to sell since they had been converted to war production – scurrying to sponsor symphony orchestras and serious drama on radio. In 1940, only one-third of radio programs were sponsored, while two-thirds were sustaining; by

9126-424: A stable of exclusively-contracted film personnel (outside of Eddie Murphy ); this effort proved unsuccessful and studio president Dawn Steel decided to shut down the department on July 30, 1986. In 1987, Paramount Pictures, MGM/UA Communications Co. and Universal Pictures teamed up in order to market feature film and television product to China, a response to the 25-billion admission tickets that were clocked in

9360-467: A stage director with virtually no film experience, Cecil B. DeMille , who would find a suitable site in Hollywood. This place was a rented old horse barn converted into a production facility with an enlarged open-air stage located between Vine Street , Selma Avenue, Argyle Avenue and Sunset Boulevard . It was later known as the Lasky-DeMille Barn . In 1914, their first feature film, The Squaw Man

9594-548: A stock-swap merger deal between Time and Warner Communications. This caused Time to raise its bid for Warner to $ 14.9 billion in cash and stock. Gulf and Western responded by filing a lawsuit in a Delaware court to block the Time-Warner merger. The court ruled twice in favor of Time, forcing Gulf and Western to drop both the Time acquisition and the lawsuit, and allowing the formation of Time Warner . Paramount used cash acquired from

History of CBS - Misplaced Pages Continue

9828-522: A taste of infamy when The Mercury Theatre on the Air broadcast a radio adaptation of H. G. Wells ' The War of the Worlds , performed and directed by 23-year-old Orson Welles . Its unique format, a contemporary version of the story in the form of faux news broadcasts, allegedly told listeners that invaders from Mars were actually invading and devastating Grover's Mill, New Jersey , despite three disclaimers during

10062-472: A tender violin, "made him a soul mate to millions of women" on behalf of the R. J. Reynolds tobacco company, whose cellophane-wrapped Camel cigarettes were "as fresh as the dew that dawn spills on a field of clover". The most popular radio-friend of all was M. Sayle Taylor , the Voice of Experience , though his name was never uttered on air. Women mailed descriptions of the most intimate of relationship problems to

10296-427: Is a part-owner of Hulu (along with majority owner The Walt Disney Company , owner of ABC), and has offered full-length episodes of most of NBC's programming through the streaming service (which are available for viewing on Hulu's website and mobile app ) since Hulu launched in private beta testing on October 29, 2007. The most recent episodes of the network's shows are usually made available on NBC.com and Hulu

10530-608: Is currently the longest-running live-action series in American prime-time television history. As of 2022 , NBC provides 87 hours of regularly scheduled network programming each week. The network provides 22 hours of prime-time programming to affiliated stations Monday through Saturdays from 8:00p.m. to 11:00p.m. Eastern and Pacific Time (7:00p.m.–10:00p.m. in all other U.S. time zones) and Sundays from 7:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific Time (6:00p.m.–10:00p.m. in all other time zones). Daytime NBC News programming includes

10764-506: Is currently also broadcasting at 1080p via WNGT-CD , which is also serving as an ATSC 3.0 multiplex for the Raleigh area. While the equipment would allow the transmission of 2160p UHD, this was previously done through a secondary experimental station (WRAL-EX) where it transmitted limited NBC programming in UHD. The experimental station went off-air in 2018 as part of the FCC's repacking process. Meet

10998-404: Is the largest operator of NBC stations in terms of overall market reach, owning or providing services to 20 NBC affiliates (including those in larger markets such as Atlanta , Denver , St. Louis , Seattle and Cleveland ); Gray Television is the largest operator of NBC stations by numerical total, owning 28 NBC-affiliated stations. NBC provides video on demand access for delayed viewing of

11232-591: Is the last major film studio still headquartered in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles . Paramount Pictures dates its existence from the 1912 founding date of the Famous Players Film Company . Hungarian-born founder Adolph Zukor , who had been an early investor in nickelodeons , saw that movies appealed mainly to working-class immigrants. With partners Daniel Frohman and Charles Frohman he planned to offer feature-length films that would appeal to

11466-502: Is under the umbrella branding of The More You Know , based on the network's long-time strand of internally-produced public service announcements of the same name . It premiered on October 8, 2016, giving Litton control of all but Fox's Weekend morning E/I programming among the five major broadcast networks. Live sports programming is also provided on weekends at any time between 7:00 a.m. and 11:30 p.m. Eastern Time, but most commonly between 12 p.m. and 6 p.m. Eastern. Due to

11700-553: The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and All in the Family (and its many spinoffs) during the late 1960s and early 1970s. By the end of the 1960s, CBS was very successful in television ratings , but many of its shows, including The Beverly Hillbillies , Gunsmoke , Mayberry R.F.D. , Petticoat Junction , Lassie , Hee Haw , and Green Acres , were appealing to older and more rural audiences, rather than to

11934-492: The 2002–03 season , with select shows among that season's slate of freshmen scripted series being broadcast in HD from their debuts. The network completed its conversion to high definition in September 2012, with the launch of NBC Kids, a new Saturday morning children's block programmed by new partial sister network PBS Kids Sprout , which also became the second Saturday morning children's block with an entirely HD schedule (after

SECTION 50

#1732923361733

12168-697: The 2016 Ryder Cup ). NBC holds the broadcast rights to several annual specials and award show telecasts, including the Golden Globe Awards and the Primetime Emmy Awards (which are rotated across all four major networks each year). Since 1953, NBC has served as the official U.S. broadcaster of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade . CBS also carries unauthorized coverage of the Macy's parade as part of The Thanksgiving Day Parade on CBS ; however, as NBC holds rights to

12402-553: The American Record Corporation , parent of its one-time investor Columbia Records. In 1938, NBC and CBS each opened broadcast studios on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood in order to attract the entertainment industry's top talent to their networks. The extraordinary potential of radio news showed itself in 1930, when CBS suddenly found itself with a live telephone connection to a prisoner called "the Deacon", who described, from

12636-455: The Bankruptcy Act . On June 4, 1935, John E. Otterson became president of the re-emerged and newly renamed Paramount Pictures Inc. Zukor returned to the company and was named production chief but after Barney Balaban was appointed president on July 2, 1936, he was soon replaced by Y. Frank Freeman and symbolically named chairman of the board. On August 28, 1935, Paramount Pictures

12870-903: The Canada–United States border (signal coverage was somewhat reduced after the digital television transition in 2009 due to the lower radiated power required to transmit digital signals). NBC no longer exists outside the Americas as a channel in its own right. However, NBC News and MSNBC programs are broadcast for a few hours a day on OSN News, formerly known as Orbit News in Africa and the Middle East. Sister network CNBC Europe also broadcasts occasional breaking news coverage from MSNBC as well as The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon . CNBC Europe also broadcast daily airings of NBC Nightly News at 00:30 CET Monday to Fridays. In 1993, then-NBC parent General Electric acquired Super Channel, relaunching

13104-663: The Comcast Building . NBC also has offices in Chicago at the NBC Tower . Founded in 1926 by the Radio Corporation of America , NBC is the oldest of the traditional "Big Three" American television networks and is sometimes referred to as the " Peacock Network " in reference to its stylized peacock logo , which was introduced in 1956 to promote the company's innovations in early color broadcasting . NBC has twelve owned-and-operated stations and has affiliates in every TV market in

13338-516: The Department of State , the Office for Inter-American Affairs (chaired by Nelson Rockefeller ), and the Voice of America as part of President Roosevelt's support for Pan-Americanism during World War II. This network provided vital news and cultural programming throughout South America and Central America during the crucial World War II era, and fostered diplomatic relations between the United States and

13572-692: The Kaufman Astoria Studios , and Hollywood, California ), and became an early investor in radio, acquiring for the corporation a 50% interest in the new Columbia Broadcasting System in 1928 (selling it within a few years; this would not be the last time Paramount and CBS crossed paths). By acquiring the successful Balaban & Katz chain in 1926, Zukor gained the services of Barney Balaban (who would eventually become Paramount's president in 1936), his brother A. J. Balaban (who would eventually supervise all stage production nationwide and produce talkie shorts), and their partner Sam Katz (who would run

13806-520: The LXTV -produced 1st Look and Open House NYC air after Saturday Night Live (replays of the previous week's 1st Look also air on Friday late nights on most stations), with a Meet the Press encore a part of its Sunday overnight schedule. The network's weekend morning children's programming time slot is programmed by Litton Entertainment under a time-lease agreement. The three-hour block of programming designed mainly for 14-16-year-old teenage viewers

14040-785: The London Blitz galvanized American listeners. Even before Pearl Harbor , the conflict became "the story of the survival of Western civilization, the most heroic of all possible wars and stories. He was indeed reporting on the survival of the English-speaking peoples." With his "manly, tormented voice", Murrow contained and mastered the panic and danger he felt, thereby communicating it all the more effectively to his audience. Using his trademark self-reference "this reporter", he did not so much report news as interpret it, combining simplicity of expression with subtlety of nuance. Murrow himself said he tried to "describe things in terms that make sense to

14274-649: The Miss Universe and Miss USA pageants (NBC also held rights to the Miss Teen USA pageant from 2003, when NBC also assumed rights to the Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants as part of a deal brokered by Miss Universe Organization owner Donald Trump that gave the network half-ownership of the pageants, until 2007, when NBC declined to renew its contract to carry Miss Teen USA, effectively discontinuing televised broadcasts of that event until 2023). NBCUniversal relinquished

SECTION 60

#1732923361733

14508-589: The Paramount Publix Corporation . Eventually, Zukor shed most of his early partners; the Frohman brothers, Hodkinson and Goldwyn were out by 1917 while Lasky hung on until 1932, when, blamed for the near-collapse of Paramount in the Great Depression years, he was also tossed out. In 1931, to solve the financial problems of the company Zukor hired taxi/rental car magnate John D. Hertz as chairman of

14742-585: The Paramount Stations Group , while KECO was renamed to Paramount Parks . Paramount Television launched Wilshire Court Productions in conjunction with USA Networks, before the latter was renamed NBCUniversal Cable , in 1989. Wilshire Court Productions (named for a side street in Los Angeles) produced television films that aired on the USA Networks, and later for other networks. USA Networks launched

14976-692: The Production Code , as the newly formed organization the Catholic Legion of Decency threatened a boycott if it was not enforced. Paramount cartoons produced by Fleischer Studios continued to be successful, with characters such as Betty Boop and Popeye the Sailor becoming widely successful. One Fleischer series, Screen Songs , featured live-action music stars under contract to Paramount hosting sing-alongs of popular songs. The animation studio would rebound with Popeye , and in 1935, polls showed that Popeye

15210-521: The TLC series Trading Spaces ); the Emmy-nominated reality game show Endurance , hosted and produced by J. D. Roth (whose production company, 3-Ball Productions, would also produce reality series The Biggest Loser for NBC beginning in 2003); and scripted series such as Strange Days at Blake Holsey High and Scout's Safari . The block later expanded to include some animated series such as Kenny

15444-523: The United States . Some of the stations are also available in Canada , the Caribbean, and Mexico via pay-television providers or in border areas over the air. NBC also maintains brand licensing agreements for international channels in South Korea and Germany . The first and oldest major broadcast network in the United States, NBC was formed in 1926 by the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), then owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse , AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Company . In 1932,

15678-401: The mechanical television system that had more or less been perfected in the late 1920s. Its initial broadcast featured New York mayor Jimmy Walker , Kate Smith , and George Gershwin . The station boasted the first regular seven-day broadcasting schedule in American television, broadcasting 28 hours a week. Announcer-director Bill Schudt was the station's only paid employee; all other talent

15912-561: The 13th slasher series, as well as joining forces with Lucasfilm and Steven Spielberg to create the Indiana Jones franchise. Other examples are the Star Trek film series and a string of films starring comedian Eddie Murphy like Trading Places , Coming to America and Beverly Hills Cop and its sequels . While the emphasis was decidedly on the commercial, there were occasional less commercial but more artistic and intellectual efforts like I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can , Atlantic City , Reds , Witness , Children of

16146-482: The 1940s was vastly different from that of its early days; many of the old guard veterans had died, retired, or simply left the network. No change was greater than that in Paley himself, who had become difficult to work for, and had "gradually shifted from leader to despot". He spent much of his time seeking social connections and in cultural pursuits; his hope was that CBS "could somehow learn to run itself". His brief to an interior designer remodeling his townhouse included

16380-418: The 2002 games. Coverage of the Olympics on NBC has included pre-empting regularly scheduled programs during daytime, prime time, and late night. In July 2022, NBC announced that the Olympic Channel will be shut down on September 30. NBC stated they will be announcing the plans for Olympic content in the fall of 2022. News coverage has long been an important part of NBC's operations and public image, dating to

16614-412: The 2003 live-action film Elf ). Since 2013, the network has aired live musical adaptations with major stars in lead roles. Originally dismissed as a gimmick, they have proven to be rating successes, as well as a nostalgic tribute to the early days of television. Past adaptations include: From 2003 to 2014, NBC also held rights to two of the three pageants organized by the Miss Universe Organization :

16848-480: The 2018 season allowed games to be streamed through network websites and apps. NBC's master feed is transmitted in 1080i high definition , the native resolution format for NBCUniversal's television properties. However, 19 of its affiliates transmit the network's programming in 720p HD, while four others carry the network feed in 480i standard definition either due to technical considerations for affiliates of other major networks that carry NBC programming on

17082-801: The ABC affiliation; the two stations reversed the network swap in March 1977, with WITI returning to the CBS station lineup. CBS was later forced back onto UHF in Milwaukee due to an affiliation agreement with New World Communications in 1994; it is now affiliated with WDJT-TV in that market, which has the longest-lasting relationship with CBS of any Milwaukee station that carried the network's programming. More long-term, CBS bought stations in Philadelphia ( WCAU , now owned by NBC) and St. Louis (KMOX-TV, now KMOV ), but would eventually sell these stations off as well. Before buying KMOX-TV, CBS had attempted to purchase and sign on

17316-570: The ABC-syndicated Litton's Weekend Adventure ). All the network's programming has been presented in full HD since then (except for certain holiday specials produced prior to 2005 – such as its annual broadcast of It's a Wonderful Life – which continues to be presented in 4:3 SD, although some have been remastered for HD broadcast). The network's high-definition programming is broadcast in 5.1 surround sound . In 1999, NBC launched NBCi (briefly changing its web address to "www.nbci.com"),

17550-412: The Bell , a live-action teen sitcom which originated on The Disney Channel the previous year as Good Morning, Miss Bliss (which served as a starring vehicle for Hayley Mills ; four cast members from that show were cast in the NBC series as the characters they originally played on Miss Bliss ). Saved by the Bell , despite being given bad reviews from television critics, would become one of

17784-466: The CBS television network would make its first profit, and would maintain dominance on television between 1955 and 1976. By the late 1950s, the network often controlled seven or eight of the slots on the "top ten" ratings list with well-respected shows such as Route 66 . Under James T. Aubrey (1958–1965), CBS was able to balance prestigious television projects (befitting the "Tiffany Network" image), with more low culture, broad appeal programs. As such,

18018-603: The FCC rejected the CBS system because it was incompatible with RCA's, along with the fact that CBS had moved to secure many ultra high frequency (UHF), not very high frequency (VHF), television licenses, leaving them flatfooted in the early television age. In 1946, only 6,000 television sets were in operation, most in greater New York City where there were already three stations; by 1949, the number had increased to 3 million sets, and by 1951, had risen to 12 million. There were 64 American cities with television stations, though most of them only had one. Radio continued to be

18252-494: The FCC that Paramount controlled DuMont. Both DuMont and Paramount Television Network suffered as a result, with neither company able to acquire five O&Os. Meanwhile, CBS, ABC, and NBC had each acquired the maximum of five stations by the mid-1950s. When ABC accepted a merger offer from UPT in 1953, DuMont quickly realized that ABC now had more resources than it could possibly hope to match. It quickly reached an agreement in principle to merge with ABC. However, Paramount vetoed

18486-464: The Family , and Good Times from Maude . After Silverman's departure, CBS dropped to second place behind ABC in the 1976–77 season, but still rated strongly, based on its earlier hits and some new ones, including One Day at a Time , Alice , Lou Grant , WKRP in Cincinnati , The Dukes of Hazzard , Trapper John, M.D. and Dallas , which was the biggest hit of the early 1980s and holds

18720-539: The Golden Age of Hollywood had just ended, even the flagship Paramount Building in Times Square was sold to raise cash, as was KTLA (sold to Gene Autry in 1964 for a then-phenomenal $ 12.5 million). Their only remaining successful property at that point was Dot Records , which Paramount had acquired in 1957, and even its profits started declining by the middle of the 1960s. Founding father Adolph Zukor (born in 1873)

18954-502: The Hedgehog film series. On August 25, 1983, Paramount Studios caught fire. Two or three sound stages and four outdoor sets were destroyed. When Charles Bluhdorn died unexpectedly, his successor Martin Davis dumped all of Gulf and Western's industrial, mining, and sugar-growing subsidiaries and refocused the company, renaming it Paramount Communications in 1989. With the influx of cash from

19188-517: The Howard L. Barlow Orchestra from flagship station WOR in Newark, and fifteen affiliates. Operational costs were steep, particularly the payments to AT&T for use of its landlines, and by the end of 1927, Columbia Phonograph wanted out. In early 1928 Judson sold the network to brothers Isaac and Leon Levy, owners of the network's Philadelphia affiliate WCAU , and their partner Jerome Louchheim. None of

19422-471: The Louchheim share of CBS and became its majority owner with 51% of the business. During Louchheim's brief regime, Columbia paid $ 410,000 to Alfred H. Grebe 's Atlantic Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) for the small Brooklyn station WABC (no relation to the current WABC ), which would become the network's flagship station. WABC was quickly upgraded, and the signal relocated to 860 kHz. The physical plant

19656-652: The Madison Square Garden properties (which also included MSG Network ), a 50% stake in USA Networks (the other 50% was owned by MCA / Universal Pictures ) and Simon & Schuster, Prentice Hall , Pocket Books , Allyn & Bacon , Cineamerica (a joint venture with Warner Communications ), and Canadian cinema chain Famous Players Theatres . That same year, the company launched a $ 12.2 billion hostile bid to acquire Time Inc. in an attempt to end

19890-516: The NBC Sports Group, which became an NBC property through Comcast's acquisition of NBCUniversal ) carries sports news content alongside sports event telecasts. Key anchors from NBC News are also used during NBC Sports coverage of the Olympic Games . While NBC has aired a variety of soap operas on its daytime schedule over its history, Days of Our Lives (1965–2022) was the last soap opera on

20124-542: The NBC network until May 2, 2010, when it became the last NBC News program to convert to HD). NBC officially began its conversion to high definition with the launch of its simulcast feed, NBC HD, on April 26, 1999, when The Tonight Show became the first HD program to air on the NBC network as well as the first regularly scheduled American network program to be produced and transmitted in high definition. The network gradually converted much of its existing programming from standard-definition to high definition beginning with

20358-489: The Office did issue banned weather reports (including announcement of sports rainouts), as well as news about war production or troop, ship, or plane movements, and live man-on-the-street interviews. The ban on ad-libbing caused quizzes, game shows, and amateur hours to wither for the duration. Surprising was the "granite permanence" of the shows at the top of the ratings. The vaudevillians and musicians who were hugely popular after

20592-595: The Pan-European cable network as NBC Super Channel. In 1996, the channel was renamed NBC Europe , but was, from then on, almost always referred to on-air as simply "NBC". Most of NBC Europe's prime time programming was produced in Europe due to rights restrictions associated with U.S. prime time shows; the channel's weekday late-night schedule after 11:00 p.m. Central European Time , however, featured The Tonight Show , Late Night with Conan O'Brien and Later , which

20826-739: The Paramount-Publix theatre chain in New York City from the thirty-five-story Paramount Theatre Building on Times Square ). Balaban and Katz had developed the Wonder Theater concept, first publicized around 1918 in Chicago. The Chicago Theater was created as a very ornate theater and advertised as a "wonder theater". When Publix acquired Balaban, they embarked on a project to expand the wonder theaters, and starting building in New York City in 1927. While Balaban and Public were dominant in Chicago, Loew's

21060-706: The Prairie , Las Vegas , Crossing Jordan , the Law & Order franchise (begun independently by Universal Television, and became in-house programming after the NBCUniversal deal), The Office and the Chicago franchise . NBC has twelve owned-and-operated stations and current and pending affiliation agreements with 223 additional television stations encompassing 50 states, the District of Columbia, six U.S. possessions and two non-U.S. territories ( Aruba and Bermuda ). The network has

21294-491: The Press was the first regular series on a major television network to produce a high-definition broadcast on February 2, 1997, which aired in the format over WHD-TV in Washington, D.C., an experimental television station owned by a consortium of industry groups and stations which launched to allow testing of HD broadcasts and operated until 2002 (the program itself continued to be transmitted in 480i standard definition over

21528-462: The Press , weekday early-morning news program Early Today and primetime newsmagazine Dateline NBC on Friday nights . Late nights feature the weeknight talk shows The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon , Late Night with Seth Meyers , and an overnight replay of Today with Hoda & Jenna . NBC affiliates carrying it in syndication also have the option to substitute a same-day encore of The Kelly Clarkson Show on weekdays. On Saturdays,

21762-545: The Qubo venture also encompassed weekly blocks on Telemundo and Ion Television , a 24-hour digital multicast network on Ion's owned-and-operated and affiliated stations, as well as video on demand services and a branded website. Qubo launched on NBC on September 9, 2006, with six programs ( VeggieTales , Dragon , VeggieTales Presents: 3-2-1 Penguins! , Babar , Jane and the Dragon and Jacob Two-Two ). On March 28, 2012, it

21996-500: The Shark , Tutenstein and Time Warp Trio . In May 2006, NBC announced plans to launch a new Saturday morning children's block under the Qubo brand in September 2006. An endeavor originally operated as a joint venture between NBCUniversal , Ion Media Networks , Scholastic Press , Classic Media and Corus Entertainment 's Nelvana unit (Ion acquired the other partners' shares in 2013),

22230-670: The Sunset and Vine lot to the new building. At present, those facilities are still part of the Paramount Pictures headquarters. Zukor hired independent producer B. P. Schulberg , an unerring eye for new talent, to run the new West Coast operations. On April 1, 1927, the company name was changed to Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation . In September 1927, the Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation studio in Astoria (New York City)

22464-516: The UPN network, also acquiring and merging in the assets of Republic Pictures, Spelling Television and Viacom Productions, almost doubling the size of the studio's television library. The television division produced the dominant prime time show for the decade in Frasier , as well as such long running hits as NCIS and Becker and the dominant prime time magazine show Entertainment Tonight. Paramount also gained

22698-456: The US Government forced GE to sell RCA and NBC due to antitrust violations. In late 1986, GE regained control of RCA through its $ 6.4 billion purchase of the company. Although it retained NBC, GE immediately closed or sold off most of RCA's other divisions and assets. In 2003, French media company Vivendi merged its entertainment assets with GE, forming NBCUniversal . Comcast purchased

22932-475: The Voice in the tens of thousands per week; sponsors Musterole ointment and Haley's M–O laxative enjoyed sales increases of several hundred percent in just the first month of The Voice of Experience ' s run. As the decade progressed, a new genre joined the daytime lineup: serial drama soap operas , so named for the products that sponsored them. These were usually in quarter-hour episodes and proliferated widely in

23166-505: The West Coast flagship station of the Fox network) and purchased outright Los Angeles pioneer station KTSL in 1950, renaming it KNXT (after CBS's existing Los Angeles radio property KNX), later to become KCBS-TV . In 1953, CBS bought pioneer Chicago television station WBKB, which had been signed on by former investor Paramount Pictures (and would again become a sister company of CBS decades later) as

23400-656: The West Coast. The Chicago station got a commercial license as WBKB in 1943, but was sold to UPT along with Balaban & Katz in 1948 and was eventually resold to CBS as WBBM-TV . In 1938, Paramount bought a stake in television manufacturer DuMont Laboratories . Through this stake, it became a minority owner of the DuMont Television Network . Paramount also launched its own network, Paramount Television Network , in 1948 through its television unit, Television Productions, Inc. Paramount management planned to acquire additional owned-and-operated stations ("O&Os");

23634-456: The advent of talkies. The deal came to fruition in September 1929; Paramount acquired 49% of CBS in return for a block of its stock worth $ 3.8 million at the time. The agreement specified that Paramount would buy that same stock back for a flat $ 5 million by March 1, 1932, provided that CBS had earned $ 2 million during 1931 and 1932. For a brief time, there was talk that the network might be renamed "Paramount Radio", but it only lasted

23868-435: The air a year later. In 1956, CBS announced that its radio operations had lost money, while the television network had made money. When the soap opera Ma Perkins went off the air on November 25, 1960, only eight series remained, all relatively minor. Primetime radio ended on September 30, 1962, when Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar and Suspense aired for the final time. The retirement of Arthur Godfrey in April 1972 marked

24102-470: The air for good, CBS moved its programming to WXIX, which it had purchased several months earlier. In April 1959, CBS decided to move its programming to WITI, the city's newer VHF station at the time. In turn, CBS shut down WXIX, sold its license to local investors, and returned to the air that July as an independent station. The first WITI-CBS union only lasted exactly two years, as the network moved its programming to WISN-TV on April 2, 1961, with WITI taking

24336-596: The air, the war affected almost every show. Variety shows wove patriotism through their comedy and music segments; dramas and soaps had characters join the service and go off to fight. Even before hostilities commenced in Europe, one of the most played songs on radio was Irving Berlin 's " God Bless America ", popularized by CBS personality Kate Smith. Although an Office of Censorship sprang up within days of Pearl Harbor, censorship would be totally voluntary. A few shows submitted scripts for review, but most did not. The guidelines that

24570-610: The artistic acclaim the Fleischer brothers achieved under their management. In 1940, Paramount agreed to a government-instituted consent decree: block booking and "pre-selling" (the practice of collecting up-front money for films not yet in production) would end. Immediately, Paramount cut back on production, from 71 films to a more modest 19 annually in the war years. Still, with more new stars like Bob Hope , Alan Ladd , Veronica Lake , Paulette Goddard , and Betty Hutton , and with war-time attendance at astronomical numbers, Paramount and

24804-453: The backbone of the company in the early 1950s, but it was "a strange, twilight period" where some cities had often multiple television stations which siphoned the audience from radio, while other cities such as Denver and Portland had no television stations at all. In those areas, as well as rural areas and some entire states, network radio remained the sole nationally broadcast service. NBC's venerable Fred Allen saw his ratings plummet when he

25038-480: The broadcast stating that it was a work of fiction. The flood of publicity after the broadcast had two effects: a 1992 FCC law banning faux news bulletins within dramatic programming, and sponsorship for The Mercury Theatre on the Air , becoming The Campbell Playhouse to sell soup. Welles, for his part, summarized the episode as "the Mercury Theatre's own radio version of dressing up in a sheet and jumping out of

25272-559: The channel 11 license in St. Louis, now KPLR-TV . CBS did attempt to sign on a station in Pittsburgh after the freeze was lifted, as it was the sixth-largest market at the time, but had just one commercial VHF station in DuMont-owned WDTV, while the rest were either on UHF (the modern-day WPGH-TV and WINP-TV ) or public television ( WQED ). Although the FCC turned down CBS's request to buy

25506-547: The channel 9 license in nearby Steubenville, Ohio and move it to Pittsburgh (that station, initially CBS affiliate WSTV-TV, is now NBC affiliate WTOV-TV ), CBS did score a major coup when Pittsburgh-based Westinghouse Electric , co-founder of NBC, bought WDTV from struggling DuMont and opted to affiliate the now-recalled KDKA-TV with CBS instead of NBC (like KDKA radio) due to NBC extorting and coercing Westinghouse to trade KYW radio and WPTZ (now KYW-TV ) for Cleveland stations WTAM , WTAM-FM (now WMJI ), and WNBK (now WKYC );

25740-554: The channel's slogan "Where the Stars Come Out at Night" was based around. Many NBC News programs were broadcast on NBC Europe, including Dateline NBC , Meet the Press and NBC Nightly News , the latter of which was broadcast simultaneously with the initial U.S. telecast. Today was also initially aired live in the afternoons, but was later broadcast instead the following morning on a more than half-day delay. In 1999, NBC Europe ceased broadcasting in most of Europe outside of Germany;

25974-481: The comedy's production. This was the foundation of the Ball-Arnaz Desilu empire, and is now considered a template for series production; it also served as the template for some television conventions that continue to exist including the use of multiple cameras to film scenes , the use of a studio audience , and the airing of past episodes for syndication to other television outlets. The phenomenal success of

26208-411: The coming force that threw a shadow over radio throughout the 1940s – television. In the spring of 1940, CBS staff engineer Peter Goldmark devised a system for color television that CBS management hoped would leapfrog the network over NBC and its existing black-and-white RCA system. The CBS system "gave brilliant and stable colors", while NBC's was "crude and unstable but 'compatible'". Ultimately,

26442-517: The companies were separate, the FCC ruled that Paramount's partial ownership of DuMont meant that DuMont and Paramount were in theory branches of the same company. Since DuMont owned three television stations and Paramount owned two, the federal agency ruled neither network could acquire additional television stations. The FCC requested that Paramount relinquish its stake in DuMont, but Paramount refused. According to television historian William Boddy, "Paramount's checkered antitrust history" helped convince

26676-579: The company applied to the FCC for additional stations in San Francisco, Detroit, and Boston. The FCC, however, denied Paramount's applications. A few years earlier, the federal regulator had placed a five-station cap on all television networks: no network was allowed to own more than five VHF television stations. Paramount was hampered by its minority stake in the DuMont Television Network. Although both DuMont and Paramount executives stated that

26910-530: The company's subsidiaries. Its sugar plantations in Florida and the Dominican Republic were sold in 1985; the consumer and industrial products branch was sold off that same year. In 1989, Davis renamed the company Paramount Communications Incorporated after its primary asset, Paramount Pictures. In addition to the Paramount film, television, home video, and music publishing divisions, the company continued to own

27144-456: The company. During this time period, Paramount Pictures went under the guidance of Jonathan Dolgen, chairman and Sherry Lansing , president. During their administration over Paramount, the studio had an extremely successful period of films with two of Paramount's ten highest-grossing films being produced during this period. The most successful of these films, Titanic , co-produced with 20th Century Fox and Lightstorm Entertainment , became

27378-506: The company. The company remained under the control of trustees for more than a year in order to restructure the debt and pursue a reorganization plan. On December 3, 1934, the reorganization plan was formally proposed. After prolonged hearings in court, final confirmation was obtained on April 25, 1935, when Federal Judge Alfred C. Coxe Jr. approved the reorganization of the Paramount-Publix Corporation under Section 77-B of

27612-477: The corporation from a bloated conglomerate consisting of subsidiaries from unrelated industries to a more focused entertainment and publishing company. The idea was to aid financial markets in measuring the company's success, which, in turn, would help place better value on its shares. Though its Paramount division did very well in recent years, Gulf and Western's success as a whole was translating poorly with investors. This process eventually led Davis to divest many of

27846-637: The country (as Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: The Next Generation were). Paramount Pictures was not connected to either Paramount Records (1910s–1935) or ABC-Paramount Records (1955–66) until it purchased the rights to use the name (but not the latter's catalog) in the late 1960s. The Paramount name was used for soundtrack albums and some pop re-issues from the Dot Records catalog which Paramount had acquired in 1957. By 1970, Dot had become an all-country label and in 1974, Paramount sold all of its record holdings to ABC Records , which in turn

28080-506: The country in 1986. Worldwide Media Sales, a division of the New York-based Worldwide Media Group had been placed in charge of the undertaking. That year, Paramount Pictures decided to consolidate its distribution operations, closing a number of branch offices that were designed for the studio and relocating staff and major activities in an effort to cut costs and provide for a more efficient centralization; this decision

28314-637: The creation of the United Independent Broadcasters network in Chicago by New York City talent agent Arthur Judson . The fledgling network soon needed additional investors, and the Columbia Phonograph Company, manufacturers of Columbia Records , rescued it in April 1927. Now the Columbia Phonographic Broadcasting System, the network went to air under its new name on May 18, 1927, with a presentation by

28548-641: The day after their original broadcast. In addition, NBC.com and certain other partner websites (including Hulu) provide complete back catalogs of most of its current series as well as a limited selection of episodes of classic series from the NBCUniversal Television Distribution program library – including shows not broadcast by NBC during their original runs (including the complete or partial episode catalogs of shows like 30 Rock , The A-Team , Charles in Charge , Emergency! , Knight Rider (both

28782-401: The day. CBS salesmen recognized early on that this intimate connection could be a bonanza for advertisers of female-interest products. Starting in 1930, astrologer Evangeline Adams would consult the heavens on behalf of listeners who sent in their birthdays, a description of their problems, and a boxtop from sponsor Forhan's toothpaste. The low-key murmuring of smooth-voiced Tony Wons, backed by

29016-519: The door with an astonishing offer: "Whatever you are getting now I will give you twice as much." Capturing NBC's cornerstone show was enough of a coup , but Paley repeated in 1948 with longtime NBC stars Edgar Bergen, Charlie McCarthy , and Red Skelton , as well as former CBS defectors Jack Benny, who was radio's top-rated comedian, and Burns and Allen. Paley achieved this rout with a legal agreement reminiscent of his 1928 contract that caused some NBC radio affiliates to jump ship and join CBS. CBS would buy

29250-572: The end of long-form programming on CBS radio; programming thereafter consisted of hourly news summaries and news features, known in the 1970s as Dimension , and commentaries, including the Spectrum series that evolved into the "Point/Counterpoint" feature on the television network's 60 Minutes and First Line Report , a news and analysis feature delivered by CBS correspondents. The network also continued to offer traditional radio programming through its nightly CBS Radio Mystery Theater during week. This

29484-549: The film community. Since then, former next-door neighbor RKO closed up shop in 1957 (Paramount ultimately absorbed their former lot); Warner Bros. (whose old Sunset Boulevard studio was sold to Paramount in 1949 as a home for KTLA ) moved to Burbank in 1930; Columbia joined Warners in Burbank in 1973 then moved again to Culver City in 1989; and the Pickford-Fairbanks-Goldwyn-United Artists lot, after

29718-634: The final 4 1 ⁄ 2 years of Search for Tomorrow (1982–1986) after that series was initially cancelled by CBS, although many NBC affiliates did not clear the show during its tenure on the network. NBC has also aired numerous short-lived soap operas, including Generations (1989–1991), Sunset Beach (1997–1999), and the two Another World spin-offs, Somerset (1970–1976) and Texas (1980–1982). Notable daytime game shows that once aired on NBC include The Price Is Right (1956–1963), Concentration (1958–1973; and 1987–1991 as Classic Concentration ), The Match Game (1962–1969), Let's Make

29952-511: The finance committee in order to assist vice-president and treasurer Ralph A. Kohn. However, on January 6, 1933, Hertz resigned from his position when it become evident that his measures to lift the company had failed. The over-expansion and use of overvalued Paramount stock for purchases created a $ 21 million debt which led the company into receivership on January 26, 1933, and later filing bankruptcy on March 14, 1933. On April 17, 1933, bankruptcy trustees were appointed and Zukor lost control of

30186-429: The first color broadcast in the United States on August 28, 1940. On June 24, 1941, W2XAB received a commercial construction permit and program authorization as WCBW. The station went on the air at 2:30 p.m. on July 1, an hour after rival WNBT (channel 1, formerly W2XBS and now WNBC ), making it the second authorized, fully commercial television station in the United States. The FCC issued permits to CBS and NBC at

30420-407: The first stations to offer streams of their programming on NBC's website and mobile app, and new affiliation agreements have made a majority of the network's affiliates available through the network's website and app based on a viewer's location. The network's NFL game telecasts were not permitted to be streamed on the service for several years until a change to the league's mobile rights agreement in

30654-590: The first television coverage of presidential election returns. The station suspended operations on February 20, 1933, as monochrome television transmission standards were in flux, and in the process of changing from a mechanical to an all-electronic system. W2XAB returned to the air with an all-electronic system in 1939 from a new studio complex in Grand Central Station and a transmitter atop the Chrysler Building , broadcasting on channel 2. W2XAB transmitted

30888-463: The flagship namesake subsidiary of Paramount Global . It is the sixth-oldest film studio in the world, the second-oldest film studio in the United States (behind Universal Pictures ), and the sole member of the "Big Five" film studios located within the city limits of Los Angeles . In 1916, film producer Adolph Zukor put 24 actors and actresses under contract and honored each with a star on

31122-560: The growing Hitler menace underscored the need for a robust European Bureau. Halberstam described Murrow in London as "the right man in the right place in the right era". Murrow began assembling the staff of broadcast journalists who would become known as the " Murrow Boys ", including such men as William L. Shirer , Charles Collingwood , Bill Downs , and Eric Sevareid . They were "in [Murrow's] own image, sartorially impeccable, literate, often liberal, and prima donnas all". They covered history in

31356-619: The highest-grossing film up to that time, grossing over $ 1.8 billion worldwide. Also during this time, three Paramount Pictures films won the Academy Award for Best Picture; Titanic , Braveheart , and Forrest Gump . Paramount's most important property, however, was Star Trek . Studio executives had begun to call it "the franchise" in the 1980s due to its reliable revenue, and other studios envied its "untouchable and unduplicatable" success. By 1998, Star Trek television shows, movies, books, videotapes, and licensing provided so much of

31590-405: The history of radio in the United States". Indeed, the 1940s would turn out to be the apogee of network radio by every metric. Nearly 100% of the advertisers who made sponsorship deals in 1939 renewed their contracts for 1940; manufacturers of farm tractors made radios standard equipment on their machines; wartime rationing of paper limited the size of newspapers and thus print advertisements, causing

31824-401: The home to many popular musical and comedy stars, among them Jack Benny ("Your Canada Dry Humorist"), Al Jolson , George Burns and Gracie Allen , and Kate Smith , whom Paley had personally selected for his family's La Palina Hour as she was not the type of woman to provoke jealousy in American wives. When Paley heard a phonograph record of Bing Crosby , then a young unknown crooner, on

32058-434: The increase was a result of Paley's effort to improve affiliate relations. There were two types of program at the time: sponsored and sustaining, i.e., unsponsored. Rival network NBC paid affiliates for every sponsored show they carried, and charged them for every sustaining show they ran. It was onerous for small and medium stations, and resulted in both unhappy affiliates and limited carriage of sustaining programs. Paley had

32292-471: The inside and in real time, a riot and conflagration at the Ohio Penitentiary ; for CBS, it was "a shocking journalistic coup". Yet as late as 1934, there was still no regularly scheduled newscast on network radio; "most sponsors did not want network news programming; those that did were inclined to expect veto rights over it." There had been a longstanding wariness between radio and the newspapers as well;

32526-511: The job for eight years, restoring Paramount's reputation for commercial success with The Odd Couple , Rosemary's Baby , Love Story , The Godfather , Chinatown , and 3 Days of the Condor . Gulf and Western also bought the neighboring Desilu Productions television studio (once the lot of RKO Pictures ) from Lucille Ball in 1967. Using some of Desilu's established shows such as Star Trek , Mission: Impossible , and Mannix as

32760-457: The kind that once made Paramount the industry leader. Around the end of 1981, Paramount Pictures took over fellow Gulf and Western subsidiary Sega from the company's manufacturing division in an effort to get into the video game business. Paramount would go on to sell Sega following the Video Game Crash of 1983 , and the two companies would later work together on the live action/CGI Sonic

32994-661: The late 1920s and the early 1930s, talkies brought in a range of powerful draws: Richard Arlen , Nancy Carroll , Maurice Chevalier , Gary Cooper , Marlene Dietrich , Charles Ruggles , Ruth Chatterton , William Powell , Mae West , Sylvia Sidney , Bing Crosby , Claudette Colbert , the Marx Brothers , W.C. Fields , Fredric March , Jack Oakie , Jeanette MacDonald (whose first two films were shot at Paramount's Astoria, New York , studio), Carole Lombard , George Raft , Miriam Hopkins , Cary Grant and Stuart Erwin , among them. In this period Paramount can truly be described as

33228-439: The local stations of NBC, CBS and DuMont . As RCA and DuMont raced to establish networks and offer upgraded programming, CBS lagged, advocating an industry-wide shift and restart to UHF for their incompatible (with black and white) color system. The FCC putting an indefinite "freeze" on television licenses that lasted until 1952 did not help matters. Only in 1950, when NBC was dominant in television and black and white transmission

33462-482: The logo. In 1967, the number of stars was reduced to 22 and their hidden meaning was dropped. In 2014, Paramount Pictures became the first major Hollywood studio to distribute all of its films in digital form only. The company's headquarters and studios are located at 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, California. The most commerciay successful film franchises from Paramount Pictures include  Transformers , Mission: Impossible and Star Trek . Additionally,

33696-470: The loss of the theater chain, Paramount Pictures went into a decline, cutting studio-backed production, releasing its contract players, and making production deals with independents. By the mid-1950s, all the great names were gone; only Cecil B. DeMille , associated with Paramount since 1913, kept making pictures in the grand old style. Despite Paramount's losses, DeMille would, however, give the studio some relief and create his most successful film at Paramount,

33930-575: The major success of Dallas (and its spin-off Knots Landing ), as well as hits in Falcon Crest , Magnum, P.I. , Simon & Simon , and 60 Minutes . CBS also acquired the broadcast rights to the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament in 1982, which it now broadcasts every March since. CBS bought Emmy-winning documentary producer Dennis B. Kane's production company and formed CBS/Kane Productions International. The network managed to pull out

34164-648: The making, and sometimes made it themselves. On March 12, 1938, Hitler boldly annexed nearby Austria , and Murrow and the Boys quickly assembled coverage with Shirer in London, Edgar Ansel Mowrer in Paris, Pierre Huss in Berlin, Frank Gervasi in Rome, and Trout in New York. This bore the now-ubiquitous News Round-Up format. Murrow's nightly reports from the rooftops during the dark days of

34398-464: The mend, he relocated his company to the sleek, new 485 Madison Avenue , the "heart of the advertising community, right where Paley wanted his company to be", and where it would stay until its move to its own Eero Saarinen -designed headquarters, the CBS Building, in 1965. When his new landlords expressed skepticism about the network and its fly-by-night reputation, Paley overcame their qualms by inking

34632-541: The mid- and late 1930s. They all had the same basic premise, namely that characters "fell into two categories: 1) those in trouble and 2) those who helped people in trouble. The helping-hand figures were usually older." At CBS, Just Plain Bill brought human insight and Anacin pain reliever into households; Your Family and Mine came courtesy of Sealtest Dairy products; Bachelor's Children first hawked Old Dutch Cleanser, then Wonder Bread ; Aunt Jenny's Real Life Stories

34866-610: The middle class by featuring the leading theatrical players of the time (leading to the slogan "Famous Players in Famous Plays"). By mid-1913, Famous Players had completed five films, and Zukor was on his way to success. Its first film was Les Amours de la reine Élisabeth , which starred Sarah Bernhardt . That same year, another aspiring producer, Jesse L. Lasky , opened his Lasky Feature Play Company with money borrowed from his brother-in-law, Samuel Goldfish, later known as Samuel Goldwyn . The Lasky company hired as their first employee

35100-546: The middle of the decade, the statistics had swapped. One of the more prominent sustaining shows on the network was Wings Over Jordan , a half-hour program on Sunday mornings showcasing an African-American a cappella spiritual choir of the same name. Originating from Cleveland affiliate WGAR , it was directly cited by the National Association of Broadcasters when they bestowed both the station and network with inaugural George Foster Peabody Awards in 1941. CBS in

35334-476: The mind of one sardonic CBS vice president, "the greatest argument we have for color television". Despite the influx of advertisers and their money – or perhaps because of them – the 1940s were not without bumps for the radio networks. The biggest challenge came in the form of the FCC's chain broadcasting investigation, often called the "monopoly probe". Though it started in 1938, the investigation only gathered steam in 1940 under new-broom chairman James L. Fly . By

35568-512: The morning and evening and its weekend sister program CBS News Weekend Roundup , and various other segments such tip segments from various other sources. On November 17, 2017, CBS Radio was sold to Entercom, becoming the last of the original Big Four radio networks to be owned by its founding company. Although the CBS parent itself ceased to exist when it was acquired by Westinghouse Electric in 1995, CBS Radio continued to be run by CBS until its sale to Entercom. Prior to its acquisition, ABC Radio

35802-458: The morning news/interview program Today from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00a.m. weekdays, 7:00a.m.–8:30 a.m. / 8:00 a.m. - 9:30 a.m. on Saturdays and 7:00 a.m.–8:00 a.m. / 8:00 a.m. -9:00 a.m. on Sundays, it also airs NBC News Daily at 12:00 p.m.–1:00 p.m. on weekdays, it includes nightly editions of NBC Nightly News , the Sunday political talk show Meet

36036-449: The most popular teen series in television history as well as the top-rated series on Saturday mornings, dethroning ABC's The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show in its first season. The success of Saved by the Bell led NBC to remove animated series from its Saturday morning lineup in August 1992 in favor of additional live-action series as part of a new block called TNBC , along with the debut of

36270-476: The network had challenging fare like The Twilight Zone , The Defenders , and East Side/West Side , as well as The Andy Griffith Show , The Beverly Hillbillies , Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. , and Gilligan's Island . This success would continue for many years, with CBS being bumped from first place only due to the rise of ABC in the mid-1970s. Perhaps because of its status as the top-rated network, CBS felt freer to gamble with controversial properties like

36504-422: The network option for three out of four hours during the daytime, but the new regulations had virtually no practical effect, since most all stations accepted the network feed, especially the sponsored hours that earned them money. Fly's panel also forbade networks from owning artists' representation bureaus, so CBS sold its bureau to Music Corporation of America , and it became Management Corporation of America. On

36738-424: The network was concurrently relaunched as a German-language technology channel aimed at a younger demographic, with the new series NBC GIGA as its flagship program. In 2005, the channel was relaunched again as the free-to-air movie channel Das Vierte which eventually shut down end of 2013 (acquired by Disney, which replaced it with a German version of Disney Channel). GIGA Television was subsequently spun off as

36972-509: The network when it was taken off the air in 2022 (and moved to the Peacock streaming service). Currently the network only offers NBC News Daily on its afternoon schedule, with affiliates using the rest of the afternoon for syndicated or local programming. Long-running daytime dramas seen on NBC in the past include The Doctors (1963–1982), Another World (1964–1999), Santa Barbara (1984–1993), and Passions (1999–2007). NBC also aired

37206-432: The network would recast the show with her real-life husband in the lead. I Love Lucy debuted in October 1951, and was an immediate sensation, with 11 million of the 15 million total television sets watching (a 73% share ). Paley and network president Frank Stanton had so little faith in the future of Lucille Ball's series that they granted her wish and allowed her husband Desi Arnaz to take financial control of

37440-433: The network's programming through various means, including via its website at NBC.com, a traditional VOD service called NBC on Demand available on most traditional cable and IPTV providers, and through content deals with Hulu and Netflix (the latter of which carries only cataloged episodes of NBC programs, after losing the right to carry newer episodes of its programs during their current seasons in July 2011). NBCUniversal

37674-427: The network's radio days. Notable NBC News productions past and present include Today , NBC Nightly News (and its immediate predecessor, The Huntley–Brinkley Report ), Meet the Press (which has the distinction of the longest continuously running program in the history of American television), Dateline NBC , Early Today , NBC News at Sunrise , NBC Nightside and Rock Center with Brian Williams . In 1989,

37908-514: The network's schedule and kept it at the top of the ratings through the early 1970s. The majority of these hits were overseen by then-East Coast vice president Alan Wagner . 60 Minutes also moved to the 7:00 p.m. slot on Sundays in 1975, and became the first ever primetime television news program to enter the Nielsen Top 10 in 1978. One of CBS's most popular shows during the period was M*A*S*H , which ran for 11 seasons from 1972 to 1983, and

38142-648: The new United Paramount Theaters on December 31, 1949. Leonard Goldenson , who had headed the chain since 1938, remained as the new company's president. The Balaban and Katz theatre division was spun off with UPT; its trademark eventually became the property of the Balaban and Katz Historical Foundation. The foundation later acquired ownership of the Famous Players trademark. Cash-rich and controlling prime downtown real estate, Goldenson began looking for investments. Barred from film-making by prior antitrust rulings, he acquired

38376-542: The news division began its expansion to cable with the launch of the business news channel CNBC . The company eventually formed other cable news services including MSNBC (created in 1996 originally as a joint venture with Microsoft , which now features a mix of general news and political discussion programs with a liberal stance), and the 2008 acquisition of The Weather Channel in conjunction with Blackstone Group and Bain Capital . In addition, NBCSN (operated as part of

38610-476: The newspapers or wire services . In the fall of 1934, CBS launched an independent news division, shaped in its first years by Paley's vice-president, former New York Times columnist Ed Klauber, and news director Paul White . Since there was no blueprint or precedent for real-time news coverage, early efforts of the new division used the shortwave link-up CBS had been using for five years to bring live feeds of European events to its American air. A key early hire

38844-549: The offer due to antitrust concerns. For all intents and purposes, this was the end of DuMont, though it lingered on until 1956. In 1951, Paramount bought a stake in International Telemeter , an experimental pay TV service which operated with a coin inserted into a box. The service began operating in Palm Springs, California on November 27, 1953, but due to pressure from the FCC, the service ended on May 15, 1954. With

39078-490: The only U.S. states where NBC does not have a locally licensed affiliate. New Jersey is served by New York City O&O WNBC-TV and Philadelphia O&O WCAU; New Jersey formerly had an in-state affiliate in Atlantic City -based WMGM-TV , which was affiliated with the network from 1955 to 2014. Delaware is served by Salisbury affiliate WRDE-LD and Philadelphia-based WCAU . NBC maintains affiliations with low-power stations in

39312-514: The original broadcasts of Gumby , The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show , Underdog , The Smurfs , Alvin and the Chipmunks and Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears . From 1984 to 1989, the network aired a series of public service announcements called One to Grow On , which aired after the end credits of every program or every other children's program. In 1989, NBC premiered Saved by

39546-517: The original incarnation of Viacom (formed as a spin-off of CBS in 1971, which acquired Paramount Pictures in 1994). In 2005, Viacom split itself into two separate companies and re-established CBS Corporation. However, National Amusements controlled both CBS and the second incarnation of Viacom until 2019, when both companies agreed to re-merge to become ViacomCBS. In 2022, ViacomCBS changed its name to Paramount Global after Paramount Pictures. The origins of CBS date back to January 27, 1927, with

39780-450: The original series and the short-lived 2008 reboot ), Kojak , Miami Vice , The Office , Quantum Leap and Simon & Simon ). On February 18, 2015, NBC began providing live programming streams of local NBC stations in select markets, which are only available to authenticated subscribers of participating pay television providers . All eleven NBC-owned-and-operated stations owned by NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations' were

40014-715: The other integrated studio-theatre combines made more money than ever. At this, the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department decided to reopen their case against the five integrated studios. Paramount also had a monopoly over Detroit movie theaters through subsidiary company United Detroit Theaters. This led to the Supreme Court decision United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. (1948) holding that movie studios could not also own movie theater chains. This decision broke up Adolph Zukor's creation, with

40248-447: The other nations. It featured such popular radio broadcasts as Viva América , which showcased leading musical talent from both North and South America, including John Serry Sr. , as accompanied by the CBS Pan American Orchestra under the musical direction of Alfredo Antonini . The post-war era also marked the beginning of CBS's dominance in the field of radio. As 1939 wound down, Paley announced that 1940 would be "the greatest year in

40482-399: The ownership rights to the Rysher library, after Viacom acquired the rights from Cox Enterprises . NBC The National Broadcasting Company ( NBC ) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal , a subsidiary of Comcast . The headquarters of NBC is in New York City at

40716-535: The papers had rightly concluded that the upstart radio business would compete with them in both advertising dollars and news coverage. By 1933, the newspapers began fighting back, many no longer publishing radio schedules for readers' convenience, or allowing their own news to be read on the air for radio's profit. Radio, in turn, pushed back when urban department stores, newspapers' largest advertisers and themselves owners of many radio stations, threatened to withhold their ads from print. A short-lived truce in 1933 even saw

40950-535: The papers proposing that radio be forbidden from running news before 9:30 a.m., and then only after 9:00 p.m., and that no news story could air until it was 12 hours old. It was in this climate that Paley set out to "enhance the prestige of CBS, to make it seem in the public mind the more advanced, dignified and socially aware network". He did it by sustaining programming of the New York Philharmonic , Norman Corwin 's drama, and an in-house news division to gather and present news, free of fickle suppliers such as

41184-489: The parade, it has exclusivity over the broadcast of Broadway and music performances appearing in the parade (CBS airs live performances separate from those seen in the parade as a result), and Macy's chose to reroute the parade in 2012 out of the view of CBS' cameras, although it continues to cover the parade. NBC began airing a same-day rebroadcast of the parade telecast in 2009 (replacing its annual Thanksgiving afternoon airing of Miracle on 34th Street ). In 2007, NBC acquired

41418-452: The primetime, big-money quiz show The $ 64,000 Question , propelled its creator Louis G. Cowan, first to an executive position as CBS's vice-president of creative services, then to the presidency of the CBS television network itself. When quiz show scandals involving "rigged" questions surfaced in 1959, he was fired by CBS. CBS dominated television, now at the forefront of American entertainment and information, as it once had radio. In 1953,

41652-558: The production side, Hiram Abrams in charge of distribution, and Zukor making great plans. With only the exhibitor-owned First National as a rival, Famous Players–Lasky and its "Paramount Pictures" soon dominated the business. The fusion was finalized on November 7, 1916. Because Zukor believed in stars, he signed and developed many of the leading early stars, including Mary Pickford , Marguerite Clark , Pauline Frederick , Douglas Fairbanks , Gloria Swanson , Rudolph Valentino , and Wallace Reid . With so many important players, Paramount

41886-461: The purchase of a large portion of its shares (under 25 percent) by Loew's Inc. chairman Laurence Tisch . Collaboration between Paley and Tisch led to the slow dismissal of Wyman, with Tisch taking over as chief operating officer and Paley returning as chairman. Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation , commonly known as Paramount Pictures or simply Paramount , is an American film production and distribution company and

42120-400: The quality of CBS programming. Paley had an innate sense of entertainment. David Halberstam wrote that he had "a gift of the gods, an ear totally pure", and knew "what was good and would sell, what was bad and would sell, and what was good and would not sell, and he never confused one with another." As the 1930s loomed closer, Paley set about building the CBS talent stable. The network became

42354-428: The record for the most watched non-series finale television episode in the U.S. – the primetime telecast of the resolution episode of the internationally prominent " Who Shot J.R.? " cliffhanger on November 21, 1980. By 1982, ABC had run out of steam and NBC was in dire straits, with many failed programming efforts greenlighted by Silverman during his tenure as network president. CBS nosed ahead once more thanks to

42588-635: The rights to Miss Universe and Miss USA on June 29, 2015, as part of its decision to cut business ties with Donald Trump and the Miss Universe Organization (which was half-owned by corporate parent NBCUniversal) in response to controversial remarks about Mexican immigrants made by Trump during the launch of his 2016 campaign for the Republican presidential nomination . Through the years, NBC has produced many in-house programs, in addition to airing content from other producers such as Revue Studios and its successor Universal Television . Notable in-house productions by NBC have included Bonanza , Little House on

42822-426: The rights to the National Dog Show , which airs following the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade each year. The network also broadcasts several live-action and animated specials during the Christmas holiday season , including the 2014 debuts How Murray Saved Christmas (an animated musical adaptation of the children's book of the same name) and Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas (a stop-motion animated special based on

43056-461: The sale of Gulf and Western's industrial properties in the mid-1980s, Paramount bought a string of television stations and KECO Entertainment 's theme park operations, renaming them Paramount Parks . These parks included Paramount's Great America , Paramount Canada's Wonderland , Paramount's Carowinds , Paramount's Kings Dominion , and Paramount's Kings Island . In May 1985, Paramount decided to start its own talent department, an attempt to form

43290-504: The sale of Gulf and Western's non-entertainment properties to take over the TVX Broadcast Group chain of television stations (which at that point consisted mainly of large-market stations which TVX had bought from Taft Broadcasting , plus two mid-market stations which TVX owned prior to the Taft purchase), and the KECO Entertainment chain of theme parks from Taft successor Great American Broadcasting. Both of these companies had their names changed to reflect new ownership: TVX became known as

43524-454: The same time, and intended WNBT and WCBW to sign on simultaneously on July 1, so no one station could claim to be the "first". During the period of the USA's participation in World War II, commercial television broadcasting was reduced dramatically. Towards the end of the war, however, it began to ramp up again, with an increased level of programming evident from 1944 to 1947 on the three New York television stations which operated in those years:

43758-502: The stars' names as a property in exchange for a large lump sum and salary. The plan relied on the vastly different tax rates between income and capital gains, so not only would the stars enjoy more than twice their income after taxes, but CBS would preclude any NBC counterattack because CBS owned the performers' names. As a result of this, CBS finally beat NBC in the ratings in 1949, but it was not just to one-up rival Sarnoff that Paley led his talent raid; he and all of radio had their eye on

43992-447: The struggling ABC television network in February 1953, leading it first to financial health, and eventually, in the mid-1970s, to first place in the national Nielsen ratings, before selling out to Capital Cities in 1985 (Capital Cities would eventually sell out, in turn, to The Walt Disney Company in 1996). United Paramount Theaters was renamed ABC Theaters in 1965 and was sold to businessman Henry Plitt in 1977. The movie theater chain

44226-480: The studio's library includes many individual films such as The Godfather and  Titanic , both of which became the  highest-grossing films of all time  during their initial releases. Paramount Pictures is a member of the  Motion Picture Association (MPA). Paramount is the sixth oldest surviving film studio in the world; after Gaumont Film Company (1895), Pathé (1896), Titanus (1904), Nordisk Film (1906), and Universal Pictures (1912). It

44460-467: The studio's profit that "it is not possible to spend any reasonable amount of time at Paramount and not be aware of [its] presence"; filming for Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine required up to nine of the largest of the studio's 36 sound stages . In 1995, Viacom and Chris-Craft Industries ' United Television launched United Paramount Network (UPN) with Star Trek: Voyager as its flagship series, fulfilling Barry Diller's plan for

44694-437: The studios' West Coast productions. On January 5, 1926, Lasky reached an agreement to buy the Robert Brunton Studios, a 26-acre facility owned by United Pictures and located at 5451 Marathon Street, for $ 1.0   million (equivalent to $ 13.8   million in 2023). On March 29, the company began an eight-month building program to renovate the existing facilities and erect new ones. On May 8, Lasky finally moved operations from

44928-509: The style of talking directly to the listener as an individual, with a singular "you" rather than phrases like "Now, folks..." or "Yes, friends...". His combined shows contributed as much as 12% of all CBS revenues; by 1948, he was making $ 500,000 a year. In 1947, Paley, still the undisputed "head talent scout" of CBS, led a much-publicized "talent raid" on NBC. One day, while Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll were hard at work at NBC writing their venerable Amos and Andy series, Paley came to

45162-632: The television and radio networks were similar to the logo of its then-parent company, RCA. Logos used later in NBC's existence incorporated stylized peacock designs, including the current version that has been in use since 1986. NBC network programs can be received throughout most of Canada on cable, satellite and IPTV providers through certain U.S.-based affiliates of the network (such as WBTS-CD in Boston, KING-TV in Seattle, KBJR-TV in Duluth, Minnesota , WGRZ in Buffalo, New York and WHEC-TV in Rochester, New York ). Some programs carried on these stations are subject to simultaneous substitutions ,

45396-566: The television network took shape, radio stars began to migrate to the new medium. Many programs ran on both media while making the transition. The radio soap opera The Guiding Light moved to television in 1952, where it would run for another 57 years; Burns & Allen, back "home" from NBC, made the move in 1950; Lucille Ball a year later; Our Miss Brooks in 1952 (though it continued simultaneously on radio for its full television life). The high-rated Jack Benny Program ended its radio run in 1955, and Edgar Bergen's Sunday night show went off

45630-410: The theater chain being split into a new company, United Paramount Theaters , and effectively brought an end to the classic Hollywood studio system . With the separation of production and exhibition forced by the U.S. Supreme Court, Paramount Pictures Inc. was split in two. Paramount Pictures Corporation was formed to be the production distribution company, with the 1,500-screen theater chain handed to

45864-428: The three companies into one. The new company Lasky and Zukor founded on June 28, Famous Players–Lasky Corporation , although it continued to use the name "Paramount," as well. As a result, it became the largest film company at the time with a value of US$ 12.5   million (equivalent to $ 241.8   million in 2023). The corporation was able to grow quickly, with Lasky and his partners Goldwyn and DeMille running

46098-539: The three were interested in assuming day-to-day management of the network, so they installed wealthy 26-year-old William S. Paley , son of a Philadelphia cigar family and in-law of the Levys, as president. With the record company out of the picture, Paley quickly streamlined the corporate name to "Columbia Broadcasting System". He believed in the power of radio advertising since his family's La Palina cigars had doubled their sales after young William convinced his elders to advertise on radio. By September 1928, Paley bought out

46332-417: The time the smoke had cleared in 1943, NBC had already spun off its Blue Network, which became the American Broadcasting Company (ABC). CBS was also hit, though not as severely: Paley's 1928 affiliate contract, which had given CBS first claim on local stations' air during sponsored time – the network option  – came under attack as being restrictive to local programming. The final compromise permitted

46566-452: The time were not equipped with UHF tuners), CBS decided to sell those stations off and affiliate with VHF stations WITI and WTIC-TV (now WFSB ). In Milwaukee alone, CBS has gone through several affiliation changes since 1953, when its original primary affiliate WCAN-TV (now defunct) first signed on the air. Prior to WCAN's sign-on, selected CBS programming aired on WTMJ-TV , an NBC affiliate since 1947. In February 1955, when WCAN went off

46800-610: The trade ended up being reversed by order of the FCC and the Department of Justice in 1965 after an eight-year investigation. Had CBS not been able to affiliate with KDKA-TV, it would have affiliated with eventual NBC affiliate WIIC-TV (now WPXI ) once it signed on in 1957 instead. This coup would eventually lead to a much stronger relationship between Westinghouse and CBS. The mid-1940s "talent raid" on NBC had brought over established radio stars, who became stars of CBS television programs as well. One reluctant CBS star refused to bring her radio show My Favorite Husband to television unless

47034-423: The truck driver without insulting the intelligence of the professor". When he returned home for a visit late in 1941, Paley threw an "extraordinarily elaborate reception" for Murrow at the Waldorf-Astoria . This reception also served as an announcement to the world that Paley's network was finally more than just a pipeline carrying other people's programming and had now become a cultural force in its own right. When

47268-403: The unpredictable length of sporting events, NBC will occasionally pre-empt scheduled programs (more common with the weekend editions of NBC Nightly News , and local and syndicated programs carried by its owned-and-operated stations and affiliates). NBC has also held the American broadcasting rights to the Summer Olympic Games since the 1988 games and the rights to the Winter Olympic Games since

47502-415: The variety shows of Red Skelton , Ed Sullivan and Jackie Gleason not only because of aging demographics but also reportedly due to the escalating expenses of these programs. While the "rural" shows got the axe, new hits like The Mary Tyler Moore Show , All in the Family , The Bob Newhart Show , Cannon , Barnaby Jones , Kojak , and The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour took their place on

47736-477: The war was over and Murrow returned for good, it was as "a superstar with prestige and freedom and respect within his profession and within his company". He possessed enormous capital within that company, and as the unknown form of television news loomed large, he would spend it freely, first in radio news, then in television, first taking on Senator Joseph McCarthy , then eventually – and unsuccessfully – William S. Paley himself. On October 30, 1938, CBS Radio gained

47970-416: The war were the same stars who had been huge in the 1930s; Jack Benny, Bing Crosby, Burns and Allen , and Edgar Bergen all had been on the radio almost as long as there had been network radio. A notable exception to this was relative newcomer Arthur Godfrey , who was still doing a local morning show in Washington, D.C. as late as 1942. Godfrey, who had been a cemetery lot salesman and a cab driver, pioneered

48204-406: The world, while its fortuitous earlier acquisition of the Star Trek property, which had grown into a cult favorite , enabled Paramount to have a long running science fiction film and television franchise to compete with the outstanding popular success of Star Wars . Diller's television background led him to propose one of his longest-standing ideas to the board: Paramount Television Service ,

48438-411: The young, urban, and more affluent audiences that advertisers sought to target. Fred Silverman , who would later head ABC and later NBC , made the decision to cancel most of those otherwise hit shows by mid-1971 in what became colloquially referred to as the " rural purge ", with Green Acres cast member Pat Buttram remarking that the network canceled "anything with a tree in it". CBS also cancelled

48672-410: Was Edward R. Murrow in 1935; his first corporate title was Director of Talks. He was mentored in microphone technique by Robert Trout , the lone full-time member of the News Division, and quickly found himself in a growing rivalry with his boss White. Murrow was glad to "leave the hothouse atmosphere of the New York office behind" when he was dispatched to London as CBS's European Director in 1937, when

48906-726: Was "a magnificent mandarin who functioned as company superintendent, spokesman, and image-maker". He had come to the network in 1933 after sending copies of his Ph.D. thesis "A Critique Of Present Methods and a New Plan for Studying Radio Listening Behavior" to CBS top brass, and they responded with a job offer. He scored an early hit with his study "Memory for Advertising Copy Presented Visually vs. Orally", which CBS salesmen used to great effect, bringing in new sponsors. In 1946, Paley appointed Stanton as President of CBS and promoted himself to chairman. Stanton's colorful but impeccable wardrobe – slate-blue pinstripe suit, ecru shirt, robin's egg blue necktie with splashes of saffron – made him, in

49140-598: Was a more interested listener. However, the television division would be playing catch-up for over a decade after Diller's departure in 1984 before launching its own television network – UPN – in 1995. Lasting eleven years before being merged with The WB network to become The CW in 2006, UPN would feature many of the shows it originally produced for other networks, and would take numerous gambles on series such as Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Enterprise that would have otherwise either gone direct-to-cable or become first-run syndication to independent stations across

49374-433: Was able to introduce " block booking ", which meant that an exhibitor who wanted a particular star's films had to buy a year's worth of other Paramount productions. It was this system that gave Paramount a leading position in the 1920s and 1930s, but which led the government to pursue it on antitrust grounds for more than twenty years. By the mid-1920s, the old Lasky-DeMille barn property was not big enough to handle all of

49608-472: Was also one of the first Hollywood studios to release what were known at that time as "talkies", and in 1929, released their first musical, Innocents of Paris . Richard A. Whiting and Leo Robin composed the score for the film; Maurice Chevalier starred and sang the most famous song from the film, " Louise ". The driving force behind Paramount's rise was Zukor. He built a chain of nearly 2,000 screens, ran two production studios (in Astoria, New York , now

49842-424: Was also relocated to Steinway Hall on West 57th Street in Manhattan , where much of CBS's programming would originate. By the turn of 1929, the network had 47 affiliates. Paley moved right away to put his network on a firmer financial footing. In the fall of 1928, he entered into talks with Adolph Zukor of Paramount Pictures , who planned to move into radio in response to RCA 's forays into motion pictures with

50076-402: Was announced that NBC would launch a new Saturday morning preschool block programmed by Sprout (originally jointly owned by NBCUniversal, PBS , Sesame Workshop and Apax Partners , with the former acquiring the other's interests later that year). The block, NBC Kids , premiered on July 7, 2012, replacing the "Qubo on NBC" block. On February 24, 2016, it was announced that NBC would launch

50310-486: Was based on the hit Robert Altman film of the same name . The 2 + 1 ⁄ 2 -hour series finale , in its initial airing on February 28, 1983, had peak viewership of up to 125 million Americans (77% of all television viewership in the U.S. that night), which established it as the most watched television episode in the United States. It also held the distinction of having the largest single-night primetime viewership of any television program in U.S. history, until it

50544-429: Was even more popular than Mickey Mouse . After an unsuccessful expansion into feature films, as well as the fact that Max and Dave Fleischer were no longer speaking to one another, Fleischer Studios was acquired by Paramount, which renamed the operation Famous Studios . That incarnation of the animation studio continued cartoon production until 1967, but has been historically dismissed as having largely failed to maintain

50778-563: Was hosted for most of its run by Ahmad Rashad , was also a part of the TNBC lineup during the NBA season until 2002 (when the program moved to ABC as a result of that network taking the NBA rights from NBC). In 2002, NBC entered into an agreement with Discovery Communications to carry educational children's programs from the Discovery Kids cable channel. Debuting that September, the Discovery Kids on NBC block originally consisted exclusively of live-action series, including reality series Trading Spaces: Boys vs. Girls (a kid-themed version of

51012-470: Was made in response to a change in distribution practices that had occurred among the various major studios. In August 1987, Paramount Overseas Productions declared that the subsidiary would be in service not just for the upcoming film Experts , which was shot on a budget of $ 12 million in Canada , but also for other films filmed there worldwide, including the United Kingdom and Canada . In 1993, Sumner Redstone 's entertainment conglomerate Viacom made

51246-620: Was one of the era's first breakthrough television shows. From the mid-1960s until 1992, the bulk of NBC's children's programming was composed of mainly animated programming including classic Looney Tunes and Woody Woodpecker shorts; reruns of prime time animated sitcoms such as The Flintstones and The Jetsons ; foreign acquisitions like Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion ; animated adaptions of Punky Brewster , ALF and Star Trek as well as animated vehicles for Gary Coleman and Mr. T ; live-action programs like The Banana Splits , The Bugaloos and H.R. Pufnstuf ; and

51480-405: Was pitted against upstart ABC's game show Stop The Music! ; within weeks, he was dropped by longtime sponsor Ford Motor Company and was shortly gone from the scene. Radio powerhouse Bob Hope 's ratings plunged from a 23.8 share in 1949 to 5.4 in 1953. By 1952, "death seemed imminent for network radio" in its familiar form; most tellingly, the big sponsors were eager for the switch. Gradually, as

51714-510: Was re-listed on the New York Stock Exchange and when the company was under Balaban's leadership, the studio was successfully relaunched. As always, Paramount films continued to emphasize stars; in the 1920s there were Gloria Swanson , Wallace Reid , Rudolph Valentino , Florence Vidor , Thomas Meighan , Pola Negri , Bebe Daniels , Antonio Moreno , Richard Dix , Esther Ralston , Emil Jannings , George Bancroft , Betty Compson , Clara Bow , Adolphe Menjou , and Charles Buddy Rogers . By

51948-439: Was released. On May 8, 1914, Paramount Pictures Corporation (previously known as Progressive Pictures) was founded by a Utah theatre owner, W. W. Hodkinson , who had bought and merged five smaller firms. On May 15, 1914, Hodkinson signed a five-year contract with the Famous Players Film Company, the Lasky Company and Bosworth, Inc. to distribute their films. Actor, director and producer Hobart Bosworth had started production of

52182-423: Was renamed Plitt Theaters. In 1985, Cineplex Odeon Corporation merged with Plitt. In later years, Paramount's TV division would develop a strong relationship with ABC, providing many hit series to the network. Paramount Pictures had been an early backer of television, launching experimental stations in 1939 in Los Angeles and Chicago. The Los Angeles station eventually became KTLA , the first commercial station on

52416-442: Was sold to Citadel Broadcasting in 2007 (and is now a part of Cumulus Media ), while Mutual (now defunct) and NBC Radio were acquired by Westwood One in the 1980s. Westwood One and CBS were under common ownership from 1993 to 2007; the former would be acquired outright by Dial Global in October 2011. CBS's involvement in television dates back to the opening of experimental station W2XAB in New York City on July 21, 1931, using

52650-401: Was sold to MCA (now Universal Music Group ) in 1979. Paramount's successful run of pictures extended into the 1980s and 1990s, generating hits like Airplane! , American Gigolo , Ordinary People , An Officer and a Gentleman , Flashdance , Terms of Endearment , Footloose , Pretty in Pink , Top Gun , Crocodile Dundee , Fatal Attraction , Ghost , the Friday

52884-573: Was sponsored by Spry Vegetable Shortening . Our Gal Sunday (Anacin again), The Romance of Helen Trent (Angélus cosmetics), Big Sister ( Rinso laundry soap), and many others filled the daytime ether. Thanks to its daytime and primetime schedules, CBS prospered in the 1930s. In 1935, gross sales were $ 19.3 million, yielding a profit of $ 2.27 million. By 1937, the network took in $ 28.7 million and had 114 affiliates, almost all of which cleared 100% of network-fed programming, thus keeping ratings, and revenue, high. In 1938, CBS acquired

53118-460: Was still chairman emeritus; he referred to chairman Barney Balaban (born 1888) as "the boy". Such aged leadership was incapable of keeping up with the changing times, and in 1966, a sinking Paramount was sold to Charles Bluhdorn 's industrial conglomerate, Gulf and Western Industries . Bluhdorn immediately put his stamp on the studio, installing a virtually unknown producer named Robert Evans as head of production. Despite some rough times, Evans held

53352-431: Was surpassed by the Super Bowl , which has taken the record consistently since 2010 (through the annual championship game alternates between being broadcast by CBS and rival networks Fox and NBC). Silverman also first developed his strategy of spinning new shows off from established hit series while at CBS, with Rhoda and Phyllis spun from The Mary Tyler Moore Show , Maude and The Jeffersons from All in

53586-502: Was temporarily closed with the objective of equipping it with the technology for the production of sound films . In the same year, Paramount began releasing Inkwell Imps , animated cartoons produced by Max and Dave Fleischer 's Fleischer Studios in New York City. The Fleischers, veterans in the animation industry, were among the few animation producers capable of challenging the prominence of Walt Disney . The Paramount newsreel series Paramount News ran from 1927 to 1957. Paramount

53820-401: Was the big player in New York City, and did not want the Publix theaters to overshadow theirs. The two companies brokered a non-competition deal for New York City and Chicago, and Loew's took over the New York City area projects, developing five wonder theaters . Publix continued Balaban's wonder theater development in its home area. On April 24, 1930, Paramount-Famous Lasky Corporation became

54054-462: Was the lone holdout of dramatic programming, which ran from 1974 to 1982, though shorter runs were given to the General Mills Radio Adventure Theater , The Zero Hour and the Sears/Mutual Radio Theater in the 1970s – early 1980s; otherwise, most new dramatic radio was carried on public and to some extent religious stations. The CBS Radio Network continues to this day, offering hourly newscasts, including its centerpiece CBS World News Roundup in

54288-474: Was the short-lived Caesars Challenge , which ended in January 1994. Notable past daytime talk shows that have aired on NBC have included Home (1954–1957), The Ernie Kovacs Show (1955–1956), The Merv Griffin Show (1962–1963), Leeza (1994–1999) and Later Today (1999–2000). Children's programming has played a part in NBC's programming since its initial roots in television. NBC's first major children's series, Howdy Doody , debuted in 1947 and

54522-408: Was volunteer. W2XAB pioneered program development including small-scale dramatic acts, monologues, pantomime, and the use of projection slides to simulate sets. Engineer Bill Lodge devised the first synchronized sound wave for a television station in 1932, enabling W2XAB to broadcast picture and sound on a single shortwave channel instead of the two previously needed. On November 8, 1932, W2XAB broadcast

54756-442: Was widespread, did CBS begin to buy or build their own stations (outside of New York City) in Los Angeles, Chicago, and other major cities. Up to that point, CBS programming was seen on such stations as KTTV in Los Angeles, in which CBS – as a bit of insurance and to guarantee program clearance in that market – quickly purchased a 50% interest, partnering with the Los Angeles Times . CBS then sold its interest in KTTV (now

#732267