The broadcast TV networks no longer monopolize the airwaves, but they still wield tremendous influence. And the grandfather of them all is NBC.
RADIO DAYS
For radio producer American Marconi Wireless (AMW), selling radios during World War I was easy.
Most radios at the time were two-way and direct, and were used by people to converse with each other. Interest was confined to two groups: the military, and shipping companies. But a 25-year-old executive at AMW named David Sarnoff knew that for the company to survive after the war, it would need to find new markets.In 1916, shortly after AMW was bought out and renamed Radio Corporation of America (RCA), Sarnoff wrote a letter to his fellow RCA executives. In it, he spoke of the future of radio: He pictured a “radio music box” that, he said, would one day be in every home. To those homes, mass transmitters would broadcast signals—instead of direct, two-way messages, the network would relay music and entertainment, one way, to millions of listeners.
Sarnoff’s bosses weren’t interested. The war was still on, and radios were selling fine. There was no reason to shift the whole notion of radio to what Sarnoff called “broadcasting.”
FIGHT NIGHT
By 1921 World War I had been over for more than two years. And Sarnoff had been right—as the military market disappeared and the shipping market became saturated, sales of RCA radios plummeted. Sarnoff wrote another memo to RCA brass about the entertainment potential of radio.
It was already taking off, with amateur hobbyists building their own crude transmitters, some forming them into actual radio “stations,” and more people were investing in radios for their homes. Still, RCA management was skeptical.But Sarnoff didn’t let it drop. In July 1921, he hired an announcer to broadcast over the nascent airwaves a heavyweight boxing match between Jack Dempsey and Georges Carpentier.
The fight took place in New Jersey, but the audio feed was sent by telegraph wire to KDKA in Pittsburgh, one of the very first radio stations, which then broadcast it to the general public. The announcer asked listeners to send letters to RCA, telling them what they thought of the fight. Based on the volume of mail received in the next few weeks, RCA execs concluded that 300,000 people had listened in. They were finally convinced: Commercial radio was the future.
A NETWORK IS BORN
RCA couldn’t market their expensive, hand-constructed cabinet radios unless there was something for people to listen to. So, after a few false starts, in 1926 RCA launched its own radio network: the National Broadcasting Company (NBC).
“National” was a bit of an overstatement, as the network consisted of just two stations: one in New York City, and one 10 miles away in Newark, New Jersey. Head of…
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