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CBS to sell entire radio group

semoochie said:
CBS ran long form programing(Art Linkletter, Lowell Thomas, Arlene Francis etc.)at least past 1970.
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Sure there were some holdovers. Arthur Godfrey ended in 1972. NBC Monitor continued until 1975. But my point is the business was changing, primarily because the needs of local stations had changed. Not that they didn't need national content, but that it was available from more places, and some of those places allowed more flexibility than the traditional radio network.
 
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TheBigA said:
Sure there were some holdovers. Arthur Godfrey ended in 1972. NBC Monitor continued until 1975. But my point is the business was changing, primarily because the needs of local stations had changed. Not that they didn't need national content, but that it was available from more places, and some of those places allowed more flexibility than the traditional radio network.
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Anybody can call themselves a network. When Welk went into syndication, he called it "The Lawrence Welk Network." Rush calls his show "The EIB Network."

Godfrey finally decided to retire but advertisers still loved him and CBS would have kept him on, even though their all news O&Os had to break format for his show.

They did run an edited audio version of Art Linkletter's House Party until 1968, when he moved the show (on TV only) to NBC. Lowell Thomas did a daily 15 minute newscast; wouldn't exactly call it "long-form."

Monitor was almost immediately replaced with NIS, an all news feed, sort of Monitor without the music. Clearances and sales weren't any better.

ABC tried to keep The Breakfast Club going after the four-way network split. They had to truncate the show and during the hour a couple of networks didn't have newscasts. The show changed stations or times in a lot of markets. Finally, they gave up after a year. About the same time ABC ended their dinner hour news block.

Mutual limped along until Westwood One took over. Two Mutual shows still air. Coast to Coast AM on WWI, and Meet The Press, which moved to NBC.
 
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Oscar Madison said:
Anybody can call themselves a network.
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Yes I said that. The word "network" referred to the AT&T long lines. AT&T still uses it in their ads, talking about "...the network of AT&T." But the hardwired interconnect ceased to exist for radio once satellite started. Now most syndicated radio shows are downloaded from the internet. The internet is the network, no longer proprietary to a company or service.
 
TheBigA said:
Yes I said that. The word "network" referred to the AT&T long lines. AT&T still uses it in their ads, talking about "...the network of AT&T." But the hardwired interconnect ceased to exist for radio once satellite started. Now most syndicated radio shows are downloaded from the internet. The internet is the network, no longer proprietary to a company or service.
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And the "unwired network" came into existence with syndicated shows such at AT40 around 1970... distributed on vinyl and soon financed by barter advertising in a "network" buy.
 
DavidEduardo said:
And the "unwired network" came into existence with syndicated shows such at AT40 around 1970... distributed on vinyl and soon financed by barter advertising in a "network" buy.
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Seems to me AT40 was done both ways. It was on disc, but also on ABC's satellite distribution system, done in real time so stations could air it directly off the satellite. ABC was on Satcom starting around 1980.
 
TheBigA said:
Seems to me AT40 was done both ways. It was on disc, but also on ABC's satellite distribution system, done in real time so stations could air it directly off the satellite. ABC was on Satcom starting around 1980.
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The satellite distribution did not come until ABC bought Watermark from Tom Rounds and his partners in 1982; the first 12 years went out on disk.

When ABC bought Watermark, TR founded Radio Express to sell AT40, ACC and other shows internationally.

It's worth mentioning that Tom Rounds developed the first profitable barter model for programming (disclaimer: I have worked for Radio Express for the last 2,004 weeks).
 
DavidEduardo said:
The satellite distribution did not come until ABC bought Watermark from Tom Rounds and his partners in 1982; the first 12 years went out on disk.
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Seems to me it was around that same time that the King Biscuit Flower Hour was being distributed on disc. "The National Lampoon Radio Hour" was actually sent out on reel tape. It was the rise of these "unwired networks," as you called it, that led to the heritage networks starting their own internal syndication divisions. Or, in the case of ABC, buying one.
 
Hard wire connections are not necessary to being considered a "network." A network is any live connection of multiple stations airing the same program at the same time. In the 40's, the Yankee Network used FM relay. As did the QXR Network and the Mid-States FM Network in the 60's.
 
Oscar Madison said:
Hard wire connections are not necessary to being considered a "network." A network is any live connection of multiple stations airing the same program at the same time. In the 40's, the Yankee Network used FM relay. As did the QXR Network and the Mid-States FM Network in the 60's.
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That's the "old" definition of a network.

And it needs further clarification as "live" networks were, internationally, often linked by shortwave.

One of the significant reasons why "network" became synonymous with "live" was the limitation put on recording for later playback (particularly for different time zones) imposed by the radio unions and the AFM (if music was involved).

And perhaps the most significant reason why unwired networks became identified as "network" just the same came from the ad agencies. They were looking for reach and market coverage, and did not care if a show ran simultaneously or at different times and different days. To most agencies, a network came to be thought of in terms of "how many markets and how much delivery" and not the precision of timing.

I've worked with a larger group that had only a few programs run simultaneously but still had a "network sales" division which allowed clients to run spots in multiple markets and on multiple stations on one buy.

So I think the definition of "network" has changed as technology, regulation and work rules have changed.
 
TheBigA said:
CBS shut down the CBS Radio Network in 1994 as part of its deal with Westwood One. So CBS does not own a radio network. Just stations. Disney/ABC still owns a number of radio stations, either through Radio Disney or ESPN. NBC got out of the radio business in 1988. It still operates the NBC Sports Radio Network in collaboration with Westwood One. There is also a CNBC Radio Network. NBC also revived its NBC News Radio service for a few years, but it's since been shut down.

The network radio business for the most part ended in the 1950s. The one remaining part of the radio network business was national news. But entertainment programming became more diversified in the 1970s and 80s with the emergence of radio syndication companies. They handled the distribution without the overhead of a network. The old networks attempted to adapt to the new model in the 1980s. CBS started RadioRadio, NBC launched The Source. ABC outsourced some of its entertainment programming to Radio Express. So while the TV networks retained their companion radio operations for a while, the business itself had changed. The need for a "network" using the old AT&T long lines ended in the 1980s with satellite distribution. It changed again with the internet. Now virtually anyone can be in the radio network business and the centralized distribution system no longer exists.
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Wait 2 years ago Disney sold the majority of their Radio Disney Affiliates to different owners except for KDIS 1110 Los Angeles. The Only direct control Disney has in Radio are ESPN Sports/Talk affiliates on Los Angeles and New York. Radio Disney does exist mainly on HD-X affiliates in some parts of the country or made of Slacker apps.
 
This might be the best possible option. No doubt there will be some horse trading after it all goes through. We also have call letters and intellectual property to deal with,
 
Radiolover971 said:
Who's going to buy the Philly stations Radio One? Cumulus or new company Alpha Media?
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The former Beasley stations in Philly and Miami (they are with CBS Radio as we have seen) are in a owner crisis (which means that they are changing owners after less than 5 years of being owned by them, like an identity crisis, but regarding station owners).
 
Jonathan7157 said:
The former Beasley stations in Philly and Miami (they are with CBS Radio as we have seen) are in a owner crisis (which means that they are changing owners after less than 5 years of being owned by them, like an identity crisis, but regarding station owners).
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Because of the way this is being done, it shouldn't be a problem.
 
now that the CBS radio brand is spinning off, does this mean the return of the name "Infinity Broadcasting" for CBS Radio or do they retain CBS branding.
 
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