NBC Southern Blue? and WBS?

[hrhwebmaster]

In August, 1937, KXYZ Houston joined NBC Blue on the same day as 9 other Southern stations. This was referred to in local reports as the Blue Southern Group which had a total of 22 stations.

Was this a separate network or were there any special programs for this group?

Why 10 stations all at once? A big push by NBC for new affiliates? Hook ups just available?

Prior to this, KXYZ had been an affiliate of WBS - the World Broadcasting System. What was that? I've not been able to find anything on it.

The other stations joining NBC on that day were WAGA, Atlanta, WSON, Birmingham, WNBR, Memphis, WROL, Knoxville, WJOB, Baton Rouge, WDSU, NOLA, KFDM, Beaumont, KRIS, Corpus Christi and KRGV, Weslaco, TX.<P ID="signature">______________
'But have you ever heard music on a crystal set? That's the sweetest music ever broadcast.' Alfred P. Daniel, Houston radio pioneer, in an interview in 1948.</P>

 

[SuperSound]

I had done some research about World Broadcasting System (of 1937) in connection with an Old Time Radio project. As I recall the WRN network existed only about 9 months, and programming was supplied by transcription (records). Not much more survives or is known. There were several other "networks" that today we would call syndication services, that were not wire connected because of the expense of AT&T long lines.
Perhaps some of these other stations were also WRN affiliates when WRN went under, or perhaps new AT&T long lines were installed that made the wired network connection then possible.

> In August, 1937, KXYZ Houston joined NBC Blue on the same
> day as 9 other Southern stations. This was referred to in
> local reports as the Blue Southern Group which had a total
> of 22 stations.
>
> Was this a separate network or were there any special
> programs for this group?
>
> Why 10 stations all at once? A big push by NBC for new
> affiliates? Hook ups just available?
>
> Prior to this, KXYZ had been an affiliate of WBS - the World
> Broadcasting System. What was that? I've not been able to
> find anything on it.
>
> The other stations joining NBC on that day were WAGA,
> Atlanta, WSON, Birmingham, WNBR, Memphis, WROL, Knoxville,
> WJOB, Baton Rouge, WDSU, NOLA, KFDM, Beaumont, KRIS, Corpus
> Christi and KRGV, Weslaco, TX.
>

 

[actioncentral]

I did some research and only found one article from the NYTimes of July 29, 1937:
"Station WNBR of the new Blue Southern network of the National Broadcasting Company will change its call letters to WMPS on august 1, the date the new Southern group joins NBC."
Strange that the item doesn't name the city of the station. The Southern group is either a group of stations tied together through a sales agency or through
ownership (probably the first option.) I remember the Intermountain Sales group
entered into a "group affiliation" with ABC Information years ago. Also, the Don Lee west coast group affiliated with Mutual and it was the Don Lee/Mutual
group. (I believe at one point Don Lee owned or controlled Mutual.)
action central (GEC)

 

[hrhwebmaster]

> I had done some research about World Broadcasting System (of
> 1937) in connection with an Old Time Radio project. As I
> recall the WRN network existed only about 9 months, and
> programming was supplied by transcription (records). Not
> much more survives or is known. There were several other
> "networks" that today we would call syndication services,
> that were not wire connected because of the expense of AT&T
> long lines.
> Perhaps some of these other stations were also WRN
> affiliates when WRN went under, or perhaps new AT&T long
> lines were installed that made the wired network connection
> then possible.
>
That's probably it. I don't know why I didn't think of that. The first station I worked for, KUT-FM, Austin, aired lots of recorded programs from broadcasting services all over the world; most were on reel-to-reel by then, a few on LPs but not ETs.

I had noticed the Trans Radio Press News on the KXYZ schedule several times a day and assumed that was a newscast from WBS, but on closer inspection of listings it was never listed as such.

WBS Programs in the last week KXYZ used it:

Sentimental Moods
America on Parade - 'series of pgms that bring to life events of the past'
Willys Surprise ??? - couldn't read any more
Hollywood on Parade - 'interesting sidelights & personal activities of the stars'
See America First
Hits and Encores
Rhythm and Romance
The World Entertains - 30:00 - 'selections from the music of Mexico, Australia, England, Russia, Cuba and America
Success Story
World Varieties - 30:00
Musical Moods

That was it for a whole week, so WBS wasn't supply much. Except for the 2 noted, all were 15 minute programs.
<P ID="signature">______________
'But have you ever heard music on a crystal set? That's the sweetest music ever broadcast.' Alfred P. Daniel, Houston radio pioneer, in an interview in 1948.</P>

 

[hrhwebmaster]

> I did some research and only found one article from the
> NYTimes of July 29, 1937:
> "Station WNBR of the new Blue Southern network of the
> National Broadcasting Company will change its call letters
> to WMPS on august 1, the date the new Southern group joins
> NBC."
> Strange that the item doesn't name the city of the station.
> The Southern group is either a group of stations tied
> together through a sales agency or through
> ownership (probably the first option.) I remember the
> Intermountain Sales group
> entered into a "group affiliation" with ABC Information
> years ago. Also, the Don Lee west coast group affiliated
> with Mutual and it was the Don Lee/Mutual
> group. (I believe at one point Don Lee owned or controlled
> Mutual.)
> action central (GEC)
>
In the radio listings WBS occurred at the top of the KXYZ listings where NBC appeared for KPRC and CBS for KTRH so I assumed it was a network. One of the newspaper stories specifically used the phrase 'Southern Blue Network' once but I may have read too much into those facts. Come to think of it WBS might have meant World Broadcast Service not System.

The term 'chain' was still being used -- when did they come to be called networks? The listings would include the Houston stations then a separate section would be 'Chain Programs' which would list what was on the networks and the stations where it could be found so if a Houston listener wasn't happy with the local offering they could try to pull in one of the other stations.<P ID="signature">______________
'But have you ever heard music on a crystal set? That's the sweetest music ever broadcast.' Alfred P. Daniel, Houston radio pioneer, in an interview in 1948.</P>

 

[zoey]

Don Lee

In the early 30's, the Don Lee network served as CBS' West Coast network and fed programs to CBS from KHJ. In the late 30's, CBS acquired KNX and set up their own West Coast network. Don Lee shifted to Mutual and operated Mutual's West Coast network for the next 20 years. Mutual was owned by its major affiliates, including stations like WOR and WGN (who owned the majority share of the network and fed most of the programs), and regional networks like Don Lee, Intermountain, Colonial, Texas ... Smaller stations within a region affiliated with the the regional network (which then relayed national programs as well as some regional programs of their own). RKO General ended up acquiring the Don Lee group of stations, as well as WOR, CKLW, and other major affiliates and thereby ended up owning Mutual. RKO General sold Mutual to 3M around 1960 (and stopped carrying or feeding programs to Mutual). WOR moved to a "full service" format and the rest of the stations flipped to Top 40, including former Don Lee flagship KHJ, which introduced the Drake-Cheanult "Boss Radio" format. Of the regional networks, only the Texas Network continues to operate as a subsidiary of CBS Radio, out of KRLD Dallas.

> Also, the Don Lee west coast group affiliated
> with Mutual and it was the Don Lee/Mutual
> group. (I believe at one point Don Lee owned or controlled
> Mutual.)
> action central (GEC)
>

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

Re: Don Lee

Between the time the RKO General group sold Mutual and 3M bought it, the network was owned in rapid succession by Armand Hammer, Hal Roach, Jr., and Albert McCarthy. At one point, Mutual went into bankruptcy.

During one of those short-lived ownerships, the network got into trouble after company president Alexander Guterma promising favorable news coverage of the Dominican Republic's dictator, Rafael Trujillo.

Ownership stabalized after 3M, and later, Amway bought Mutual. It was during Amway's ownership that MBS got it's first and only two network-owned stations, WCFL-1000 (now WMVP) Chicago and WHN-1050 (now WEPN) New York.

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

Trans Radio (Was: Re: NBC Southern Blue? and WBS?)

Hrhwebmaster commented:

> I had noticed the Trans Radio Press News on the KXYZ
> schedule several times a day and assumed that was a newscast
> from WBS, but on closer inspection of listings it was never
> listed as such.

Trans Radio was a wire service formed in the 1930's to provide news to radio stations. The Trans Radio newscasts broadcast by KXYZ were undoubtly a local announcer reading stories off of the Trans Radio wire.

In the early 1930's, the major wire services (AP, UP, INS) refused to sell their services to broadcasters. The wire services were pressured to do this by newspapers, who were the great majority of their clients at the time.

CBS responded by setting-up their own wire service, the Columbia News Service, for the network and its affiliates. I don't think NBC, radio stations not affiliated with CBS, or newspapers were able to subscribe to the CBS wire service.

By the end of 1933, the wire services and broadcasting industry agreed to start a "Press-Radio Bureau", which allowed radio stations to broadcast news from the three major wire services twice a day, and to broadcast "transcendent" bulletins on receipt.

Neither Columbia News Service nor Trans Radio was subject to this arrangement, so their clients were free to broadcast as much of those wires' material as they pleased, whenever they wanted. The Columbia News Service shut down not long after the "Press-Radio Bureau" was set-up (and in fact was one of the stipulations of that agreement), but Trans Radio continued until after World War 2.

In 1935, UP and INS began selling news directly to broadcasters; AP followed suit in 1941. Stations and networks were not restricted in how much UP and INS (and later, AP) news they could broadcast, or when they could broadcast it. The UP was the first to allow programs containing it's wire stories to be sponsored; in it's East Coast region, Esso sponsored several newscasts a day consisting of UP wire stories under the title "Your Esso Reporter". "Esso Reporter" newscasts were generally on one radio station in each market, usually on NBC (either Red or Blue) and CBS affiliates.

 

[ercjncpr]

WBS World Broadcasting System was a mostly a music transcription service similar to the RCA-NBC Thesaurus service. Many major orchestras contributed to these discs to widen their band's exposure. These transcriptions contained 15 minute or half hour "programs" of music by name orchestras which were shipped to stations with an accmpanying script for the local announcer to use. There was built in time for local spots as well.

 

[robgrayson]

Regarding several entries back... WNBR, which changed calls to WMPS, was in Memphis, TN. The WMPS related to their owner at the time, the Memphis Press Scimitar newspaper. Later, the station was the "flagship" for Plough broadcasting.