The Mutual Broadcasting System (MBS) was an American ^ b. English is the de facto language of American government and the sole language spoken at home by 80% of Americans age five and older. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language radio network There are two types of radio networks currently in use around the world: the one-to-many broadcast type commonly used for public information and entertainment; and the two-way type used more commonly for public safety and public services such as police, fire, taxis, and delivery services. Following is a description of the former type of radio, in operation from 1934 to 1999. In the golden age of U.S. radio drama Old-Time Radio and the Golden Age of Radio refer to a period of radio programming in the United States lasting from the proliferation of radio broadcasting in the early 1920s until television's replacement of radio as the dominant home entertainment medium in the 1950s. During this period, when radio was dominant and the airwaves were filled with, MBS was best known as the original network home of The Lone Ranger and The Adventures of Superman and as the long-time radio residence of The Shadow The Shadow is a collection of serialized dramas, originally in pulp magazines, then on 1930s radio and then in a wide variety of media, that follow the exploits of the title character, a crime-fighting vigilante with psychic powers. One of the most famous pulp heroes of the 20th century, The Shadow has been featured in comic books, comic strips,. For many years, it was a national broadcaster for Major League Baseball, including the All-Star Game The Major League Baseball All-Star Game, also known as the "Midsummer Classic", is an annual baseball game between players from the National League and the American League, currently selected by a combination of fans, players, coaches, and managers. The All-Star Game usually occurs in early to mid-July and marks the symbolic halfway and World Series The World Series has been the annual championship series of the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada since 1903, concluding the postseason of Major League Baseball. Since the Series takes place in October, sportswriters many years ago dubbed the event the Fall Classic; it is also sometimes known as the October, and for Notre Dame football Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team is the football team of the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, USA. The team competes as an Independent at the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision level. The current head coach is Charlie Weis. From the mid-1930s and for decades after, Mutual ran a highly respected news service accompanied by a variety of popular commentary shows. Toward the end of its run as a major programmer, it introduced the country to Larry King Lawrence Harvey Zeiger , better known by his showbiz name Larry King, is an American television and radio host.

Of the four national networks of American radio's classic era, Mutual had for decades the largest number of affiliates In the broadcasting industry , a network affiliate (or affiliated station) is a local broadcaster which carries some or all of the program line-up of a television or radio network, but is owned by a company other than the owner of the network. This distinguishes such a station from an owned-and-operated station (O&O), which is owned by its but the least certain financial position. For the first eighteen years of its existence, MBS was owned and operated as a cooperative A cooperative is a business organization owned and operated by a group of individuals for their mutual benefit. Cooperatives are defined by the International Co-operative Alliance's Statement on the Co-operative Identity as autonomous associations of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and, setting the network apart from its competitors: Mutual's members shared their own original programming, transmission and promotion expenses, and advertising revenues. From December 30, 1936, when it debuted in the West, the Mutual Broadcasting System had affiliates from coast to coast. Its business structure would change after General Tire assumed majority ownership in 1952 through a series of regional and individual station acquisitions.

Once General Tire sold the network in 1957, Mutual's ownership was largely disconnected from the stations it served, leading to a more conventional, top-down model of program production and distribution. Not long after the sale, one of the network's new executive teams was charged with accepting money to use Mutual as a vehicle for foreign propaganda As opposed to impartially providing information, propaganda in its most basic sense, presents information primarily to influence an audience. Propaganda often presents facts selectively to encourage a particular synthesis, or uses loaded messages to produce an emotional rather than rational response to the information presented. The desired result. The network was severely damaged, but soon rebounded. Mutual changed hands frequently in succeeding years—even leaving aside larger-scale acquisitions and mergers, its final direct corporate parent, Westwood One Westwood One is an American radio network. It is based in New York City, and it was previously managed by CBS Radio, the radio arm of CBS Corporation. The company is now owned by the private-equity firm The Gores Group and describes itself as "platform agnostic" but still focuses mostly on radio as well as online audio products, which purchased it in 1985, was the seventh in a string of new owners that followed General Tire.

Contents 1 History 1.1 1934–1935: The launch of Mutual 1.2 Late 1930s: National expansion 1.2.1 Programming: The Shadow and diverse political voices 1.3 1940s: One of the "Big Four" 1.3.1 Programming: World War II and Superman 1.4 1950s: New ownership 1.4.1 Programming: Korean War and original drama's decline 1.5 1960s–1970s: Narrowed focus 1.5.1 Programming: Rise of the call-in talk show 1.6 1980s–1990s: The end of Mutual 2 Legacy 3 See also 4 Notes 5 References 6 Sources 7 External links 7.1 Listening

History

1934–1935: The launch of Mutual

Attempts at establishing cooperatively owned radio networks had been made since the 1920s. In 1929, a group of four radio stations Radio broadcasting is an audio broadcasting service, broadcast through the air as radio waves (a form of electromagnetic radiation) from a transmitter to a receiving antenna. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast common programming, either in syndication or simulcast or both. Audio broadcasting also can be done via cable FM, local in the major markets of New York City, Chicago, Cincinnati, and Detroit organized into a loose confederation known as the Quality Network. Five years later, a similar or identical group of stations founded the Mutual Broadcasting System.^[a] Mutual's original participating stations were WOR–Newark, New Jersey Newark is the largest city in New Jersey, and the county seat of Essex County. Newark has a population of 281,402, making it the largest municipality in New Jersey and the 65th largest city in the U.S. Newark is also home to major corporations, such as Prudential Financial, just outside of New York (owned by the Bamberger Broadcasting Service, a division of R.H. Macy and Company Macy's is a chain of mid-to-high range department stores headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio and New York, New York. Its selection of clothing merchandise can vary significantly from location to location, resulting in the exclusive availability of certain brands in only higher end stores. The company has designated additional regional flagships but), WGN WGN is a radio station in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It is owned by the Tribune Company, which also owns the flagship television station WGN-TV, the Chicago Tribune newspaper and Chicago magazine locally. WGN's transmitter is located in Elk Grove Village, Illinois. The station has a news-talk format and is the flagship station of the Chicago Cubs,–Chicago (owned by WGN Inc., a subsidiary of the Chicago Tribune The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is currently the eighth largest newspaper in), WXYZ WXYT is an AM radio station located in Detroit, Michigan. Its transmitter is in Monroe County at Ash Township and operations and studios are at CBS Radio's facilities in Southfield, Michigan. The station is owned by CBS Radio Inc. (formerly Infinity Broadcasting) and used the on-air nickname "1270-XYT The Sports Station" until October 200–Detroit (owned by Kunsky-Trendle Broadcasting), and WLW WLW is a clear channel talk radio station located in Cincinnati, Ohio, run by Clear Channel Communications. The station broadcasts locally on 700 kHz AM. WLW's studios are in the Towers of Kenwood building next to Interstate 71 in the Kenwood neighborhood of Sycamore Township, while its transmitter is located in Mason, adjacent to the former Voice–Cincinnati (owned by the Crosley Radio Company). The network was organized on September 29, 1934, with the members contracting for telephone-line transmission facilities and agreeing to collectively enter into contracts with advertisers for their networked shows. WOR and WGN, based in the two largest markets and providing the bulk of the programming, were the acknowledged leaders of the group. On October 29, 1934, the Mutual Broadcasting System was incorporated, with Bamberger and WGN Inc. each holding 50 percent of the stock—five each of the ten total shares.^[1]

Lum and Abner, the latter of whom is seen in this advertisement reaching for a can of Horlick's. The malted milk maker sponsored the show during its entire run on Mutual. It left MBS for NBC Blue after August 1935.

The three national radio networks already in operation—the Columbia Broadcasting System CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major American television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of the company's logo. It has also been called the " and the National Broadcasting Company The National Broadcasting Company is an American television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices in Burbank, California. It is sometimes referred to as the "Peacock Network" due to its stylized peacock logo, created originally for color's NBC Red The National Broadcasting Company is an American television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices in Burbank, California. It is sometimes referred to as the "Peacock Network" due to its stylized peacock logo, created originally for color and NBC Blue The Blue Network was the on-air name of an American radio production and distribution service from 1942 to 1945, which traced its formal origins back to 1927. It was born of a divestiture, arising from anti-trust litigation, of one of the two radio networks owned by the National Broadcasting Company, and is the direct predecessor of the American—were corporate controlled: programming was produced by the network and distributed to affiliates, most of which were independently owned. In contrast, the Mutual Broadcasting System was run as a true cooperative venture, with programming produced by and shared between the group's members. The majority of the early programming, from WOR and WGN, consisted of musical features and inexpensive dramatic serials. WOR had The Witch's Tale, a horror anthology series whose "hunner-an'-thirteen-year-old" narrator invited listeners to "douse all [the] lights. Now draw up to the fire an' gaze into the embers ...gaaaaze into 'em deep!... an' soon ye'll be across the seas, in th' jungle land of Africa ... hear that chantin' and them savage drums?"^[2] WGN contributed the popular comedy series Lum and Abner. Detroit's WXYZ provided The Lone Ranger, which had debuted in 1933 and was already in demand. It is often claimed that MBS was launched primarily as a vehicle for the Western serial, but Lum and Abner was no less popular at the time.^[3] What WLW brought was sheer power; billing itself as "The Nation's Station," in May 1934 it had begun night broadcasting at a massive 500,000 watts, ten times the clear-channel In the Bahamas, Canada, Mexico, and the United States, a clear-channel station is an AM radio station which is given extraordinary protection from interference to its nighttime signal. Clear-channel stations are sometimes known colloquially as blowtorches standard.^[4]

On May 24, 1935, the network aired its inaugural live event—the first-ever night baseball game, between the Cincinnati Reds - In 1994, a players' strike wiped out the last eight weeks of the season and all post-season. Cincinnati was in first place in the Central Division by a half game over Houston when play was stopped. No official titles were awarded in 1994 and the Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are a Major League Baseball team based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They are the oldest continuous, one-name, one-city franchise in all of professional American sports, dating to 1883. The Phillies are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball's National League. Since 2004, the team's home has been.^[5] In September, WXYZ dropped out to join NBC Blue, though contractual obligations kept The Lone Ranger on Mutual, airing three times a week, through spring 1942.^[6] The hole in the Detroit market was immediately filled by CKLW in Windsor, Ontario Windsor is the southernmost city in Canada and is located in Southwestern Ontario at the western end of the heavily populated Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. It is within Essex County, although administratively separated from the county government. Windsor is located south of Detroit, is separated from that city by the Detroit River, and has, just across the river.^[7] In October, the network began a decades-long run as broadcaster of baseball's World Series, with airtime responsibilities shared between WGN's Bob Elson and Quin Ryan and WLW's Red Barber Barber, nicknamed "The Ol' Redhead", was primarily identified with radio broadcasts of Major League Baseball, calling play-by-play across four decades with the Cincinnati Reds , Brooklyn Dodgers (1939–1953), and New York Yankees (1954–1966). Like his fellow sports pioneer Mel Allen, Barber also gained a niche calling college and (NBC and CBS also carried the series that year; the Fall Classic would air on all three networks through 1938).^[8] Mutual broadcast its first Notre Dame football game that autumn as well, beginning another relationship that would last for decades.^[9] As an income-generating business, the Mutual network was a modest endeavor at the start: in the first eleven months of 1935, the cooperative garnered $1.1 million in advertising, compared to NBC's $28.3 million and CBS's $15.8 million.^[7]

Late 1930s: National expansion

In the fall of 1936, Mutual lost another of its founding members when WLW departed. The network, however, was in the midst of a major expansion: the first outside group of stations to sign on with Mutual was John Shepard's Colonial Network with its Boston flagship station, WAAB, and thirteen affiliates around New England.^[10] Cleveland's WGAR also became an affiliate, as did five Midwestern stations: KWK–St. Louis, Mo.; KSO–Des Moines, Iowa; WMT–Cedar Rapids, Iowa; KOIL–Omaha, Neb.; and KFOR–Lincoln, Neb.^[11] The big prize came in December, when the Don Lee Broadcasting System, the leading regional web on the West Coast, left CBS to become a central participant in Mutual. Don Lee brought its four owned-and-operated stations In the broadcasting industry , an owned-and-operated station (frequently abbreviated as O&O) usually refers to a television station or radio station that is owned by the network with which it is associated. This distinguishes such a station from an affiliate, whose ownership lies elsewhere other than the network it is linked to—KHJ–Los Angeles, KFRC–San Francisco, KGB KLSD is a sports station based in San Diego, California. The sports programming began on November 12, 2007. Previously, KLSD's format was progressive talk radio–San Diego, and KDB–Santa Barbara—along with six California affiliates and, via shortwave Shortwave radio refers to the HF portion of the radio spectrum: the frequency range 3,000–30,000 kHz (3–30 MHz). Shortwave radio received its name because its frequencies were higher (and wavelengths shorter) than the medium and low frequency bands then used for radio communications. (The "AM broadcast band", 520–1710 kHz, is a hookup, two more in Hawaii.^[7][12] Mutual now had a nationwide presence. During 1936, as well, an offer by Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. is an American producer of film and television entertainment to purchase the network was apparently made and rejected.^[13]

In January 1937, ownership of WAAB was consolidated with that of another Boston station controlled by Shepard: WNAC was flagship of the Yankee Network, a circuit of New England radio stations whose membership partially overlapped with that of Colonial.^[14] The Texas Network soon added twenty-three more stations to the MBS affiliate roster.^[15] WGAR dropped out, but the United Broadcasting Company, part of the Cleveland Plain Dealer The Plain Dealer is the major daily newspaper of Cleveland, Ohio. It has the largest circulation of any Ohio newspaper, and is a top 20 newspaper for circulation in the United States. As of May 2006[update], The Plain Dealer had more than 785,000 readers on weekdays and 1 million readers on Sunday. The Plain Dealer reported an average daily paid business, joined with its lead station, WHK.^[16] Within a few years, this new Ohio participant would become one of the network's central members, a shareowner in MBS. By the end of 1938, Mutual had 74 exclusive affiliates; though the two leading radio network companies discouraged dual hookups, Mutual shared another 25 affiliates with NBC and 5 with CBS.^[17] The total of 104 affiliates put Mutual not far behind the leaders. Because of the corporate strength behind NBC and CBS, however, and the fact that the lion's share of the most powerful stations in the country had already signed with them before Mutual's emergence (the exceptional, and soon departed, WLW aside), the cooperative network would be at a permanent disadvantage.

Programming: The Shadow and diverse political voices

Orson Welles George Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, writer, actor, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio. Noted for his innovative dramatic productions as well as his distinctive voice and personality, Welles is widely acknowledged as one of the most accomplished dramatic artists as The Shadow The Shadow is a collection of serialized dramas, originally in pulp magazines, then on 1930s radio and then in a wide variety of media, that follow the exploits of the title character, a crime-fighting vigilante with psychic powers. One of the most famous pulp heroes of the 20th century, The Shadow has been featured in comic books, comic strips,. A predecessor in the role delivered the show's intro, with its famous catchphrase, "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows ...." According to historian Frank Brady, Welles's "voice as the 'invisible' Shadow was perfect." The intro, however, also called for a sinister chuckle; Welles's effort "seemed more an adolescent giggle than a terrifying threat."^[18]

On the programming front, 1936 saw Mutual launch the first network advice show, The Good Will Hour, hosted by John J. Anthony and sponsored by physical culture Physical culture is a term applied to health and strength training regimens, particularly those that originated during the 19th century. During the mid-late 20th century, the term "physical culture" became largely outmoded in most English-speaking countries, being replaced by terms such as "physical education", "fitness guru Bernarr Macfadden Bernarr Macfadden was an influential exponent of physical culture, a combination of bodybuilding with nutritional and health theories. He additionally founded the long-running magazine publishing company Macfadden Publications. The program was a new take on Ask Mister Anthony, which had aired on a local New York station in 1932, "dedicated to helping the sufferers from an antiquated and outmoded domestic relations code." Anthony, whose real name was Lester Kroll, brought a wealth of relevant experience to his work—he had once been jailed for failing to make alimony payments.^[19] In July 1937 came the premiere of a seven-part adaptation of Les Misérables Les Misérables (French pronunciation: [le mizeʁabl]; translated variously from French as The Miserable Ones, The Wretched, The Poor Ones, The Wretched Poor, The Victims) (1862) is a novel by French author Victor Hugo and is widely considered one of the greatest novels of the 19th century. It follows the lives and interactions of several French, produced, written, and directed by Orson Welles George Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, writer, actor, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio. Noted for his innovative dramatic productions as well as his distinctive voice and personality, Welles is widely acknowledged as one of the most accomplished dramatic artists and featuring many of his Mercury Theatre The Mercury Theatre was a theatre company founded in New York City in 1937 by Orson Welles and John Houseman. After a string of live theatrical productions, in 1938 the Mercury Theatre progressed into their best-known period as The Mercury Theatre on the Air, a radio series that included one of the most notable and infamous radio broadcasts of all performers—Mercury's first appearance on the air. September 26, 1937, proved a particularly momentous date: that evening, The Shadow The Shadow is a collection of serialized dramas, originally in pulp magazines, then on 1930s radio and then in a wide variety of media, that follow the exploits of the title character, a crime-fighting vigilante with psychic powers. One of the most famous pulp heroes of the 20th century, The Shadow has been featured in comic books, comic strips, came to Mutual.{{Ref_label|B|b|none} The show would become a mainstay of the network for more than a decade and a half and one of the most popular programs in radio history. For the first year of its Mutual run, Welles provided the voice of The Shadow and his newly created alter ego, Lamont Cranston. He played the part anonymously at first. But, as one chronicler put it, "nothing to do with Welles could remain a secret for very long."^[20]

In April 1938, the network picked up The Green Hornet The Green Hornet is a masked superhero, created by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker for an American radio program in the 1930s. The character also has appeared in film serials in the 1940s, a network television program in the 1960s, and multiple comic book series from the 1940s to the present . Though various incarnations sometimes change from former member WXYZ. Mutual gave the twice-a-week series its first national exposure until November 1939, when it switched to NBC Blue. (The series would return very briefly to Mutual in the fall of 1940).^[21] MBS also provided the national launching pad for Kay Kyser and His Kollege of Musical Knowledge; Kyser's enormous success at Mutual soon allowed his show to move to NBC and its much larger audience.^[22] By May 1939, MBS was broadcasting the Indianapolis 500 The Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, often shortened to Indianapolis 500 or Indy 500 and commonly known simply as The 500, is an American automobile race, held annually over the Memorial Day weekend at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana. The event lends its name to the IndyCar class, or formula, of open-wheel race cars that have.^[23] That autumn, Mutual won exclusive broadcast rights to the World Series. As described in a 1943 Supreme Court ruling upholding the regulatory power of the Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, directed and empowered by Congressional statute (see 47 U.S.C. § 151 and 47 U.S.C. § 154), and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition,, Mutual "offered this program of outstanding national interest to stations throughout the country, including NBC and CBS affiliates in communities having no other stations. CBS and NBC immediately invoked the 'exclusive affiliation' clauses of their agreements with these stations, and as a result thousands of persons in many sections of the country were unable to hear the broadcasts of the games." This was the first example given in the ruling of "abuses" perpetrated by the two leading broadcast companies.^[17]

Mutual also began building a reputation as a strong news service, rivaling the industry leaders in quality if not budget. The broadcasts of WOR reporter Gabriel Heatter from the Lindbergh kidnapping The kidnapping of Charles Augustus Lindbergh, Jr., was the abduction of the son of aviator Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh. The toddler was abducted from his family home in East Amwell, New Jersey, near the town of Hopewell, New Jersey, on the evening of March 1, 1932. Over two months later, on May 12, 1932, the body of Charles "trial of the century" in 1935, heard over Mutual, were highly regarded; Heatter soon had his own regularly scheduled newscast, aired nationally five nights a week.^[24] In 1936, also via WOR, Mutual began broadcasting the reports of news commentator Raymond Gram Swing, who became one of the country's leading voices on foreign affairs.^[25] In November 1937, conservative commentator Fulton Lewis Jr., heard five nights weekly from Mutual affiliate WOL WOL is an Urban Talk radio station in Washington, DC. Broadcasting on 1450 AM, this is the flagship radio station of Radio One, became the first national news personality to broadcast out of Washington, D.C.; he would remain with the network until his death almost three decades later.^[26] In 1938, Mutual started rebroadcasting news reports from the BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation is the largest broadcasting organisation in the world. Its global headquarters are located in London and its main responsibility is to provide public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, Channel Islands and Isle of Man. The BBC is an autonomous public service broadcaster that operates under a Royal and English-language newscasts from the European mainland. The network also began employing its own reporters in Europe as the continent headed toward crisis, including John Steele, Waverly Root, Arthur Mann, and Victor Lusinchi. Among these was Sigrid Schultz, the first accomplished female foreign correspondent to appear on American news radio.^[27]

1940s: One of the "Big Four"

Early in 1940, the corporate organization of Mutual became even more inclusive, as described by scholar Cornelia B. Rose:

Until January, 1940, six groups bore the expense of the network operation in varying degree: stations WGN and WOR owned all the stock of the corporation and guaranteed to make up any deficit; the Colonial Network in New England, the Don Lee System on the Pacific Coast, and the group of stations owned by the Cleveland Plain Dealer, participated in responsibility for running expenses. A new contract effective February 1, 1940, provides for contributing membership by all the above group[s] plus station CKLW in Detroit-Windsor. These groups now agree to underwrite expenses and become stockholders in the network.... An operating board for the network is comprised of representatives from each of these groups, together with additional representation appointed by other affiliated stations.^[28]

Mutual featured a variety of political voices, but none for so long as that of conservative commentator Fulton Lewis Jr. Many later pundits "copied his style—mocking, ridiculing, full of denials, full of sweeping generalizations, and full of inside-dopesterism."^[29] WKIC was Mutual's affiliate in Hazard, Kentucky Hazard is a city in Perry County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 5,264 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Perry County.

The new cooperative structure was also joined by the owners of WKRC in Cincinnati, which had replaced Mutual cofounder WLW in that market. The MBS corporation now had 100 shares, apportioned as follows:^[30]

Shareholder	Lead station	Shares
Bamberger Broadcasting	WOR	25
WGN Inc.	WGN	25
Don Lee Network	KHJ	25
Colonial Network	WAAB	6
United Broadcasting	WHK	6
Western Ontario Broadcasting	CKLW	6
Cincinnati Times-Star The Cincinnati Post is a discontinued afternoon daily newspaper that was published in Cincinnati, Ohio. Distributed in Northern Kentucky as The Kentucky Post, it was owned by the E. W. Scripps Company. Since the 1980s, its editorial stance was usually conservative. The Post published its final edition on December 31, 2007. The Kentucky Post	WKRC	6
Fred Weber	MBS general manager	1

In 1941, WOR's official city of license was changed to New York. Within two years, the Colonial Network's affiliate roster and shares in Mutual had been fully absorbed into the Yankee Network by John Shepard III; WNAC was the sole flagship, WAAB having been moved to Worcester Worcester is a city in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, the city had a population of 182,596, making it the estimated second largest city in New England.a[›] It is the county seat of Worcester County. Worcester is located approximately 40 miles west of Boston, and marks the western periphery of the, in central Massachusetts, to avoid duopoly restrictions. With WBZ taking over the slot as the NBC Red affiliate in Boston, WNAC switched to Mutual. In January 1943, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved the sale of the Yankee Network—with WNAC, its three other owned-and-operated stations, its contracts with 17 additional affiliates, and its Mutual shares—to the Ohio-based General Tire and Rubber Company.^[14][31]

Already by 1940, MBS was on a par with the industry leaders in terms of affiliate roster size.^[c] Still, because Mutual affiliates were mostly in small markets or lesser stations in big ones, the network lagged way behind in advertising revenue—NBC took in eleven times as much as Mutual that year.^[32][d] In 1941, the FCC, calling for NBC to divest one of its two networks, observed that the company "has utilized the Blue to forestall competition with the Red .... Mutual is excluded from, or only lamely admitted to, many important markets."^[33] On January 10, 1942, Mutual filed a $10.275 million suit against NBC and its owner, RCA, alleging a conspiracy "hindering and restricting Mutual freely and fairly to compete in the transmission in interstate commerce of nation-wide network programs."^[34] The FCC's Supreme Court victory in 1943 led to the sale of the Blue Network and Mutual dropping its lawsuit.^[35] These developments appear to have been of more symbolic than practical value to MBS—the transfer of the NBC Blue stations to the new American Broadcasting Company did little to help Mutual's competitive position. In 1945 it reached 384 affiliates, and by December 1948, Mutual Broadcasting was heard on more than 500 stations in the United States.^[36] But this growth did not reflect any ability on Mutual's part to attract leading stations from the corporate-controlled networks. Rather, the FCC had eased its technical standards for local stations, facilitating the establishment of new outlets in small markets: between 1945 and 1952, the number of AM stations rose from around 940 to more than 2,350.^[37] It was these new, relatively weak stations Mutual kept picking up. Though by now it had many more affiliates than any other U.S. radio network, for the most part they remained "less desirable in frequency, power, and coverage," as the Supreme Court had put it.^[17] For instance, in the postwar era CBS and NBC covered all of North Carolina each with only four stations. MBS needed fourteen affiliates to deliver comparable statewide coverage.^[38]

Logo for KFRC, the Mutual station in San Francisco, owned by the Don Lee Broadcasting System.

Late in the decade, there was a brief exploration into the idea of launching a Mutual television network, serious enough to prompt talks with MGM as a potential source of programming talent.^[39] The plans never got off the ground and Mutual thus became the only one of the "Big Four" U.S. radio networks not to start (and eventually be dominated by) a television network. While there was no Mutual TV network, this did not mean the group did not have an influence over commercial television's early development. The cooperative held the rights to a number of valuable radio properties that made the transition to the new medium, including two of the era's most popular variations on what would later become known as the tabloid talk show and "reality" programming: the crabby gabfest Leave It to the Girls and, in particular, Queen for a Day, which both started on Mutual radio in 1945. Referred to by some as a "misery show," Queen for a Day "awarded prizes to women who could come up with the most heart-stabbing stories told by the sick and the downtrodden .... On one show, a mother of nine requested a washing machine to replace one that broke when it fell on her husband and disabled him—and who, by the way, also needed heart surgery."^[40] In May 1947, a simulcast version began airing on the Don Lee system's experimental TV station in Los Angeles, W6XAO (later KTSL). It was a smash hit, and by the turn of the decade TV stations all along the coast were broadcasting it to high ratings.^[41][e] In the 1950s, Mutual would stare down NBC for four years as the mighty network sought to take control of the show.

Programming: World War II and Superman

Offscreen, Mutual remained an enterprising broadcaster. In 1940, a program featuring Cedric Foster joined Mutual's respected schedule of news and opinion shows. Foster's claim to fame was as the first daytime commentator to be heard nationally on a daily basis.^[42] The network aired that year's NFL Championship Game on December 8, the first national broadcast of the annual event.^[43] Over the following half decade, Mutual's war coverage held its own with that of the wealthier networks, featuring field correspondents such as Henry Shapiro and Piet Van T Veer and commentators such as Cecil Brown, formerly of CBS.^[44] At 2:26 p.m. Eastern time, on Sunday, December 7, 1941, Mutual flagship WOR interrupted a football game broadcast with a news flash reporting the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. It was the initial public announcement of the attack heard on the U.S. mainland. The first bombs had dropped 63 minutes earlier.^[45] In May 1945, Sigrid Schultz reported from one of the last Nazi concentration camps to be discovered, Ravensbrück.^[46] The following month, Meet the Press premiered with Martha Rountree as moderator.^[47] For a year and a half in the late 1940s, William Shirer came over from CBS to do current events commentary after his famous falling out with Edward Murrow.^[48] In 1948, Mutual's four-part series To Secure These Rights, dramatizing the findings of President Truman's Committee on Civil Rights, outraged many politicians and the network's own affiliates in the segregated South.^[49]

A recording session for The Mysterious Traveler, with the entire cast clustered around one microphone. Host Maurice Tarplin is directly behind the mic, third from the right. To the rear, a sound-effect artist and three phonographs (at least) provide music and effects.

In the field of entertainment, Mutual built on the incomparable success of The Shadow. WGN's The Theater of the Air, featuring hour-long opera and musical theater productions before a live audience, was broadcast for the first time in May 1940. By 1943, the weekly show was being recorded in front of houses 4,000 strong, gathered to see performances featuring a full orchestra and chorus. The Theater of the Air would run on Mutual through March 1955.^[50] Mutual provided an early national outlet for the influential, iconoclastic satirist Henry Morgan, whose show Here's Morgan began its network run in October 1940. Though The Lone Ranger moved over to NBC Blue in May 1942, within a few months Mutual had another reliable, and no less famous, action hero. The Adventures of Superman, picked up from WOR, would run on the network from August 1942 to June 1949. In April 1943, Mutual launched what would turn into one of its longest-lasting shows: debuting as The Return of Nick Carter and later retitled Nick Carter, Master Detective, it would be a network staple through September 1955. From May 1943 through May 1946, Mutual aired The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce. An earlier incarnation of the show had run briefly on the network in 1936; a less starry version would return to MBS from September 1947 through June 1949.^[51] The Mysterious Traveler, a proto–Twilight Zone anthology series, aired every week on Mutual from December 1943 until September 1952.

In February 1946, MBS introduced a quiz show, Twenty Questions, that would run for more than seven years. In October, the detective series Let George Do It, starring Bob Bailey, launched as a Mutual/Don Lee presentation; it would also run into the mid-1950s. For two years, starting in 1946 as well, Steve Allen got his first network exposure on the Mutual/Don Lee morning show Smile Time, out of Los Angeles's KHJ. In February 1947, the religiously oriented Family Theater premiered; with frequent appearances by major Hollywood stars, the series aired on Mutual for ten and a half years. That March, Kate Smith, a major star on CBS since 1931, moved over to Mutual. During most of her initial run at the network, which lasted until September 1951, she had two distinct weekday shows, each 15 minutes long: Kate Smith Speaks, at noon, and Kate Smith Sings, later in the hour.^[52] The network gave an outlet to radio dramatist Wyllis Cooper and his highly regarded suspense anthology Quiet, Please, which ran on Mutual from June 1947 to September 1948. It also aired actor Alan Ladd's similarly lauded drama about a crime-solving mystery novelist, Box 13, which ran for precisely a year. Its 52 episodes, which aired every Sunday beginning August 22, 1948, were produced by Ladd's own company, Mayfair Productions.

1950s: New ownership

On the radio in the morning, on TV in the afternoon—audiences couldn't get enough of Queen for a Day. At the end of each episode, host Jack Bailey would proclaim, "We wish we could make every lady in America a queen for every single day!"^[53]

Toward the end of 1950, the executors of the estate of Thomas S. Lee (the son of Don Lee, who had died in 1934) decided to liquidate the estate's interests in the broadcasting field. The Don Lee Broadcasting System, with its major station groups KHJ in Los Angeles and KFRC in San Francisco and its shares in the Mutual Broadcasting System, was sold to General Tire (which already had a stake in Mutual via its Yankee Network holdings).^[54][f] Around the same time, MBS acquired the television broadcast rights to the World Series and All-Star Game for the next six years. Mutual may have been reindulging in TV network dreams or simply taking advantage of a long-standing business relationship; in either case, the broadcast rights were sold to NBC in time for the following season's games at an enormous profit.^[55][g]

Early in 1952, General Tire purchased the Bamberger Broadcasting Service from R.H. Macy and Company. With the deal, General Tire acquired the WOR radio and TV stations and the rights to the name General Teleradio, under which the company merged its broadcasting interests as a new division (Bamberger had previously sold its TV station in the nation's capital, WOIC, to CBS and the Washington Post).^[56] Most importantly, as far as the future of the Mutual Broadcasting System was concerned, WOR's founding shares in the network, when added to the Yankee and Don Lee holdings, gave General Tire majority control of MBS.^[57] That same year, NBC began its attempts to win the television rights to Queen for a Day from Mutual. As a measure of the afternoon show's success, its audience at its new Los Angeles home, General Teleradio/Don Lee's KHJ-TV, was triple that of the city's six other stations combined.^[58] Mutual might not have had a TV network, but it controlled one of the most profitable properties in the early history of commercial television.^[h]

Mutual was at this point the largest U.S. radio network in affiliate numbers, by far—it had 560, almost three times as many as its most powerful competitors, CBS (194) and NBC (191).^[59][i] In 1955, General Tire expanded its media holdings by acquiring RKO Radio Pictures from Howard Hughes, only to close the movie studio a year and a half later (General Teleradio, renamed RKO Teleradio after the acquisition, would soon be known as RKO General). General Tire also decided to spin off its holdings in Mutual and sell it as a programming service even as it retained the stations that had given it control. Indeed, in 1956, General purchased a governing interest in yet another Mutual shareholder, Western Ontario Broadcasting, and its station in Windsor, CKLW. In July 1957, General Tire sold the Mutual Broadcasting business to a group led by Dr. Armand Hammer.^[60]

Perry Como for Chesterfield, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays ...

The network soon changed hands again: in September 1958, it was acquired by the Scranton Corporation.^[61] Scranton was under the control of the F.L. Jacobs Company, whose chairman, Alexander Guterma, envisioned a media empire uniting Mutual with another recent purchase, the Hal Roach movie studio. After being questioned by federal investigators in February 1959 about financial improprieties, Guterma stepped down. Mutual, by this point, was floundering. For some years it had been run by owners who were either uninterested (General Tire, Armand Hammer) or now, as a growing amount of evidence would show, criminal. Mutual was also confronted with the situation the entire industry was facing: major advertisers were abandoning radio for television. Commercial rates had been cut. Limited sponsorship packages had been introduced, in which an advertiser could back a show for an abbreviated period rather than an entire season—but there was no reversing the trend. The networks were left with the bills for an increasing number of nonsponsored programs, known as "sustaining" shows in the industry.^[62] The loss of mainstay advertisers was accompanied by what historian Ronald Garay describes as the "mass desertion of network radio talent, management and technicians for television .... [T]hese people were taking with them the programming that had popularized the radio networks."^[63]

Under its new chairman, Hal Roach Jr., F.L. Jacobs put Mutual into Chapter 11 bankruptcy. In September 1959, Guterma, Roach, and Garland Culpepper, a Scranton Corp. vice president, were indicted for failing to register as "foreign agents"; they were charged with secretly accepting money from Dominican Republic dictator Rafael Trujillo that previous January in return for favorable coverage of the country and its government on Mutual news programs.^[64] It was never proven that Guterma, who was identified as the primary player on Mutual's side and pleaded no contest to the charge, actually fulfilled his part of the deal and arranged for slanted coverage. Nonetheless, the incident led to a reported 130 stations cutting their affiliation with Mutual.^[65] Whether precipitated by the scandal or not, among the stations cutting its ties with Mutual in 1959 was one of the network's two original flagships, WOR.^[66] Businessman Albert G. McCarthy, meanwhile, had taken over the network, arranging to settle its debts while seeking an owner interested in running it on an ongoing basis.^[67]

Programming: Korean War and original drama's decline

... Eddie Fisher for Coca-Cola, Tuesdays and Thursdays. That's how Mutual made music in 1954.

Before the Guterma fiasco, the network had maintained its reputation for running a strong news organization. As the conflict on the Korean peninsula began to heat up in mid-1950, Mutual started airing two special reports nightly on the situation, featuring the commentary of Major George Fielding Eliot, military analyst for CBS during World War II. By August, Mutual was represented by six correspondents in Korea, more than ABC or NBC.^[68] In June 1958, just a few months before the Scranton takeover, the network had launched a nightly 25-minute newscast, The World Today, hosted by Westbrook Van Voorhis, famous as the voice of The March of Time. On occasion, Mutual's commentary programs made the news: On March 11, 1954, Fulton Lewis Jr. featured Senator Joseph McCarthy as his guest, two days after the senator's ethics had been called into question on the TV show See It Now, hosted by Edward R. Murrow. In his radio interview, McCarthy dismissed Murrow as "the extreme left-wing, bleeding-heart element of television."^[69]

By the end of the 1950s, Mutual had forsworn original dramatic programming. Early in the decade, however, it picked up the adventure series Challenge of the Yukon, which had originated at MBS cofounder WXYZ in 1938 after the station's departure from the network. The show, subsequently renamed Sergeant Preston of the Yukon, ran on Mutual from January 1950 until its finale in June 1955. In 1950 as well, Mutual introduced radio listeners to adult science fiction with 2000 Plus, which first aired on March 15, almost a month before the premiere of NBC's similarly themed Dimension X. The Shadow's long run finally ended in December 1954. In November 1957, Mutual aired the final episodes of its last two remaining half-hour original dramatic shows, Counterspy and Gang Busters, both picked up from other networks earlier in the decade. It would be almost sixteen years before the network again aired a new dramatic series. In 1955, the famous comedy team Bob and Ray came over from NBC for a five-day-a-week afternoon show.^[70] Kate Smith returned in 1958 for her final radio series, which ran from January to August.^[52] Sports began to occupy an increasing portion of Mutual's schedule: the network began regularly airing a Major League Baseball Game of the Day, every day except Sunday. This expansion into daily sports programming would run well into the 1960s.^[j] While baseball's World Series and All-Star Game would go to rival NBC in 1957, Mutual secured exclusive national radio rights the following year to Notre Dame football, which would remain a cornerstone for the rest of the network's existence.^[71]

1960s–1970s: Narrowed focus

Advertisement for the Mutual Black Network, featuring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and poet Nikki Giovanni.

In the spring of 1960, the 3M Company stepped in, purchasing Mutual and restoring much-needed stability to the operation.^[72] Despite the recent scandal, MBS still had 443 affiliates, easily the most of any network. By this time, as historian Jim Cox describes, both Mutual and ABC "had largely wiped their slates clean of most of their network programming—save news and sporting events and a few long-running features".^[73] This would characterize Mutual's essential approach for the next three and a half decades, through a further series of ownership changes.

In July 1966, 3M sold the network to a privately held company headed by John P. Fraim.^[74] The following month, after the death of Mutual stalwart Fulton Lewis Jr., his son Fulton Lewis III took over his Monday-to-Friday, 7 p.m. slot.^[75] When ABC Radio "split" into four demographically targeted networks on January 1, 1968, Mutual unsuccessfully sued to block the move. Four years later, under new president C. Edward Little, Mutual began its own niche programming services, taking advantage, like ABC, of the prevailing FCC requirement that all radio stations, of whatever primary format, regularly air news and public affairs (a responsibility that would be eliminated in the early 1980s). On May 1, 1972, the network launched the Mutual Black Network (MBN) and Mutual Cadena Hispánica (aka the Mutual Spanish Network); each provided 100 five-minute-long news and sports capsules a week, along with other programming.^[76] While the Spanish-language service would be short-lived, by 1974 MBN had 98 affiliates.^[77] It was eventually spun off and acquired by the Sheridan Broadcasting Corporation, leading to the creation of American Urban Radio Networks.^[78] Additional targeted services, such as the Mutual Southwest Network and Mutual Lifestyle Radio, followed from MBS.

In September 1973, Mutual began airing one of the last significant original dramatic series in the history of U.S. radio. Rod Serling's five-day-a-week anthology show Zero Hour ran for two seasons.^[k] It touched off a small wave of new radio dramas, including CBS Radio Mystery Theater.

On September 30, 1977, Amway bought the network.^[79] Soon after the purchase, Mutual began developing what would become the first nationwide commercial broadcast satellite network, leading to the end of decades of reliance on telephone lines for the broadcast industry's transmission capacity.^[80] In 1979, Amway purchased WCFL from the Chicago Federation of Labor to serve as Mutual's flagship. For the first time, the network that had been founded by radio stations directly controlled a station of its own, and in one of the country's largest markets. Mutual also reached its greatest number of affiliates that year—950. This was fewer than ABC, whose multipronged approach had proven very successful, but far in front of NBC and CBS.^[15] It appeared that Amway was ready to pose a major challenge to the industry leaders.

Programming: Rise of the call-in talk show

One of the few primary network programs outside of news and sports that Mutual initiated during this era became one of the most successful in its history: the first nationwide, all-night call-in show, which launched on November 3, 1975, with Herb Jepko as host. Jepko, who had run a telephone talk show out of KSL in Salt Lake City for years, so determinedly avoided controversy that some callers simply talked about the weather where they lived. Jepko was briefly succeeded by Long John Nebel, before Mutual tapped a local talk show host at WIOD in Miami. Larry King made his network premiere on January 30, 1978; by the turn of the decade, he was being carried by 150 stations and credited with attracting many new affiliates to Mutual.^[81] King continued his MBS call-in show for years, even as he began appearing on television in the mid-1980s. From 1970 through 1977, Mutual was the national radio broadcaster for Monday Night Football.

1980s–1990s: The end of Mutual

In 1980, Amway purchased WHN in New York, giving Mutual a second major-market owned-and-operated station. On a Country Road, a music show hosted by WHN's Lee Arnold, was introduced and given national distribution. At the beginning of the year, MBS had started airing Mutual Radio Theater, a renamed version of Sears Radio Theater, which it had just picked up. A number of well-regarded dramas were produced as part of the anthology series.^[82] In 1981, Mutual launched Dick Clark's National Music Survey, a three-hour-long weekly program combining music and interviews. Despite these developments and the fact that its satellite network was now fully on line, Amway was making little if any profit out of MBS.^[83] The network's corporate parent began backing out of the radio business. Mutual Radio Theater, the network's last ever original dramatic series, had its final show on December 19, 1981.^[84] In November 1983, Amway sold off Mutual's WCFL flagship to Statewide Broadcasting.^[85] A year later, a deal was struck for the sale of WHN to Doubleday Broadcasting.^[86] In 1985, a suitor came calling for the network itself.

Ad for Dick Clark's National Music Survey, among the last entertainment shows to originate on Mutual.

Westwood One, a major radio production company and syndicator—a budding network, in short—was looking to expand its operations. Westwood and Mutual were a good match: The demographics of Mutual affiliates tended to be adult; most of the stations that bought Westwood's programming, much of it in the pop music field, had substantially younger audiences. Mutual had the news operations that Westwood lacked. And there was Mutual's size; though down from its peak, it still commanded 810 affiliates, a strong second among the Big Four.^[87] In September 1985, Amway sold the network to Westwood One for $39 million.^[88] "It's a perfect fit," declared Westwood head Norman J. Pattiz. Referring to the united company's ability to give advertisers access to a broad demographic sweep, he called it "a classic case of two plus two equaling five."^[89] In 1987, the number got even bigger: Westwood One snapped up Mutual's long-time competitor, the NBC Radio Network, for $50 million. Mutual was now part of a much larger programming service, and its identity was slowly phased out. In 1993, when Larry King switched his radio show to the daytime a year before giving it up, the late-night call-in slot went to WCFL alumnus Jim Bohannon; within a few years, it was a Westwood One–branded show.^[90] Westwood One was itself taken over by Infinity Broadcasting in 1994.^[91] In a deal announced in June 1996 and completed that December, CBS's new parent company, Westinghouse, acquired Infinity for just shy of $5 billion.^[92] The direct descendants of the three original U.S. network companies had merged.

At this point, Mutual was little more than a brand name for certain news and sports programming provided by the new conglomerate's Westwood One division. Mutual and NBC Radio newscasters sat back to back in the Westwood One studio, the former main MBS facility in Crystal City, Virginia.^[90] In April 1999, Westwood One announced it was dropping the Mutual brand in favor of CNN Radio, which it began distributing through a deal with Turner Broadcasting System. A former member of the news team described the end: "Official time of Mutual Radio's death was Midnight 4/17/99. No tribute, no mention it was the last newscast ... it just died."^[93] The Crystal City facility was closed in March 2001, and Westwood's primary operations were transferred to the CBS Broadcast Center in New York City.^[94]

Legacy

As of 2007, some Westwood One programming can still trace its lineage directly to Mutual. Jim Bohannon remains on the air, hosting a call-in show tracing directly back to Herb Jepko's 1975 launch on MBS as well as a morning news magazine, America in the Morning.^[95] A simulcast of TV's Larry King Live continues to run. Country Countdown USA, founded as a Mutual program after the Westwood One purchase, still airs in its original form.

Mutual founding stations WOR and WGN now each have radio networks of their own. The WOR Radio Network syndicates general interest programs, while WGN's smaller Tribune Radio Network, a division of Tribune Broadcasting, broadcasts Orion Samuelson's farm reports and Chicago Cubs games. In addition, WLW syndicates many of its in-house hosts through its parent company, Clear Channel Communications.

Mutual Broadcasting System LLC, based in Spokane, Washington, uses the Mutual and Liberty names on its two stations, KTRW AM 970 Spokane, and KTAC FM 93.9 Ephrata, Washington. These stations have no connection with the original network. They present adult standards, nostalgia, and some Christian programming, using the Mutual name as part of their old-time radio branding.

See also

Shows^[l]

Abbott Mysteries (June 10, 1945 – August 31, 1947) Adventure Parade (1946–49) The Adventures of Champion (1949) The Adventures of Father Brown (June 10 – July 29, 1945) The Adventures of Maisie (January 11 – December 26, 1952) The Amazing Nero Wolfe (early 1946 – December 15, 1946) A. L. Alexander's Mediation Board (January 11, 1943 – April 11, 1952) Archie Andrews (January 17 – June 2, 1944) Arch Oboler's Plays (April 5 – October 11, 1945) The Black Museum (January 1 – December 30, 1952) Blackstone, the Magic Detective (October 3, 1948 – April 3, 1949) Captain Midnight (September 30, 1940 – July 3, 1942; September 24, 1945 – June 17, 1949; September 20 – December 15, 1949) Charlie Chan (September 17, 1936 – April 22, 1938; August 11, 1947 – June 21, 1948) Chick Carter, Boy Detective (July 5, 1943 – July 6, 1945) The Cisco Kid (October 2, 1942 – February 14, 1945; 1946 [regional]) The Couple Next Door (April 12 – September 16, 1937) The Crime Club (December 2, 1946 – October 16, 1947) Crime Does Not Pay (January 7 – December 22, 1952)

Dick Tracy (September 30, 1935 – March 24, 1937) Hopalong Cassidy (January 1 – September 24, 1950) Hop Harrigan (October 2, 1946 – February 6, 1948) I Love a Mystery (October 3, 1949 – December 26, 1952) It Pays to Be Ignorant (June 25 – November 1942; March 29, 1943 – February 28, 1944) Johnny Modero, Pier 23 (April 24 – September 4, 1947) Land of the Lost (October 14, 1945 – July 6, 1946) Mandrake the Magician (November 11, 1940 – February 6, 1942) Mark Trail (January 3, 1950 – June 8, 1951) Martin Kane, Private Eye (August 7, 1949 – June 24, 1951) Red Ryder (May 20 – September 9, 1942; 1942–49 [regional]) The Saint (July 10, 1949 – May 28, 1950) The Sea Hound (1946–47 [?]) The Sealed Book (March 18 – September 9, 1945) Sky King (September 12, 1950 – June 3, 1954) Skyroads (February 13 – May 19, 1939)[96] Vic and Sade (June 27 – September 19, 1946) Voyage of the Scarlet Queen (July 3, 1947 – February 14, 1948) The Zane Grey Show (September 23, 1947 – February 24, 1948)

People

Tom Cheek—sportscaster Bud Collyer—actor Chuck Connors—actor Dizzy Dean—sportscaster Gene Elston—sportscaster Bob Feller—sportscaster Tex Fletcher—singing cowboy Eli Gold—sportscaster Morton Gould—conductor/arranger/pianist Toni Grant—talk-show host Ray Heatherton—musical actor Skitch Henderson—conductor/arranger/pianist Ernest Holmes—religion-show host

Wilbur Budd Hulick—comic actor Fredell Lack—violinist Ted Mallie—announcer Robert R. McCormick—media mogul Herbert Morrison—announcer Lindsey Nelson—sportscaster Alfred E. Neuman—perennial presidential candidate Robert Ripley—trivia-show host Ed Salamon—programming executive Cesare Sodero—conductor Bill Stern—sportscaster Aloysius Michael Sullivan—announcer Phil Tonken—announcer

Notes

1. ^{^} All available sources concur that MBS cofounders WOR–Newark, N.J./New York, WXYZ–Detroit, and WLW–Cincinnati were also founding members of the Quality Network. Sources differ on whether WGN–Chicago, MBS's fourth original member, or another Chicago station, WLS (AM), represented the city in the Quality Network. In addition, there is no consensus on the fundamental matter of the degree of connection involved: some sources claim the Quality Network had ceased to exist by the end of 1929; others that it carried on and simply changed its name and formalized its structure in 1934. As scholar James Schwoch (1994) puts it, "The origins of the Mutual Broadcasting System are somewhat murky and open to dispute." Indeed, a claim Schwoch makes just two sentences later—that "the permanent establishment of the Mutual network is bound up in the popularity of a single radio program, 'The Lone Ranger'"—is disputed by several scholars.^[3]
2. ^{^} Start and end dates for original dramatic and quiz series given in the main text are based on the standard and most comprehensive reference work, On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio, by John Dunning (1998). Dunning's detailed information has been checked, where available, against the even more detailed reports of Jerry Haendiges' Vintage Radio Logs and against the much less detailed but more recently published The Encyclopedia of American Radio: An A–Z Guide to Radio from Jack Benny to Howard Stern, by Ron Lackmann (2000). Dunning and Haendiges agree in almost all cases where they both cover a show. In the few cases where they differ slightly, a specific citation is given to the one whose data appears better supported, internally and/or by reference to Lackmann.
3. ^{^} The two available authoritative sources differ widely on the affiliate figures for the year. Media historians F. Leslie Smith et al. give MBS—140, NBC—113 (53 with Red, 60 with Blue), and CBS—112.^[97] Media historian James Schwoch (1994) gives NBC—182, MBS—160, and CBS—122.^[38] It is unclear what different methodologies were employed to produce these varying results.
4. ^{^} For advertising sales in the first eight months of 1941, see "Happy Birthday MBS," Time, September 15, 1941 (available online). NBC's take was now less than eight times as much as MBS's. All available reports suggest that the gap did not close much further during the decade.
5. ^{^} Media historian Marsha Francis Cassidy also refers to Mutual's wish-fulfillment show Heart's Desire as one of those that "made the shift to local or regional television",^[98] but it has not been possible to confirm this. For a detailed account of this model of radio art, see "Kovacs v. Mutual Broadcasting System (1950) 99 CA2d 56 (California 2d District Court ruling)". Continuing Education of the Bar—California (University of California/State Bar of California). 1950-08-18. http://online.ceb.com/calcases/CA2/99CA2d56.htm. Retrieved 2010-03-01.
6. ^{^} A scholarly journal article claims that the Don Lee purchase brought with it a "19 percent interest in the Mutual Broadcasting System," which would be down from the 25 percent of the 1940 restructuring. However, the reliability of this source is questionable, as it incorrectly claims in the same paragraph that the "East Coast-based Yankee Network ... was also acquired at this time" by General Tire.^[99] As detailed above, General Tire in fact acquired Yankee in 1943.
7. ^{^} Marshall (1998) and Day (2004) describe the details of the original deal very differently, agreeing only that it was for six years at $1 million a year. Marshall says that a contract was signed on December 26, 1950, between baseball's major leagues, in the person of Commissioner Happy Chandler, on one side and MBS and the Gillette Safety Razor Company on the other for the television rights. Day says baseball's contract was solely with Gillette, that it was for both radio and television rights, and that Gillette "[l]ess than a year after acquiring the broadcast rights ... transferred" them to Mutual. They also characterize the original contract rather differently. Marshall calls it "one of the outstanding achievements of the Chandler commissionership." Day credits Chandler with "deftly avoid[ing] a financial crisis," but agrees with the prevailing opinion of the players that Chandler "vastly underestimated the value" of the rights. The fact, which Day provides, that Mutual sold the package to NBC for $4 million a year lends support to his position.^[55]
8. ^{^} Mutual does have a TV network in the realm of imagination. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, by novelist Michael Chabon, refers to The Escapist, a show starring Peter Graves said to have run from 1951 to 1955 on the Mutual Television Network (p. 596).
9. ^{^} In August 1951, the low-powered, baseball-oriented Liberty Broadcasting System (LBS) had 431 affiliates.^[100]
10. ^{^} Radio historian Ronald Garay says MBS launched its Game of the Day in 1949.^[101] Sports historians Jerry Gorman et al. say it was 1950.^[102] Garay indicates that the concept was picked up from the Liberty Broadcasting System, founded in 1947. Yet the National Baseball Hall of Fame lists among famed broadcaster France Laux's credits "Mutual Game of the Day (1939–41, '44)."
11. ^{^} For more on Zero Hour, see "The Zero Hour—1974". Submitted for Your Perusal: The Rod Serling Sound Collection. http://www.rod-serling.com/zerohour.html. Retrieved 2010-03-01. "The Zero Hour—1973–1974". Original Old-Time Radio (OTR) WWW Pages. http://www.old-time.com/otrlogs2/tzh.log.txtl. Retrieved 2010-03-01.
12. ^{^} Run dates on Mutual are per Dunning (1998), checked against Lackmann (2000). Note that Dunning does not list The Sea Hound as ever running on Mutual, but Lackmann does. Neither lists Skyroads.

References

1. ^ Robinson (1979), p. 28; Cox (2002), p. 177; McLeod, Elizabeth (1999–2002). "Some History of the Mutual Broadcasting System". History of American Broadcasting (Jeff Miller). http://jeff560.tripod.com/mutual.html. Retrieved 2010-03-01. Extensive discussion of the network's history and organization by radio historian. Note that the page's introductory content (not written by McLeod) gives September 15, 1934, as the network's organizational date, apparently based on a 1999 newspaper article reproduced at the bottom of the page. All authoritative sources, including McLeod, give September 29. (The newspaper article also incorrectly states that the network featured commentator Drew Pearson; it never did. His shows appeared on NBC and NBC Blue/ABC. See, e.g., Nimmo [1997], p. 271. The article also incorrectly suggests that when The Lone Ranger "rode into the radio sunset in 1954," it directly affected the network. The show hadn't been on Mutual since 1942.)
2. ^ Dunning (1998), p. 724.
3. ^ ^{a b} For argument that MBS was primarily a vehicle for The Lone Ranger, see, e.g., Olson (2000), p. 173; Head (1976), p. 142; Schwoch (1994). For counterargument and popularity of Lum and Abner, see, e.g., Hilmes (1997), pp. 107–8; Hollis (2001), p. 41; McLeod, Elizabeth (1999-04-12). "Some History of the Mutual Broadcasting System/Correspondence: 'Mon, 12 APR 99'". History of American Broadcasting (Jeff Miller). http://jeff560.tripod.com/mutual.html. Retrieved 2010-03-01.
4. ^ Whitaker (2002), pp. 537–38 (available online).
5. ^ Gorman et al. (1994), p. 105.
6. ^ Kirkley (1979), p. 39; "Adcraft". Advertising Age. 2005-12-05. http://adage.com/custom/pdf/adcraft05.pdf. Retrieved 2010-03-01. "The Lone Ranger Episode Log". Jerry Haendiges' Vintage Radio Logs. 2005-02-18. http://www.otrsite.com/logs/logl1011.htm. Retrieved 2010-03-01.
7. ^ ^{a b c} "M. B. S.," Time, January 4, 1937 (available online)
8. ^ Alexander (2002), p. 110; Gorman et al. (1994), p. 89.
9. ^ See, e.g., Patterson (2004), p. 90.
10. ^ "The Colonial Network". BostonRadio.org. http://www.bostonradio.org/colonial-36.html. Retrieved 2010-03-01.
11. ^ "Station Guide/WGAR-AM". Cleveland Broadcast Radio Archives. http://www.cleve-radio.com/index2.htm#WGAR-AM. Retrieved 2010-03-01. "Radio's Version of 'Who's on First?'" Broadcasting, November 2, 1970 (available online). Note that the latter source incorrectly states, for its September 1, 1936, entry (magazine cover date, not event date), "WLW(AM) Cincinnati turns in its MBS stock but remains as outlet." WLW, in fact, never had any MBS stock and it left Mutual to become an NBC affiliate (see, e.g., Schramm [1969], p. 51). Given the egregiousness of this error, too much weight must not rest on this source for any reported data; there is anecdotal support and, to date, no contravening evidence for its list of five Midwestern MBS affiliates.
12. ^ Schneider, John F. (2009). "The History of KFRC, San Francisco and the Don Lee Networks". Bay Area Radio Museum. http://www.bayarearadio.org/schneider/kfrc1.shtml. Retrieved 2010-03-01.
13. ^ Clarke (1996), ch. 11 (available online).
14. ^ ^{a b} "The Boston Radio Timeline". BostonRadio.org. http://www.bostonradio.org/timeline.html. Retrieved 2010-03-01.
15. ^ ^{a b} Cox (2002), p. 178.
16. ^ "Station Guide/WHK-AM". Cleveland Broadcast Radio Archives. http://www.cleve-radio.com/index2.htm#WHK-AM. Retrieved 2010-03-01.
17. ^ ^{a b c} "National Broadcasting Co., Inc., et al. v. United States et al. (U.S. Supreme Court decision)". Freedom of Speech in the United States—Free Speech Library. Boston College. 1943-05-10. http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/comm/free_speech/nbcvus.html. Retrieved 2010-03-01.
18. ^ Brady (1989), p. 78.
19. ^ Hilmes (1997), pp. 99–100; Jaker et al. (1998), p. 129.
20. ^ Callow (1995), p. 321.
21. ^ "Green Hornet Episode Log". Jerry Haendiges' Vintage Radio Logs. 2004-01-29. http://www.otrsite.com/logs/logg1005.htm. Retrieved 2010-03-01.
22. ^ McDougal (2001), p. 68.
23. ^ Highway Traveler 11, no. 2 (April–May 1939), p. 27. There are anecdotal suggestions that the network aired the Indianapolis 500 in previous years, but to date no concrete evidence has been found. For later MBS coverage of the race, see "1949 Indianapolis 500". Speedway Audio. http://web.archive.org/web/20070321030547/www.speedwayaudio.com/~speedway/cgi-bin/cart.cgi/F5001949.html. Retrieved 2010-03-01.
24. ^ Bliss (1991), pp. 34, 36.
25. ^ Bliss (1991), pp. 60–61.
26. ^ Nimmo and Newsome (1997), p. 173.
27. ^ Brown (1998), p. 180; Bliss (1991), pp. 97–98.
28. ^ Rose (1971), p. 68.
29. ^ Nimmo and Newsome (1997), p. 178.
30. ^ Robinson (1979), p. 29.
31. ^ Jaker et al. (1998), p. 93; "Rubber Yankee," Time, January 18, 1943 (available online).
32. ^ See Robinson (1979), pp. 26, 27, 29.
33. ^ Quoted in Robinson (1979), p. 116. See also "Chains Unchained?" Time, May 12, 1941 (available online).
34. ^ Quoted in Robinson (1979), p. 74.
35. ^ "Mutual Seeks to End Action Against RCA; Official Says Transfer of Blue Network Will Solve Issue," New York Times, October 12, 1943.
36. ^ Smith et al. (1998), p. 43; "AM Network-Affiliated Radio Stations, 1949". 1949 Broadcasting-Telecasting Yearbook. History of American Broadcasting (Jeff Miller). 1948-12-06. http://jeff560.tripod.com/1949am.html. Retrieved 2010-03-01.
37. ^ Leblebici et al. (1991), p. 17 (online pagination).
38. ^ ^{a b} Schwoch (1994).
39. ^ Segrave (1999), p. 22. For more on the evaporation of Mutual's TV plans, see Schwoch (1994).
40. ^ Nachmann (2000), p. 350.
41. ^ Cassidy (2005), pp. 40–43, 187–88.
42. ^ Bliss (1991), p. 65.
43. ^ "History: Chronology (1940 to 1959)". Pro Football Hall of Fame. http://www.profootballhof.com/history/general/chronology/1940-1959.aspx. Retrieved 2010-03-01.
44. ^ Brown (1998), pp. 183, 190.
45. ^ Bliss (1991), p. 135; "WOR: Interruption of Giants-Dodgers Football Game". Authentic History Center. 1941-12-07. http://www.authentichistory.com/1939-1945/1-timelines/2-PH/19411207_1426_WOR-PH_Attack_Interrupt.html. Retrieved 2010-03-01.
46. ^ Crook (1998), pp. 206–7.
47. ^ Nimmo and Newsome (1997), p. 311.
48. ^ Bliss (1991), pp. 202–3.
49. ^ Savage (1999), p. 345 n. 123.
50. ^ "WGN Radio Timeline: 1940s–1950s". WGN Gold. http://wgngold.com/timeline/1940s1950s.htm. Retrieved 2010-03-01. "Chicago Theater of the Air Episode Log". Jerry Haendiges' Vintage Radio Logs. 2008-04-15. http://www.otrsite.com/logs/logc1053.htm. Retrieved 2010-03-01.
51. ^ "Sherlock Holmes' Episode Log". Jerry Haendiges' Vintage Radio Logs. 2008-07-06. http://www.otrsite.com/logs/logs1041.htm. Retrieved 2010-03-01. .
52. ^ ^{a b} Dunning (1998), p. 382.
53. ^ Cassidy (2005), p. 20.
54. ^ "Don Lee Sale Approval Asked," Los Angeles Times, November 21, 1950; "Sale of Don Lee System Approved: Cash Payment of $12,320,000 Involved in FCC Decision," Los Angeles Times, December 28, 1950.
55. ^ ^{a b} Marshall (1998), 384; Day (2004), pp. 230–31.
56. ^ "Radio-TV Merger Approved By F.C.C.; Deal Covers Macy's Transfer of WOR Interests to General Tire's Don Lee System", New York Times, January 18, 1952; "Earnings Fall 5% for Macy System; Television's High Cost for Subsidiary, General Teleradio, Cuts Consolidated Net," New York Times, October 11, 1950; Howard (1979), pp. 150–52.
57. ^ "General Tire Gets Control of M. B. S.; Shareholders at Meeting Vote 2-for-1 Stock Split—Company Buys More TV Stations," New York Times, April 2, 1952.
58. ^ Cassidy (2005), p. 41.
59. ^ Cox (2002), p. 178; see also pp. 127–28, for the 1950 and 1960 figures for the four major networks.
60. ^ "Sale of Mutual Expected Today; Radio Network Is Going to Group From West Coast," New York Times, July 17, 1957.
61. ^ "Mutual Network Brings 2 Million; Radio System Is Purchased by Scranton Corporation in Move for Expansion," New York Times, September 12, 1958.
62. ^ See Bareiss (1998), pp. 379–82; in particular, p. 381, for the development of limited sponsorship.
63. ^ Garay (1992), p. 64.
64. ^ Ward (2005), pp. 152–55; "The Price of Publicity," Time, September 14, 1959 (available online).
65. ^ Cox (2002), p. 127.
66. ^ Jaker et al. (1998), p. 155.
67. ^ "Mutual Network 3 Million in Debt; Files Petition in U.S. Court Seeking Settlement While Continuing in Control," New York Times, July 2, 1959; "News of TV and Radio," New York Times, July 5, 1959.
68. ^ Bliss (1991), pp. 258–59.
69. ^ Doherty (2003), p. 184.
70. ^ Griffith, Benjamin (2002-01-29). "Bob and Ray". St. James Encyclopedia of Pop Culture. BNET (CBS Interactive). http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_g1epc/is_bio/ai_2419200115l. Retrieved 2010-03-01.
71. ^ "Irish Looks To Continue Ten-Game Home Win Streak". Notre Dame Fighting Irish, The Official Athletic Site (CBS Interactive). 1999-09-13. http://und.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/091399aab.html. Retrieved 2010-03-01. Note that this source refers to "Mutual/Westwood One" months after Mutual's dissolution had been announced.
72. ^ "Mutual Network to Be Sold Again; Minnesota Mining Expected to Close Deal This Week," New York Times, April 18, 1960.
73. ^ Cox (2002), p. 128.
74. ^ "Mutual Network Changes Owners; 3M Company Sells System to Newly Formed Group," New York Times, July 10, 1966.
75. ^ Bliss (1991), pp. 62–63.
76. ^ 1973 World Book (1973), p. 479.
77. ^ Thompson (1993), p. 192 n. 85.
78. ^ "Company Profile—Leadership". American Urban Radio Networks. http://www.aurnol.com/company/leadership.asp. Retrieved 2010-03-01.
79. ^ "In the Matter of the Petition of Mutual Broadcasting System Inc. for Redetermination of a Deficiency (New York State Tax Commission ruling)". New York State Division of Tax Appeals. 1987-08-27. http://www.nysdta.org/STC/58244.pdf. Retrieved 2010-03-01.
80. ^ "Mutual Radio Applies to F.C.C. to Be First All-Satellite Network," New York Times, November 22, 1977; U.S. Congress, House Committee on Appropriations, Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations for 1986, p. 198.
81. ^ "Radio's Latest Boom: Late-Night Talk Shows, New York Times, May 2, 1982 (available online); "TV Mailbag—About Radio Talk Shows," New York Times, June 20, 1982 (available online).
82. ^ Judge, Dick (2005-12-03). "Mutual Radio Theater". Original Old-Time Radio (OTR) WWW Pages. http://www.old-time.com/otrlogs2/mutualrt_dj.log.txt. Retrieved 2010-03-01.
83. ^ "Network Radio Is Tuning into Satellites," New York Times, August 2, 1981; "Radio Networks: New 'Golden Age,'" New York Times, May 1, 1982; "Bringing 'Turnkey' Radio into Everybody's Backyard," New York Times, June 13, 1982.
84. ^ Dunning (1998), p. 603.
85. ^ "Radio Station WCFL Sold to Religious Group," Chicago Tribune, November 4, 1983.
86. ^ "Doubleday to Buy Mutual's WHN," New York Times, October 2, 1984.
87. ^ "Westwood One, Inc.—Company History". International Directory of Company Histories. Funding Universe. 1998. http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Westwood-One-Inc-Company-History.html. Retrieved 2010-03-01.
88. ^ "Westwood to Buy Mutual Network," New York Times, September 17, 1984; "Business People; Head of Westwood One Elated by Mutual Deal," New York Times, September 18, 1984; Cox (2002), p. 178.
89. ^ Quoted in "Westwood One, Inc.—Company History". International Directory of Company Histories. Funding Universe. 1998. http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Westwood-One-Inc-Company-History.html. Retrieved 2010-03-01.
90. ^ ^{a b} Lucier (1998).
91. ^ "Company News; Westwood One Completes Purchase of Unistar Radio," New York Times, February 5, 1994 (available online).
92. ^ "To Infinity and Beyond: Is a Radio Deal Too Big?; Westinghouse Would Own 32% of Top Markets," New York Times, June 21, 1996; "Two Radio Giants to Merge, Forming Biggest Network," New York Times, June 21, 1996; "F.C.C. Approves Merger of Westinghouse and Infinity," New York Times, December 27, 1996 (available online); "Company Briefs," New York Times, January 1, 1997 (available online).
93. ^ Cox (2002), pp. 178–79. See also "Mutual's Riding Off Into Radio Sunset," New York Daily News, April 7, 1999. While this article is useful for its 1999 reportage and quotes, it is filled with errors about MBS history.
94. ^ Lee, Fee (2002). "WAVA 10 Year 'Death Anniversary' e-Reunion". FrankMurphy.com. http://www.frankmurphy.com/WAVA.html. Retrieved 2010-03-01. Personal testimonial of Westwood One employee.
95. ^ "America In The Morning—About The Show". The Official Jim Bohannon Site. http://www.jimbotalk.net/pg/jsp/jimbo/aitmabouttheshow.jsp. Retrieved 2010-03-01.
96. ^ Markstein, Donald D. (2005–7). "Skyroads". Don Markstein's Toonopedia. http://www.toonopedia.com/skyroads.htm. Retrieved 2010-03-01.
97. ^ Smith et al. (1998), p. 43.
98. ^ Cassidy (2005), p. 41.
99. ^ Crane (1980).
100. ^ Garay (1992), p. 32.
101. ^ Garay (1992), p. 50.
102. ^ Gorman et al. (1994), pp. 91, 105.

Sources

• Alexander, Charles C. (2002). Breaking the Slump: Baseball in the Depression Era. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0231113420.
• Bareiss, Warren (1998). "Sustaining Programs". in Donald G. Godfrey and Frederic A. Leigh. Historical Dictionary of American Radio. Westport, Conn., and London: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0313296367.
• Bliss, Edward (1991). Now the News: The Story of Broadcast Journalism. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 023104402X.
• Brady, Frank (1990 [1989]). Citizen Welles: A Biography of Orson Welles. New York: Anchor. ISBN 0385267592.
• Brown, Robert J. (1998). Manipulating the Ether: The Power of Broadcast Radio in Thirties America. Jefferson, N.C., and London: McFarland. ISBN 0786420669.
• Callow, Simon (1995). Orson Welles: Vol. 1—The Road to Xanadu. New York: Viking. ISBN 0140254560.
• Cassidy, Marsha Francis (2005). What Women Watched: Daytime Television in the 1950s. Austin: University of Texas Press. ISBN 0292706278.
• Clarke, Donald (1996). The Rise and Fall of Popular Music. New York: St. Martin's. ISBN 0312142005.
• Cox, Jim (2002). Say Goodnight, Gracie: The Last Years of Network Radio. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland. ISBN 0786411686.
• Crane, Marie Brenne (1980). "Radio Station KGB and the Development of Commercial Radio in San Diego," Journal of San Diego History 26, no. 1 (winter). ISSN 0022-4383 (available online).
• Crook, Tim (1998). International Radio Journalism: History, Theory and Practice. London and New York: Routledge. ISBN 0415096723.
• Day, Frederick J. (2004). Clubhouse Lawyer: Law in the World of Sports. Lincoln, Neb.: iUniverse. ISBN 0595318509.
• Doherty, Thomas (2003). Cold War, Cool Medium: Television, McCarthyism, and American Culture. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0231129521.
• Dunning, John (1998). On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195076788.
• Garay, Ronald (1992). Gordon McLendon: The Maverick of Radio. New York, Westport, Conn., and London: Greenwood Press. ISBN 031326676X.
• Gorman, Jerry, Kirk Calhoun, and Skip Rozin (1994). The Name of the Game: The Business of Sports. New York et al.: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0471594237.
• Head, Sydney W. (1976). Broadcasting in America: Survey of Television and Radio. New York: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0395206448.
• Hilmes, Michelle (1997). Radio Voices: American Broadcasting, 1922–1952. Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 0816626219.
• Hollis, Tim (2001). Hi There, Boys and Girls!: America's Local Children's TV Programs. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 1578063965.
• Howard, Herbert H. (1979). Multiple Ownership in Television Broadcasting: Historical Development and Selected Case Studies. New York: Arno Press. ISBN 0405117590.
• Jaker, Bill, Frank Sulek, and Peter Kanze (1998). The Airwaves of New York: Illustrated Histories of 156 AM Stations in the Metropolitan Area. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland. ISBN 0786403438.
• Kirkley Jr., Donald H. (1979 [1967]). A Descriptive Study of the Network Television Western During the Seasons 1955–56—1962–63. New York: Arno Press. ISBN 0405117612.
• Lackmann, Ron (2000). The Encyclopedia of American Radio: An A–Z Guide to Radio from Jack Benny to Howard Stern. New York: Facts on File/Checkmark. ISBN 081604077X.
• Leblebici, Huseyin, Gerald R. Salancik, Anne Copay, and Tom King (1991). "Institutional Change and the Transformation of Interorganizational Fields: An Organizational History of the U.S. Radio Broadcasting Industry," Administrative Science Quarterly (September). ISSN 0001-8392 (available online).
• Lucier, James P. (1998). "Jim Bohannon On Air—Radio Talk Show Host," Insight on the News (February 9). ISSN 1051-4880 (available online).
• Marshall, William J. (1998). Baseball's Pivotal Era, 1945–1951. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0813120411.
• McDougal, Dennis (2001 [1998]). The Last Mogul: Lew Wasserman, MCA, and the Hidden History of Hollywood. New York: Da Capo. ISBN 0306810506.
• Nachmann, Gerald (2000). Raised on Radio. Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press. ISBN 0520223039.
• Nimmo, Dan D., and Chevelle Newsome (1997). Political Commentators in the United States in the 20th Century: A Bio-Critical Sourcebook. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood. ISBN 0313295859.
• 1973 World Book (1973). The 1973 World Book Year Book: The Annual Supplement to the World Book Encyclopedia. Chicago: Field Enterprises Educational Corp.. ISBN 0716604736.
• Olson, James Stuart (2000). Historical Dictionary of the 1950s. Westport, Conn., and London: Greenwood. ISBN 0313306192.
• Patterson, Ted (2004). The Golden Voices of Football. Champaign, Ill.: Sports Publishing. ISBN 1582617449.
• Robinson, Thomas Porter (1979 [1943]). Radio Networks and the Federal Government. New York: Arno Press. ISBN 0405117728.
• Rose Jr., Cornelia B. (1971). National Policy for Radio Broadcasting. New York: Arno Press/New York Times. ISBN 0405035802.
• Savage, Barbara Dianne (1999). Broadcasting Freedom: Radio, War, and the Politics of Race, 1938–1948. Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0807848042.
• Schramm, Wilbur (1969). Mass Communications: A Book of Readings. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0252000153.
• Schwoch, James (1994). "A Failed Vision: The Mutual Television Network," Velvet Light Trap 33 (spring). ISSN 1542-4251 (available online, with free membership).
• Segrave, Kerry (1999). Movies at Home: How Hollywood Came to Television. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland. ISBN 0786406542.
• Smith, F. Leslie, John W. Wright II, and David H. Ostroff (1998). Perspectives on Radio and Television: Telecommunication in the United States. Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum. ISBN 0805820922.
• Thompson, Julius Eric (1993). The Black Press in Mississippi, 1865–1985. Gainesville: University Press of Florida. ISBN 0813011744.
• Ward, Richard Lewis (2005). A History of the Hal Roach Studios. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press. ISBN 0809327279.
• Whitaker, Jerry C. (2002). Audio/Video Protocol Handbook: Broadcast Standards and Reference Data. New York et al.: McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0071396438.

External links

• How Far Should the Government Control Radio? text of G.I. Roundtable pamphlet with details on MBS in first section ("Who Is It That Fills The Air With Radio Waves?"), ca. 1945; part of American Historical Association website
• Reporters' Roundup Transcript radio broadcast transcript of group interview with guest U.S. Senator Everett M. Dirksen on weekly MBS news program, September 16, 1957; part of Everett Dirksen Center website
• Truman Library—Charter Heslep Papers summary introduction to and listing of archive holdings of MBS broadcaster's papers (note that the Collection Description text incorrectly states that Chicago station WLS was an original member of MBS; while it may have been involved in the predecessor Quality Network, it was not part of Mutual); part of Truman Presidential Museum and Library website

Listening

• Gabriel Heatter on the Doolittle Raid audio extract from news report, May 10, 1942; part of Authentic History Center website
• Mutual: Blackout on the West Coast audio extract from news report, December 8, 1941; part of Authentic History Center website
• Spotlight on Golden Age Networks—MBS links to audio samples of classic Mutual shows (note that the Lone Ranger sample comes from 1948, after the show had left MBS); part of Digital Deli Online
• WOR: Interruption of Giants–Dodgers Football Game audio clip of news flash, December 7, 1941; part of Authentic History Center website

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