User:Teblick/Transcontinental Broadcasting System

TheTranscontinental Broadcasting System was an American radio network begun in 1940 by Elliott Roosevelt and other people. It was "an outgrowth of Roosevelt's Texas network".

On December 1, 1939, TBS officials announced that the network would begin broadcasting on January 1, 1940. They planned to have 35 sponsored hours per week with "an annual income of $,000,000 assured." It had stations in major cities and regional markets nationwide. Roosevelt was president of the company. John T. Adams, one of the founders of CBS, was chairman of the board, and George J. Podeyn was general manager.

Stations signed for the network included WMCA in New York City, WJJD and WIND in Chicago, KFWB in Hollywood, KYA in San Francisco, KQV in Pittsburgh, KXOK in St. Louis, and KOMO in Kansas City. Headquarters were on the 35th, 36th, and 37th floors of the General Electric Building in New York City.

On December 30, 1939, however, TBS announced a one-month delay of the launch. Adams said that an advertising agency had failed to meet its commitments for providing clients that would have sponsored the equivalent of 15 hours of programming per week, which meant that the network would have to find other agencies whose clients wanted to sponsor that programming. In response, the vice president of Blackett=Sample Hummert Inc. advertising agency said that the agency had not completed negotiations with the network and that TBS "failed to submit evidence of its financial ability to operate a network".

By February 1, 1940, the Mutual Broadcasting System had modified its contracts with its stockholders to "prohibit the 50 or more stationa owned by those stockholders or affiliated with their regional networks from broadcasting programs of any other national network, or any other network having outlets in New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago." Mutual's officials acknowledged that the "clauses were designed to prevent its dismemberment by Transcontinental Broadcasting System, Inc."