To network a nation: N.B.C., C.B.S. and the development of national network radio in the United States, 1925--1950 (James Lawrence Fly)

This dissertation explores the invention and development of network radio broadcasting in the United States between 1925 and 1950.; National network radio played an important role in consolidating and homogenizing American national culture. By linking stations throughout the United States, the National Broadcasting Company and the Columbia Broadcasting System provided the medium by which the American citizenry was informed and entertained during the Depression and the Second World War. The two networks were aided in their development by political legislation, a business-friendly regulatory environment, and enormously popular programming.; Chapter one examines the technological alternatives available to link stations throughout the United States before the invention of the National Broadcasting Company. By analyzing the development of the Columbia Broadcasting System, the question of competition and monopoly in early network broadcasting is addressed. The second chapter describes the difficulties encountered in national network radio expansion during the Depression. Chapter three presents the regulatory activism of the Federal Communications Commission under Chairman James Lawrence Fly, and its effects on chain broadcasting. In particular, chapter three discusses the F.C.C.'s attempts to open the field of national broadcasting to competition, and details the Commission's successful effort to force N.B.C. to sell one of its two networks. Chapter four argues that the networks were able to use their position as the nation's most important medium of news during the Second World War to counter the F.C.C. and limit government intervention in the field of national broadcasting. Chapter five analyzes the final significant regulatory battle in chain broadcasting by exploring the tensions within the industry wrought by an important 1946 F.C.C. report. The imminent introduction of television, and the problems it caused for network radio, will also be addressed in chapter five.; The development of national network radio broadcasting required a complex series of political negotiations, business decisions, and technological considerations. N.B.C. and C.B.S. used a variety of strategies to protect their franchise over national radio. By exploring the tactics employed by the networks, questions of monopoly, restraint of trade, and competition in the history of network radio broadcasting are raised.