A terrestrial network (or broadcast network in the United States) is a group of
radio station
Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...
s,
television station
A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth ...
s, or other
electronic media
Electronic media are media that use electronics or electromechanical means for the audience to access the content. This is in contrast to static media (mainly print media), which today are most often created digitally, but do not require el ...
outlets, that form an agreement to air, or
broadcast
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum ( radio waves), in a one-to-many model. Broadcasting began ...
, content from a centralized source.
[ For example, (]U.S.
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
), (Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
), the ( UK), the (Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
), (Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
), (South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...
), and NHK
, also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee.
NHK operates two terrestri ...
(Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
) are TV network
A television network or television broadcaster is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, where a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay television providers. Until the mid-1 ...
s that provide programming for local terrestrial television
Terrestrial television or over-the-air television (OTA) is a type of television broadcasting in which the signal transmission occurs via radio waves from the terrestrial (Earth-based) transmitter of a TV station to a TV receiver having an ant ...
station affiliates to air using signals that can be picked up by the home television sets of local viewers. Networks generally, but not always, operate on a national scale; that is, they cover an entire country.
Streaming media
Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content it ...
, Internet radio
Online radio (also web radio, net radio, streaming radio, e-radio, IP radio, Internet radio) is a digital audio service transmitted via the Internet. Broadcasting on the Internet is usually referred to as webcasting since it is not transmitted ...
, and webcasting
A webcast is a media presentation distributed over the Internet using streaming media technology to distribute a single content source to many simultaneous listeners/viewers. A webcast may either be distributed live or on demand. Essentially, web ...
are sometimes considered forms of broadcasting despite the lack of terrestrial stations; its practitioners may also be called "broadcasters" or even "broadcast networks".
American networks
AT&T's "WEAF Chain"
Following the introduction of radio broadcasting in the early 1920s, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile tel ...
(AT&T) developed the first radio network
There are two types of radio network currently in use around the world: the one-to-many (simplex communication) broadcast network commonly used for public information and mass-media entertainment, and the two-way radio ( duplex communication) type ...
, linking together individual stations with specially prepared long-distance telephone line
A telephone line or telephone circuit (or just line or circuit industrywide) is a single-user circuit on a telephone communication system. It is designed to reproduce speech of a quality that is understandable. It is the physical wire or ot ...
s in what at the time was called a "chain". The key station was AT&T's WEAF (now WFAN) in New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. The network featured a variety of regularly scheduled programs which included sponsorships (at the time not called advertising but "toll broadcasting").
From the beginning, AT&T planned to eventually expand nationwide, so that national companies would be able reach large portions of the nation with their brand names and slogans in an efficient manner. At first the network's expansion was slow. In 1924, the ''Eveready Hour'' was broadcast over 12 stations, primarily located in the U.S. Northeast
The Northeastern United States, also referred to as the Northeast, the East Coast, or the American Northeast, is a geographic region of the United States. It is located on the Atlantic coast of North America, with Canada to its north, the Southe ...
. ''Eveready Hour'' was the first commercially sponsored variety show
Variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is entertainment made up of a variety of acts including musical theatre, musical performances, sketch comedy, magic (illusion), magic, acrobatics, juggling, and ventriloquism. It is ...
in the history of broadcasting. By 1925, AT&T had linked together 26 stations in its network.
AT&T eventually decided to concentrate on its most profitable business, telephones, and in 1926 sold its broadcasting interests to the Radio Corporation of America (RCA). RCA's purchase included an agreement to lease AT&T phone lines.[Perry, Stephen D. (2004). A Consolidated History of Media (4th edition). Bloomington, IL: Epistelogic]
RCA's "WJZ Chain"
In 1922 the Radio Corporation of America
The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...
(RCA) followed AT&T's network model lead, and formed a small competing network centered on its New York City station, WJZ (now WABC). However, conflict resulted as RCA had a limited ability to lease lines from AT&T, and often had to use telegraph lines to connect stations, which had inferior acoustical properties.
NBC
After acquiring WEAF and AT&T's network assets in 1926, RCA created the National Broadcasting Company
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
(NBC) and reorganized the WEAF chain (with WGR
WGR (550 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to serve Buffalo, New York. Owned by Audacy, Inc., its studios and offices are located on Corporate Parkway in Amherst, and the transmitter site—utilized by WGR and co-owned WWKB—is in Ham ...
, WTIC, WTAG
WTAG (580 AM) is a radio station in Worcester, Massachusetts. It is owned by iHeartMedia and airs a news/talk format. WTAG's studios are in Paxton and it broadcasts from a transmitter in Holden, Massachusetts. The transmitter operates at 5 ...
, WEEI, WJAR
WJAR (channel 10) is a television station in Providence, Rhode Island, United States, affiliated with NBC. Owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, the station has studios on Kenney Drive in Cranston, Rhode Island (shared with Telemundo owned-and-ope ...
, WZAN, WFI-WLIT, WCAE
WCAE was a PBS List of PBS member stations, member station on channel 50 at St. John, Indiana, owned by the Lake Central School Corporation. It was the first television station to serve Northwest Indiana and the Calumet Region. The station bega ...
, WRC
WRC may refer to:
Broadcasting stations
* WRC-TV, a television station (virtual channel 4, digital channel 34) licensed to Washington, D.C., United States
* Several radio stations in the Washington, D.C. area:
** WTEM, a radio station (980 AM) l ...
, WTAM
WTAM (1100 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Cleveland, Ohio, and carries a news/talk/sports format commonly known as "Newsradio WTAM 1100". Owned by iHeartMedia, WTAM serves Greater Cleveland and much of surrounding Northeast Ohio ...
, WSAI
WSAI (1360 AM) is a Cincinnati, Ohio commercial radio station. Owned and operated by iHeartMedia, its studios, as well as those of iHeartMedia's other Cincinnati stations, are in the Towers of Kenwood building next to I-71 in the Kenwood secti ...
, WWJ, WGN, WOC, KSD, WDAF, WCCO) as the NBC Red
The NBC, National Broadcasting Company's NBC Radio Network (known as the NBC Red Network prior to 1942) was an American commercial radio network which was in operation from 1926 through 2004. Along with the Blue Network, NBC Blue Network it was ...
network and the WJZ chain as the NBC Blue
The Blue Network (previously known as the NBC Blue Network) was the on-air name of a now defunct American Commercial broadcasting, radio network, which broadcast from 1927 through 1945.
Beginning as one of the two radio networks owned by the N ...
network (with WBZ, WBZA
WBZA (98.9 FM) is an adult hits station in Rochester, New York. It is owned by Audacy, Inc. (formerly Entercom Communications), who purchased the station from Sinclair Broadcasting in 1999. Before its current format, the station played oldies ...
, KYW, KDKA). (One explanation for the color designations is that they reflected the red and blue push pins used on a map that AT&T originally used to designate the affiliated stations on the two networks.)
On 23 December 1928, NBC instituted the first permanent transcontinental network. As of September 1938, when there were 154 NBC outlets; 23 composed the basic Red network and 24 composed the basic Blue network. Supplementing these basic networks were 107 stations, of which one was available only to the basic Red network, six were available only to the basic Blue network, and the remainder available to either. NBC also had a chain of shortwave stations, called the "NBC White Network", in the 1930s.
In 1941, the Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...
's (FCC) ''Report on Chain Broadcasting'' reviewed the alleged monopolistic practices of the radio networks. The FCC was concerned NBC Red and NBC Blue were anti-competitive. Because the FCC did not have the power to directly regulate networks, it decided to enact regulations affecting the stations, and adopted standards intended to force NBC to relinquish one of its networks. In 1943, the Supreme Court upheld the FCC's power to enforce its chain broadcasting regulations.[Rivera-Sanchez, M. (1998). Report on Chain Broadcasting. History of the Mass Media in the United States, An Encyclopedia, pg 590–591.] As a consequence, NBC Blue was sold to Edward Noble
Edward John Noble (August 8, 1882 – December 28, 1958) was an American broadcasting and candy industrialist originally from Gouverneur, New York, Gouverneur, New York (state), New York. He co-founded the Life Savers Corporation in 1913. He foun ...
who later named it the American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is an American commercial broadcast television network. It is the flagship property of the ABC Entertainment Group division of The Walt Disney Company. The network is headquartered in Burbank, Cali ...
(ABC). After NBC Blue was divested the remaining NBC Red network was renamed the NBC Radio Network.
CBS
In 1927, United Independent Broadcasters, Inc., supported by the Columbia Phonograph Record Company, started a new network of 16 stations ( WOR New York, WFBL
WFBL (1390 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Syracuse, New York and owned by Wolf Radio, Inc. It serves Syracuse and its suburbs, with studios and offices located on Smokey Hollow Road in Baldwinsville. Since September 2017 the statio ...
Syracuse, WMAK
WMAK (1570 AM) is an American country radio station licensed to serve Lobelville, Tennessee, with studios in downtown Linden, Tennessee. Currently acting as a full-time simulcast of co-owned WOPC, the station's broadcast license is held b ...
Buffalo-Lockport, WNAC Boston, WEAN
Weaning is the process of gradually introducing an infant human or another mammal to what will be its adult diet while withdrawing the supply of its mother's milk.
The process takes place only in mammals, as only mammals produce milk. The infan ...
Providence, WCAU
WCAU (channel 10) is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, airing programming from the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Mount Laurel, New Jerse ...
Philadelphia, WJAS
WJAS (1320 AM) is a commercial radio station in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The station has a talk radio format, and uses the slogan "The Talk of Pittsburgh". It is owned by St. Barnabas Broadcasting, a division of the Saint Barnabas Health System, ...
Pittsburgh, WCAO
WCAO (600 AM "Heaven 600") is a commercial radio station in Baltimore, Maryland. It broadcasts an urban gospel radio format and is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. It also airs some Christian talk and teaching programs. The studios and offices are ...
Baltimore, WADC Akron, WAIU Columbus, WKRC Cincinnati, WGHP
WGHP (channel 8) is a television station licensed to High Point, North Carolina, United States, serving the Piedmont Triad region as an affiliate of the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox network. The station is owned by Nexstar Media Group, and main ...
Detroit, WOWO
WOWO (1190 AM) – branded News/Talk WOWO 1190 AM 107.5 FM – is a commercial talk radio station licensed to Fort Wayne, Indiana, serving primarily the Fort Wayne metropolitan area. Currently owned by Federated Media via licensee Pathfinder ...
Fort Wayne, WMAQ Chicago, KMOX
KMOX (1120 AM) is a commercial radio station in St. Louis, Missouri. Owned by Audacy, Inc., it is a 50,000 watt Class A clear-channel station with a non-directional signal. The KMOX studios and offices are on Olive Street at Tucker Bouleva ...
St. Louis, KOIL
''Koil'' or ''Koyil'' or ''Kovil'', (meaning: residence of GodThe modern Tamil word for Hindu temple is ''kōvil'' ( ta, கோவில்) meaning "the residence of God". In ancient Tamil Nadu, the king (, ''Kō'') was considered to be a ...
Council Bluffs) named the ''Columbia Phonographic Broadcasting System''.
In 1928 William S. Paley
William Samuel Paley (September 28, 1901 – October 26, 1990) was an American businessman, primarily involved in the media, and best known as the chief executive who built the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) from a small radio network into o ...
assumed control of the network, which under his leadership focused on entertainment programming, news, and news affiliation. He quickly turned the failing company around, which was named Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc. (CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...
) in 1929. By the end of 1938 there were 113 CBS outlets. Regional networks on CBS also existed in various parts of the country.
CBS later hired Edward R. Murrow
Edward Roscoe Murrow (born Egbert Roscoe Murrow; April 25, 1908 – April 27, 1965) was an American broadcast journalist and war correspondent. He first gained prominence during World War II with a series of live radio broadcasts from Europe fo ...
who is credited with boosting ratings dramatically. Murrow and CBS covered the war in Europe while Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
was in power. NBC and ABC withdrew from the war for safety reasons. As a result of taking the risk, CBS's ratings skyrocketed.
ABC
In 1945, the NBC Blue network was sold to Edward John Noble
Edward John Noble (August 8, 1882 – December 28, 1958) was an American broadcasting and candy industrialist originally from Gouverneur, New York. He co-founded the Life Savers Corporation in 1913. He founded the American Broadcasting Company w ...
, who later renamed it American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is an American commercial broadcast television network. It is the flagship property of the ABC Entertainment Group division of The Walt Disney Company. The network is headquartered in Burbank, Cali ...
(ABC). By the mid-1940s broadcasting had become a big Three television networks
In the United States, there are three major traditional commercial broadcast television networks — CBS (Columbia Broadcasting System), NBC (National Broadcasting Company), and ABC (American Broadcasting Company) — that due to their longev ...
battle. ABC almost went bankrupt
Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debt ...
and in 1951 Leonard Goldenson
Leonard H. Goldenson (December 7, 1905 – December 27, 1999) was the founder and president of the United States-based television network American Broadcasting Company (ABC), from 1953 to 1986. Goldenson, as CEO of United Paramount Theatres, ...
and United Paramount Theaters
United may refer to:
Places
* United, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community
* United, West Virginia, an unincorporated community
Arts and entertainment Films
* ''United'' (2003 film), a Norwegian film
* ''United'' (2011 film), a BBC Two fi ...
bought the network for $25 million. In 1964, ABC won the ratings race in the fifty largest U.S. markets. In the 1970–71 season, ABC ranked #1 in the Nielsen ratings
Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rat ...
with a medical drama
A medical drama is a television show or film in which events center upon a hospital, an ambulance staff, or any medical environment. Most recent medical drama (film and television), dramatic programming go beyond the events pertaining to the chara ...
called Marcus Welby, M.D. Marcus, Markus, Márkus or Mărcuș may refer to:
* Marcus (name), a masculine given name
* Marcus (praenomen), a Roman personal name
Places
* Marcus, a main belt asteroid, also known as (369088) Marcus 2008 GG44
* Mărcuş, a village in Dobârl ...
, the first ABC television show
A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed betw ...
to top the list.
Mutual
In 1929, a group of four radio stations in the major markets of New York City, Chicago, Cincinnati, and Detroit organized into a loose confederation known as the Quality Network. In 1934 this was reorganized as the Mutual Broadcasting System. The network was organized with the members contracting for telephone-line transmission facilities and agreeing to collectively enter into contracts with advertisers for their networked shows.
Westwood One News
Radio news network launched on January 1, 2015, and operated by Westwood One
Westwood One is an American radio network
There are two types of radio network currently in use around the world: the one-to-many (simplex communication) broadcast network commonly used for public information and mass-media entertainment, and ...
through its parent company Cumulus Media
Cumulus Media, Inc. is an American broadcasting company and is the third largest owner and operator of AM and FM radio stations in the United States behind Audacy and iHeartMedia. As of June 2019, Cumulus lists ownership of 428 stations in 87 ...
.Cumulus/WestwoodOne To Establish CNN Powered News Service
– ''Radio Insight'' (accessed February 21, 2019)
Canadian national networks
The first network in Canada was
CNR Radio
CNR Radio or CN Radio (officially the Canadian National Railways Radio Department)[Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission
The Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission (CRBC), also referred to as the Canadian Radio Commission (CRC), was Canada's first public broadcaster and the immediate precursor to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Origins
The CRBC was establish ...]
(CRBC) in 1932.
CBC
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the government. ...
(public network, founded in 1936, successor to the CRBC)
*
CBC Radio One
CBC Radio One is the English-language news and information radio network of the publicly owned Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It is commercial-free and offers local and national programming. It is available on AM and FM to 98 percent of Ca ...
*
CBC Music
CBC Music (formerly known as CBC FM, CBC Stereo and CBC Radio 2) is a Canadian FM radio network operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It used to concentrate on classical and jazz. In 2007 and 2008, the network transitioned towards a ...
*
CBC Television
CBC Television (also known as CBC TV) is a Canadian English-language broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster. The network began operations on September 6, 1952. Its French-l ...
*
Ici Radio-Canada Première
Ici Radio-Canada Première (formerly Première Chaîne) is a Canadian French language, French-language radio network, the news and information service of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (known as Société Radio-Canada in French), the Public ...
*
Ici Musique
Ici Musique (stylized as ICI Musique) is the French-language music radio service of Canada's national public broadcaster, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (''Société Radio-Canada''). It is the French equivalent of the English CBC Music, a ...
*
Ici Radio-Canada Télé
Ici Radio-Canada Télé (formerly known as Télévision de Radio-Canada) is a Canadian French-language free-to-air television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (known in French as Société Radio-Canada), the national pub ...
CTV
CTV Television Network
The CTV Television Network, commonly known as CTV, is a Canadian English-language terrestrial television network. Launched in 1961 and acquired by BCE Inc. in 2000, CTV is Canada's largest privately owned television network and is now a divis ...
(private, founded 1961)
Global
Global Television Network
The Global Television Network (more commonly called Global, or occasionally Global TV) is a Canadian English-language terrestrial television network. It is currently Canada's second most-watched private terrestrial television network after ...
(private, founded as an Ontario network in 1974, national in 1997)
Quebec
*
TVA
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally owned electric utility corporation in the United States. TVA's service area covers all of Tennessee, portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, and small areas of Georgia, North Carolina ...
(private, founded 1971)
*
V (private, founded 1986)
*
Télé-Québec
The Société de télédiffusion du Québec (; en, Quebec Television Broadcasting Corporation), branded as Télé-Québec (), is a Canadian French-language public educational television network in the province of Quebec. It is a provincial Crown ...
(public, founded 1975)
See also
*
Media in New York City
New York City has been called the media capital of the world. The media of New York City are internationally influential and include some of the most important newspapers, largest publishing houses, biggest record companies, and most prolific te ...
*
Media in Philadelphia This is a list of media based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Newspapers and magazines
Former newspapers:
* ''Philadelphia Bulletin''
* '' The Catholic Standard & Times''
* ''L'Abeille américaine''
* ''Philadelphia City Paper''
Television statio ...
*
New Yorkers in journalism
New York City has been called the media capital of the world. Many journalists work in Manhattan, reporting about international, American, business, entertainment, and New York metropolitan area-related matters.
New Yorkers in journalism
A
* ...
*
Radio network
There are two types of radio network currently in use around the world: the one-to-many (simplex communication) broadcast network commonly used for public information and mass-media entertainment, and the two-way radio ( duplex communication) type ...
*
Television network
A television network or television broadcaster is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, where a central operation provides programming to many television stations or multichannel video programming distributo ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Broadcast Network
Television terminology