NBC RADIO FOUNDED 82 YEARS AGO TODAY

The oldest of the major television networks, NBC was founded this day in 1926 as a Radio Station, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Radio Broadcasting Company (RCA).
Amos and Andy as well as Jack Benny, Al Jolson, Bob Hope, Edgar Bergen, Fred Allen, Tallulah Bankhead, Fanny Brice and Groucho Marx called NBC home at one point. Many of them later jumped ship to CBS. NBC -- the "National Broadcasting Company" begins as the first radio network. The inauguration of the NBC Radio network was celebrated on November 15th with a 4 1/2 hour gala broadcast from the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, NY; it was estimated half of the nation's 5 million radio sets were tuned in for the broadcast; Quickly two networks ("chains" of stations) were distinguished -- one was called the "NBC Red Network" and the other the "NBC Blue Network" -- which was sold in 1945 to form the ABC Radio Network as the result of an anti-trust settlement. At that point only the "Red network" remained, but in view of increasing post-war anti-communism NBC dropped the "Red Network" from its name.The Photo:David Sarnoff, vice-president of the Radio Corporation of America,seated among new staff at RCA's National Broadcasting Company, 1926.