<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<document>
<title>Mutual Broadcasting System</title>
<authors>Wikipedia</authors>
<publisher>wikipedia.org</publisher>
<publishedplace>network</publishedplace>
<publishedyear>2010</publishedyear>
<edition></edition>
<category>Defunct radio networks in the United States</category>
<section id="16293" fatherid="0" title="" lv="" priority="-1" level="1">
The Mutual Broadcasting System (MBS) was an American radio network, in operation from 1934 to 1999. In the golden age of U.S. radio drama, 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. For many years, it was a national broadcaster for Major League Baseball, including the All-Star Game and World Series, and for Notre Dame football. 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.
Of the four national networks of American radio's classic era, Mutual had for decades the largest number of affiliates but the least certain financial position. For the first eighteen years of its existence, MBS was owned and operated as a cooperative, 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. 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, which purchased it in 1985, was the seventh in a string of new owners that followed General Tire.

</section>
<section id="16294" fatherid="0" title="History" lv="" priority="2" level="1">
<section id="16295" fatherid="16294" title="1934–1935: The launch of Mutual" lv="" priority="1" level="2">
Attempts at establishing cooperatively owned radio networks had been made since the 1920s. 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. Five years later, a similar or identical group of stations founded the Mutual Broadcasting System.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 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. See Schwoch (1994). Mutual's original participating stations were WOR–Newark, New Jersey, just outside of New York (owned by the Bamberger Broadcasting Service, a division of R.H. Macy and Company), WGN–Chicago (owned by WGN Inc., a subsidiary of the Chicago Tribune), WXYZ–Detroit (owned by Kunsky-Trendle Broadcasting), and WLW–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.Robinson (1979), 28; Cox (2002), 177; Some History of the Mutual Broadcasting System extensive discussion of the network's history and organization by historian Elizabeth McLeod. Note that the lead content on this individually maintained webpage (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, 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.) Retrieved 10/28/09. 
The three national radio networks already in operation—the Columbia Broadcasting System and the National Broadcasting Company's NBC Red and NBC Blue—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?"Dunning (1998), 724. 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.For argument that MBS was primarily a vehicle for The Lone Ranger, see, e.g., Olson (2000), 173; Head (1976), 142; Schwoch (1994). For counterargument and popularity of Lum and Abner, see, e.g., Hilmes (1997), 107–108; Hollis (2001), 41; Some History of the Mutual Broadcasting System electronic correspondence from historian Elizabeth McLeod dated "Mon, 12 APR 99." Retrieved 1/25/07. 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 standard.Whitaker (2002), 537–538 (available online).
On May 24, 1935, the network aired its inaugural live event—the first-ever night baseball game, between the Cincinnati Reds and the Philadelphia Phillies.Gorman et al. (1994), 105.  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.Kirkley (1979), 39; Adcraft advertorial in Advertising Age, December 5, 2005; Lone Ranger Episode Log part of Jerry Haendiges' Vintage Radio Logs website. Retrieved 11/21/06. The hole in the Detroit market was immediately filled by CKLW in Windsor, Ontario, just across the river."M. B. S.," Time, January 4, 1937 (available online). Note that this article, all of whose data appears reliable, never mentions WXYZ in its history of Mutual. 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 (NBC and CBS also carried the series that year; the Fall Classic would air on all three networks through 1938).Alexander (2002), 110; Gorman et al. (1994), 89. Mutual broadcast its first Notre Dame football game that autumn as well, beginning another relationship that would last for decades.See, e.g., Patterson (2004), 90. 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."M. B. S."

</section>
<section id="16296" fatherid="16294" title="Late 1930s: National expansion" lv="" priority="2" level="2">
<section id="16297" fatherid="16296" title="" lv="" priority="-1" level="3">
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.The Colonial Network part of BostonRadio.org. Retrieved 11/28/06. 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.Cleveland Broadcast Radio Archives Project: WGAR-AM historical database maintained by Mike Olszewski and Pete Motz. Retrieved 10/29/09; "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  Mutual to become an NBC affiliate (see, e.g., Schramm 1969, 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. The big prize came in December, when the Don Lee Broadcasting System, the leading regional web on the West Coast,  CBS to become a central participant in Mutual. Don Lee brought its four owned-and-operated stations—KHJ–Los Angeles, KFRC–San Francisco, KGB–San Diego, and KDB–Santa Barbara—along with six California affiliates and, via shortwave hookup, two more in Hawaii."M. B. S."; The History of KFRC Radio—The Mutual–Don Lee Network part of the Bay Area Radio Museum website. Retrieved 11/28/06. Mutual now had a nationwide presence. During 1936, as well, an offer by Warner Bros. to purchase the network was apparently made and rejected.Clarke (1996), ch. 11 (available online).
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.The Boston Radio Timeline part of BostonRadio.org. Retrieved 11/21/06. The Texas Network soon added twenty-three more stations to the MBS affiliate roster.Cox (2002), 178. WGAR dropped out, but the United Broadcasting Company, part of the Cleveland Plain Dealer business, joined with its lead station, WHK.Cleveland Broadcast Radio Archives Project: WHK-AM. Retrieved 10/29/09. 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.National Broadcasting Co., Inc., et al. v. United States et al. U.S. Supreme Court ruling, May 10, 1943. Retrieved 11/22/06. 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.

</section>
<section id="16298" fatherid="16296" title="Programming: The Shadow and diverse political voices" lv="" priority="2" level="3">
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 guru Bernarr Macfadden. 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.Hilmes (1997), 99–100; Jaker et al. (1998), 129. In July 1937 came the premiere of a seven-part adaptation of Les Misérables, produced, written, and directed by Orson Welles and featuring many of his Mercury Theatre performers—Mercury's first appearance on the air. September 26, 1937, proved a particularly momentous date: that evening, The Shadow came to Mutual. 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."Callow (1995), 321.
In April 1938, the network picked up The Green Hornet 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).Green Hornet Episode Log part of Jerry Haendiges' Vintage Radio Logs website. Retrieved 11/21/06. 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.McDougal (2001), 68. By May 1939, MBS was broadcasting the Indianapolis 500.Highway Traveler vol. 11, no. 2 (April–May 1939), 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 part of the Speedway Audio website archived via the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 10/29/09. That autumn, Mutual won exclusive broadcast s to the World Series. As described in a 1943 Supreme Court ruling upholding the regulatory power of the Federal Communications Commission, 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.National Broadcasting Co., Inc., et al. v. United States et al. Retrieved 11/22/06.
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 "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.Bliss (1991), 34, 36. 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.Bliss (1991), 60–61. In November 1937, conservative commentator Fulton Lewis Jr., heard five nights weekly from Mutual affiliate WOL, 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.Nimmo and Newsome (1997), 173. In 1938, Mutual started rebroadcasting news reports from the BBC 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.Brown (1998), 180; Bliss (1991), 97–98.

</section>
</section>
<section id="16299" fatherid="16294" title="1940s: One of the Big Four" lv="" priority="3" level="2">
<section id="16300" fatherid="16299" title="" lv="" priority="-1" level="3">
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 groups 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.Rose (1971), 68.

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:Robinson (1979), 29.
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, 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.Jaker et al. (1998), 93; "Rubber Yankee," Time, January 18, 1943 (available online; The Boston Radio Timeline. Retrieved 11/21/06.
Already by 1940, MBS was on a par with the industry leaders in terms of affiliate roster size.The two available authoritative sources differ widely on the figures for the year. Smith et al. (1998), 43, gives MBS—140, NBC—113 (53 with Red, 60 with Blue), and CBS—112. Schwoch (1994) gives NBC—182, MBS—160, and CBS—122. It is unclear what different methodologies were employed to produce these varying results. 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.For the advertising time sales of NBC, CBS, and MBS in 1940, see Robinson (1979), 26, 27, 29. For 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. 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."Quoted in Robinson (1979), 116. See also "Chains Unchained?" Time, May 12, 1941 (available online). 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."Quoted in Robinson (1979), 74. The FCC's Supreme Court victory in 1943 led to the sale of the Blue Network and Mutual dropping its lawsuit."Mutual Seeks to End Action Against RCA; Official Says Transfer of Blue Network Will Solve Issue," New York Times, October 12, 1943. 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.Smith et al. (1998), 43; AM Network-Affiliated Radio Stations, 1949 detailed affiliate listing maintained by Jeff Miller—information based on the 1949 Broadcasting-Telecasting Yearbook and provided by the DuMont project. Retrieved 11/21/06. 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.Leblebici et al. (1991), 17 (online pagination). 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. 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.Schwoch (1994).
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.Segrave (1999), 22. For more on the evaporation of Mutual's TV plans, see Schwoch (1994). 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 s 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." Nachmann (2000), 350. 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.Cassidy (2005), 40–43, 187–188. 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" (41), 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, August 18, 1950. Retrieved 11/22/06. In the 1950s, Mutual would stare down NBC for four years as the mighty network sought to take control of the show.

</section>
<section id="16301" fatherid="16299" title="Programming: World War II and Superman" lv="" priority="2" level="3">
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.Bliss (1991), 65. The network aired that year's NFL Championship Game on December 8, the first national broadcast of the annual event.History: Chronology (1940 to 1959) part of the official site of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Retrieved 11/12/09. 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.Brown (1998), 183, 190. 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.Bliss (1991), 135; America Attacked: Radio Coverage of December 7–8, 1941 part of the Authentic History Center website. Retrieved 1/12/07. In May 1945, Sigrid Schultz reported from one of the last Nazi concentration camps to be discovered, Ravensbrück.Crook (1998), 206–207. The following month, Meet the Press premiered with Martha Rountree as moderator.Nimmo and Newsome (1997), 311. 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.Bliss (1991), 202–203. 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.Savage (1999), 345 n. 123.
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.WGN Radio Timeline: 1940s–1950s part of the WGN Gold historical website; Chicago Theater of the Air Episode Log part of Jerry Haendiges' Vintage Radio Logs website. Retrieved 11/21/06. 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.Sherlock Holmes Episode Log part of Jerry Haendiges' Vintage Radio Logs website. Retrieved 11/21/06. 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.Dunning (1998), 382. 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.

</section>
</section>
<section id="16302" fatherid="16294" title="1950s: New ownership" lv="" priority="-4" level="2">
<section id="16303" fatherid="16302" title="" lv="" priority="-1" level="3">
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)."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. 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 (Crane, Marie Brenne, "Radio Station KGB and the Development of Commercial Radio In San Diego," Journal of San Diego History, vol. 26, no. 1 winter 1980 (available online)). As detailed above, General Tire in fact acquired Yankee in 1943. Around the same time, MBS acquired the television broadcast s 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 s were sold to NBC in time for the following season's games at an enormous profit.Marshall (1998), 384; Day (2004), 230–231. Note that Marshall and Day 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 s. Day says baseball's contract was solely with Gillette, that it was for both radio and television s, and that Gillette "less than a year after acquiring the broadcast s ... 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 avoiding a financial crisis," but agrees with the prevailing opinion of the players that Chandler "vastly underestimated the value" of the s. The fact, which Day provides, that Mutual sold the package to NBC for $4 million a year lends support to his position.
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 s 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)."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), 150–152. 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."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. That same year, NBC began its attempts to win the television s 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.Cassidy (2005), 41. Mutual might not have had a TV network, but it controlled one of the most profitable properties in the early history of commercial television.Mutual does have a TV network in the realm of imagination. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier -anddocsymbol- Clay, by novelist Michael Chabon, refers to The Escapist, a show starring Peter Graves that ran from 1951 to 1955 on the Mutual Television Network (596).
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).Cox (2002), 178. See also Cox, 127–128, for the 1950 and 1960 figures for the four major networks. Note that in August 1951, the low-powered, baseball-oriented Liberty Broadcasting System (LBS) had 431 affiliates (Garay 1992, 32). 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."Sale of Mutual Expected Today; Radio Network Is Going to Group From West Coast," New York Times, July 17, 1957. 
The network soon changed hands again: in September 1958, it was acquired by the Scranton Corporation."Mutual Network Brings 2 Million; Radio System Is Purchased by Scranton Corporation in Move for Expansion," New York Times, September 12, 1958. 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  with the bills for an increasing number of nonsponsored programs, known as "sustaining" shows in the industry.See Bareiss (1998), 379–382; in particular, 381, for the development of limited sponsorship. 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 .... These people were taking with them the programming that had popularized the radio networks."Garay (1992), 64.
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.Ward (2005), 152–155; "The Price of Publicity," Time, September 14, 1959 (available online). 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.Cox (2002), 127. 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.Jaker et al. (1998), 155. 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."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.

</section>
<section id="16304" fatherid="16302" title="Programming: Korean War and original drama's decline" lv="" priority="2" level="3">
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.Bliss (1991), 258, 259. 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 -wing, bleeding-heart element of television."Doherty (2003), 184.
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.Griffith, Benjamin, "Bob and Ray" entry in the St. James Encyclopedia of Pop Culture (2002). Kate Smith returned in 1958 for her final radio series, which ran from January to August. 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.Garay (1992) says MBS launched its Game of the Day in 1949 (50). Gorman et al. (1994) say it was 1950 (91, 105). 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)." Retrieved 11/23/06. While baseball's World Series and All-Star Game would go to rival NBC in 1957, Mutual secured exclusive national radio s the following year to Notre Dame football, which would remain a cornerstone for the rest of the network's existence."Irish Looks To Continue Ten-Game Home Win Streak" detailed report on Notre Dame Fighting Irish, The Official Athletic Site, September 13, 1999. Note that this source refers to "Mutual/Westwood One" months after Mutual's dissolution had been announced. Retrieved 1/11/07. See also "The Irish Football Network" excerpt from Notre Dame Odyssey, by Herb Juliano; part of the Irish Legends website. Retrieved 1/11/07.

</section>
</section>
<section id="16305" fatherid="16294" title="1960s–1970s: Narrowed focus" lv="" priority="-5" level="2">
<section id="16306" fatherid="16305" title="" lv="" priority="-1" level="3">
In the spring of 1960, the 3M Company stepped in, purchasing Mutual and restoring much-needed stability to the operation."Mutual Network to Be Sold Again; Minnesota Mining Expected to Close Deal This Week," New York Times, April 18, 1960. 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".Cox (2002), 128. 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."Mutual Network Changes Owners; 3M Company Sells System to Newly Formed Group," New York Times, July 10, 1966. 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.Bliss (1991), 62–63. 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.1973 World Book (1973), 479. While the Spanish-language service would be short-lived, by 1974 MBN had 98 affiliates.Thompson (1993), 192 n. 85. It was eventually spun off and acquired by the Sheridan Broadcasting Corporation, leading to the creation of American Urban Radio Networks.American Urban Radio Networks/Company Profile—Leadership. Retrieved 11/24/06. Additional targeted services, such as the Mutual Southwest Network and Mutual Lifestyle Radio, followed from MBS. 
On September 30, 1977, Amway bought the network.New York State Tax Commission ruling August 27, 1981. Retrieved 11/22/06. 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."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, 198. 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. It appeared that Amway was ready to pose a major challenge to the industry leaders.

</section>
<section id="16307" fatherid="16305" title="Programming: Rise of the call-in talk show" lv="" priority="2" level="3">
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."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). 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.
</section>
</section>
<section id="16308" fatherid="16294" title="1980s–1990s: The end of Mutual" lv="" priority="6" level="2">
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.Mutual Radio Theater Log part of Old Time Radio Program Logs.  Retrieved 2/3/07. 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."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. 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.Dunning (1998), 603. In November 1983, Amway sold off Mutual's WCFL flagship to Statewide Broadcasting."Radio Station WCFL Sold to Religious Group," Chicago Tribune, November 4, 1983. A year later, a deal was struck for the sale of WHN to Doubleday Broadcasting."Doubleday to Buy Mutual's WHN," New York Times, October 2, 1984. In 1985, a suitor came calling for the network itself.
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.Westwood One, Inc.—Company History part of the Funding Universe website. Retrieved 11/24/06. In September 1985, Amway sold the network to Westwood One for $39 million."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, 178. "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."Quoted in Westwood One, Inc.—Company History. Retrieved 11/24/06. 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.Lucier (1998). Westwood One was itself taken over by Infinity Broadcasting in 1994."Company News; Westwood One Completes Purchase of Unistar Radio," New York Times, February 5, 1994 (available online). 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."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). 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. 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."Cox (2002), 178–179. See also "Mutual's Riding Off Into Radio Sunset," New York Daily News, April 7, 1999 (reproduced   see bottom of webpage). While this article is useful for its 1999 reportage and quotes, it is filled with errors about MBS history.  Please see the note above at the end of the first paragraph of the 1930s section for details.  The current online edition of the Britannica Concise Encyclopedia mistakenly states that "in radio, where the networks are no longer dominant, there is also i.e., in addition to ABC, CBS, NBC the Mutual Broadcasting System." Aside from the fact that NBC Radio, CBS, and MBS merged in the 1990s, there has not been Mutual for years. See broadcasting entry. Retrieved 11/29/06. 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.WAVA 10 Year "Death Anniversary" e-Reunion testimonial of Westwood One employee Fee Lee. Retrieved 11/24/06.

</section>
</section>
<section id="16309" fatherid="0" title="Legacy" lv="" priority="-3" level="1">
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.Jim Bohannon: America In The Morning About The Show, part of The Jim Bohannon Show website. Retrieved 10/29/09. 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.

</section>
<section id="16310" fatherid="0" title="See also" lv="" priority="-4" level="1">
Shows
(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.)



People

</section>
<section id="16311" fatherid="0" title="Notes" lv="" priority="-5" level="1">
Note: 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 (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 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 (New York: Facts on File/Checkmark, 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.
</section>
<section id="16312" fatherid="0" title="Sources" lv="" priority="-6" level="1">
</section>
<section id="16313" fatherid="0" title="External links" lv="" priority="-7" level="1">
<section id="16314" fatherid="16313" title="" lv="" priority="-1" level="2">
</section>
<section id="16315" fatherid="16313" title="Listening" lv="" priority="-2" level="2">
Category:Companies established in 1934
Category:1999 disestablishments
Category:American radio networks
Category:American cooperatives
Category:Defunct broadcasting companies of the United States
Category:Defunct radio networks in the United States

</section>
</section>
</document>
