 This is the SF Productions podcast network This is the Columbia broadcasting system away from the pop culture bunker I'm indeed and I'm Mark you can check out our audio podcast how I got my way three comics on iTunes or on our website SF podcast network comm Was recently announced the Sumner Redstone Resigned his chairmanship of CBS. It was about time 92 and reportedly losing his mental faculties Leslie Moonves will move into that position. He's currently president of CBS. He's kind of old too, isn't he? Well, I'm not nearly as old But yeah now this is only the latest in a long twisted history of changes at what was called the Tiffany network Because it was a diamond or something well because it there's two theories one is because they did such high-class shows Originally, okay, and second is that they originally did some of their earliest television broadcasts from a building that Tiffany owned at one point Okay, I don't know. Okay, so it all starts in 1927 when talent agent Arthur Judson forms a united independent broadcasters radio network So if not for some changes, we'll get to in just a second. You could have been watching you I be They almost immediately ran into financial trouble and the Columbia phonograph company saved them basically huge infusion of money Mm-hmm, and it was renamed the Columbia phonograph broadcasting system with a total of 15 affiliates. Oh, wow That's like CPBS CPBS. Yeah, could have been that Only a year later 1928 Columbia wanted out So Judson sold the whole network to the owners of Philadelphia's WCAU radio station Okay, but they didn't want to actually manage it the day-to-day stuff so One of their in-laws who was the 26 year old son of a cigar magnate was put in charge William S. Paley and that name we all recognize. Yes. Well, yeah, should recognize. Yeah So he changed the name again to the Columbia Broadcasting System because the photograph guys were out of it But Columbia sent a classy. Yeah, so they left that in Paley was a big fan of radio ads because it doubled the cigar sales is like radio ads work He then bought out the one of the other other owners and became CPBS's majority stock owner But he then immediately needed money now the reason is all these these money changes going on remember this is at the height of the 1920s bubble right before the Great Depression and just like Right before the Great Recession. There were all these shenanigans going on with financials So he needed money So he sold 49% of the company to paramount pictures and not the last time we'll hear from them Unfortunately, as I mentioned the stock market soon crashed making it necessary for CBS to save the company themselves without You know Cash. Yeah, so how did Paley save CBS? Well You have to understand the concept of sustained versus sponsored shows sustained meaning no sponsor and and you just put it on yourself and You know it you do it what would today be a public affairs show really, okay, and He gave these sustained shows to the affiliates for free While NBC was charging them for the same both of them paid the affiliates to run sponsored shows Okay, all right Many affiliates because of this jumped ship from NBC to CBS making CBS a much more powerful network and Paley also had a gift for finding talent. He signed up Jack many Burns and Allen Kate Smith and Bing Crosby supposedly Bing Crosby from he was on a cruise and he heard But Bing Crosby on a on a record and then like ship to shore and say get this guy a contract. Let's go He concentrated also on daytime programming to sell women's centric products and basically invented the soap opera And this was all still on the radio. This is all on the radio. We're nowhere near television 1930 CBS broadcast a phone call from a prisoner at the Ohio Reformatory in Columbus during a riot Proving the value of live news reporting CBS very quickly then began their own news division which until then were basically tied to an advertiser or tied to a newspaper 1938 a couple things happen CBS buys the parent of Columbia Records, so they bought them back Edward R. Murrow and his boys began early live broadcasts from Europe as the war began And that was the whole thing with him on the rooftops saying this is London Mm-hmm, and then Orson Welles the same year panicked the nation with War of the Worlds in World War two and I thought this was fascinating Newspaper rationing turned radio into the dominant medium because they literally couldn't get enough room in the papers to put enough ads And the advertisers wanted somewhere to put them So they went to radio and then Congress made advertising a tax benefit during the war So companies with nothing to sell like car companies and tire companies who are putting their entire output to the war effort Sponsored radio symphonies and dramas for a tax benefit. I can see that. Yeah. All right. I understand that now 1946 Paley bored with managing the company became chairman and put Frank Stanton in charge 1947 was the talent raid on NBC and This kind of set the stage for modern Production companies Paley offered to buy the names of NBC stars in exchange for a lump sum and a salary Allowing them to pay lower corporate taxes instead of personal taxes And so they basically all became LLCs And paid themselves a dollar a year and paid personal taxes on the dollar But as the as the company they were making tons of money and then since CBS owned their names They couldn't jump ship again supposedly some of the stars asked NBC to match the offer and President general Sarnoff and he was called general because the US Army gave him a you know Unofficial title general because of his work in radar and they're already RCA radar He rebuffed them saying it was un-American to do that So they all went over to CBS By the early 50s TV began to take over from radio, but CBS found themselves a major disadvantages They bought into mechanical TV in the early 1930s, which never caught on yeah, I didn't understand mechanical TV Yeah, I still NBC owned the predominant standard for black and white TV and CBS planned to leapfrog into color TV But that was shut down by the FCC in favor of NBC's Compatible standard the ideas all the equipment have been thrown away including everybody's TVs if they wanted to go To use CBS's method, which was supposedly better Forcing CBS to pay NBC for equipment and patent licensing and influencing them to get into color TV later Because it would cost them money. So they got into color TV later than NBC did So theoretically color TV could have come along much sooner than it did yes CBS also bent heavily on UHF and for people younger than us You probably have no idea what I'm talking about. Yeah, there used to be Channels two through thirteen which were VHF channels and fourteen through eighty-three Which were UHF channels and there were separate little knobs on your TV to change those channels. Yeah Many of their TV affiliates were originally UHF and it took a while for TV sent manufacturers to even put a UHF tuner in Which forced CBS to pay big money for existing VHF stations or to get into markets 1951 Lucille Ball will only move her successful CBS radio show to TV if her band leader husband is the co-star He was apparently sleeping around while on tour CBS had little faith in the show. So they gave them ownership of the show. Oh CBS of course, I love Lucy became an immediate hit with a 73 percent share To give you a basis the top shows on television today are lucky to hit 15. Yeah This is Among other things invented the multi-camera comedy brought in a studio audience for a filmed show created the syndication market and spawned the Desilu Empire which created Star Trek the Untouchables and Mission Impossible among others among many others 1953 Because of the success of I Love Lucy there was now a syndication market CBS spun off a new company CBS films to sell shows into syndication This company would later be called Viacom not the last will hear of them 1955 CBS becomes the number one network a title it will keep until 1976 In the 60s and 70s CBS as many companies did then diversified About among other things Fender guitars and actually started a musical instruments division Holt Reinhardt and Winston publishing which if you've seen if you saw older textbooks Yeah, that was the big company. Yeah faucet publications. It made magazines like Woman's Day the New York Yankees baseball team and toy companies like ideal 1971 the rural purge Whenever I hear rural purge, I think about CBS had been number one for over a decade, but new programming boss Fred Silverman research the numbers find out that many of The viewers were older and in rural areas and they don't change buying habits and they don't spend money at least at that time So all rural based programming was cancelled which meant Beverly Hillbillies Mayberry RFD Petticoat Junction Green Acres he ha they're all out and this was really probably the first demographic Cancelation yeah, absolutely While the decision was questionable It did free up time slots it went to all the family Mary Tyler Moore show Bob Newhart show Mache and Quinn Martin shows like Cannon Barnaby Jones and Kojak You know they're the father of the procedural shows there right it also allowed Silverman to spin off shows from those hits like Rota Mod the Jeffersons and good times. Yes, which put CBS way in the lead Silverman later moved to ABC and put them in first place now. We did a whole episode on Fred Silverman You can check out episode 96 1982 CBS returned to first place with Dallas in the whole who shot JR thing and that led to all these other nighttime soaps, right Plus they got the NCAA tournament away from NBC, which they still have So the whole final for March Madness thing. Yes 1986 CBS drops to third place for the first time more due to hits elsewhere than actual issues at CBS Yeah, but it allowed Lawrence Tish with Paley's help to take over CBS They sell off Columbia records to Sony the back and forth to get rid of Columbia again 1993 CBS finally gets into late night with Letterman show. However, they also lose the NFL, which was on CBS since 1955 to Fox at that point many affiliates moved over from CBS to Fox And they wouldn't get football back for several years when they ended up stealing it away from NBC 1995 Westinghouse after buying out multiple affiliates ends up buying CBS the corporation for 5.4 billion and later changed their name to the CBS corporation 1999 Viacom remember them the tiny company that that CBS spot on the sales indication by CBS for $37 billion so Westinghouse really did well. They they bought it for 5.4. They sold it for 37 They had already bought Paramount Pictures remember them in 1994 in The 2000s they returned to first place with reality shows like Survivor and Big Brother and endless procedurals like CSI Sioux Falls 2005 Viacom splits the company into two the first is CBS Corporation, which includes CBS UPN the later merged with the WB into the CW. Yes, the owned and operated TV stations CBS radio Paramounts TV production arm Viacom's billboards Showtime networks the cable network Simon and Schuster and and Paramount parks like Kings Island. Yes Viacom the second company would own Paramount Pictures the the motion picture arm MTV Networks BET The whole thing is owned by national amusements the company that was until recently run by Sumner Redstone Which takes us back to the present? It's really twisted And I don't know and now it's back to being a network for old people with Ironically limited demographics and liking it that way apparently it's all cyclical. Yes Alright, so you can watch CBS or you can check out our audio podcast How I got my wife treat comics on iTunes or on our website SF podcast network calm from the pop culture bunker And I'm mark. Thanks for watching