NBC
NBC (formerly an abbreviation for
National Broadcasting Company, its former legal name) is an
American television and
radio network based in
New York City's Rockefeller Center. It is sometimes referred to as the
Peacock Network due to its stylized
peacock logo. The network is now part of the media
conglomerate NBC Universal and supplies programming to more than 200 affiliated U.S. stations. NBC Universal is a unit of
General Electric (GE).
Formed in
1926 and owned up until
2003 by
RCA, control of NBC passed to GE in
1986 following the purchase of the network's original parent. Since this acquisition, the
President and
CEO of NBC has been
Bob Wright.
NBC and rival
CBS have both abandoned the name behind their abbreviations; the Peacock Network's corporate name was shrunk from "National Broadcasting Company, Inc." to "NBC Universal, Inc." following the merger with French
Vivendi Universal's Entertainment division in 2004. NBC still uses the full name during occasional broadcasts, such as its coverage of the
Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. As of 2006,
ABC still has
American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.as its legal name for copyrights, paychecks, contracts and on-air branding, with
ABC, Inc. as the name of the Disney-owned parent company.
Radio
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC)
radio network went on the air with twenty-four affiliated stations on
November 15,
1926. It was owned by
Radio Corporation of America (RCA), itself set up in
1919 to control
Guglielmo Marconi's American patents; RCA in turn was owned by
General Electric Company (GE), the
Westinghouse Electric Corporation, the
United Fruit Company and
American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T).
Earliest Stations: WEAF & WJZ
During a period of early consolidation in the broadcasting business, RCA had acquired New York radio station
WEAF from AT&T. RCA shareholder Westinghouse had a competing facility in Newark, pioneer station
WJZ, which also served as the originating station for a loosely-structured network. This station was transferred from Westinghouse to RCA in 1923, and moved to New York.
WEAF had been a laboratory for AT&T's
Western Electric, which manufactured transmitters and antennas. AT&T's long-distance and local
Bell operating divisions were developing technologies for transmitting voice- and music-grade audio over short and long distances, via both wireless and wired methods. So AT&T's creation of station WEAF in 1922 offered a research-and-development center for these activities. WEAF put together a regular schedule of programs of all types, and created some of the first broadcasts to incorporate commercial endorsements or sponsorships. It was an immediate success, and created links with other stations to offer coverage of sports or political events. WEAF's first efforts in what would become known first as "chain broadcasting" and later as "networking" tied together Outlet Company's
WJAR in
Providence, Rhode Island with AT&T's WCAP in Washington, D.C. (named for the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company division of AT&T).
RCA also saw an advantage in sharing programming, and after getting a license for station
WRC in Washington, D.C. in 1923, attempted to transmit audio between cities via low-quality telegraph lines (since AT&T refused outside companies access to their high-quality phone lines.) The effort was poor at best, with the uninsulated telegraph lines incapable of good audio transmission quality and very susceptible to both atmospheric and man-made electrical interference.
In 1925 the management of AT&T decided that WEAF and its network was not compatible with AT&T's goal of providing a phone service, and offered to sell the station to RCA, whose business was set manufacturing. When RCA bought WEAF, it gained rights to rent AT&T's phone lines for network transmission.
The NBC Red & Blue Networks Are Born
For $1 million, RCA acquired radio station WEAF and a Washington sister-station, WCAP, which it shut down. This transaction accompanied the announcement, in the late summer of
1926, of a new wholly-owned division of RCA called
The National Broadcasting Company. It was actually owned 50% by RCA, 30% by General Electric, and 20% by Westinghouse. The network officially was launched on
November 15 of
that year. WEAF and RCA's WJZ already were the flagship stations of two radio networks, and they operated side-by-side for about a year as part of the new NBC. In 1927 NBC formally divided their respective marketing strategies: the NBC Red Network offered entertainment and music programming from their flagship, WEAF New York (660kHz as of 1928); the NBC Blue Network carried many of the "sustaining" or non-sponsored broadcasts, especially news and cultural programs, and originated from WJZ New York (760 hHz in 1928, 770kHz in 1941).
Legend has it that the color designations originated from the color of the push-pins early engineers used to designate affiliates of WEAF (red pins) and WJZ (blue pins). A similar two-part/two-color strategy appeared in the recording industry, dividing the market between classical and popular offerings. At various times in the 1930s NBC developed additional color designations, with the NBC White, Gold, and Orange networks operating in various configurations in the South, the Midwest and on the West Coast.
NBC became the primary tenant in the brand new
Rockefeller Center project in 1936. It would serve as the home of radio operations, some RCA corporate operations, and RCA-owned
RKO Pictures.
The Chimes
The famous three-note
NBC chimes came about after
several years of development. The three note sequence G-E-C may have been first heard over
WSB in
Atlanta which used it for its own purposes until one day someone at NBC in New York heard the WSB version of the notes during a networked broadcast of a
Georgia Tech football game and asked permission to use it on the national network. NBC started to use the three notes in 1931, and it was the first ever audio trademark to be accepted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. A variant sequence was also used that went G-E-C-G, known as "the fourth chime" and used during wartime (especially in the wake of the
Pearl Harbor bombing), on D-Day, and other disasters. The NBC chimes were mechanized in 1932 by
Richard H. Ranger of the Rangertone company; their purpose was to send a low level signal of constant amplitude that would be heard by the various switching stations manned by NBC and AT&T engineers, and thus used as a system cue for switching different stations between the Red and Blue network feeds. Legend has it that the three musical notes, G-E-C, stand for NBC's then-and-now parent corporation, the
General Electric Company.
New Beginnings: The Blue Network Becomes ABC
From its creation in 1934, the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) had studied the monopolistic effects of network broadcasting on the industry, and found that NBC's two networks and their owned-and-operated stations dominated audiences, affiliates and advertising dollars in American radio. In 1939 the FCC ordered RCA to divest itself of one of the two networks; RCA fought the divestiture order, but divided NBC into two companies in
1940 in case an appeal was lost. The Blue network became the "NBC Blue Network, Inc." (now as
ABC) and the NBC Red became "NBC Red Network, Inc."
With the loss of the final appeal before the United States Supreme Court, RCA sold the NBC Blue Network, Inc. for $8 million to
Lifesavers magnate Edward J. Noble in 1943. For his money Noble got the network name, leases on land-lines and the New York studios, two-and-a half stations (WJZ in Newark/New York, KGO in San Francisco and WENR in Chicago which shared a frequency with "Prairie Farmer" station WLS) and about 60 affiliates. Noble renamed the company "The Blue Network, Inc." but wanted something more memorable. In 1944 he acquired rights to the name "American Broadcasting Company" from
George Storer and the Blue Network became ABC, with the official name change announced on June 15, 1945, after the sale was completed. "NBC Red" reverted to being simply "NBC" when Blue was sold.
Defining Radio's Golden Age
In the golden days of network broadcasting, 1930 to 1950, NBC was the pinnacle of American radio. Home to many of the most popular stars and programs, NBC stations were often the most powerful, or occupied clear-channel frequencies so that they were heard nation-wide. Such well-known stars as
Al Jolson,
Bob Hope,
Jack Benny,
Edgar Bergen and
Fred Allen called NBC home, as did
Arturo Toscanini's
NBC Symphony. NBC also broadcast radio's earliest hit,
Amos 'n' Andy, in its original fifteen-minute serial format that set the standard for just about all serialised programming in the first radio era, whether for comedies or
soap operas.
As television became more popular in the 1950s, many NBC radio stars gravitated there. In 1950, the network sanctioned
The Big Show, a 90-minute radio variety show that harked back to radio's earliest musical variety style but with sophisticated comedy and dramatic presentations and featuring stage legend
Tallulah Bankhead as its host. It aimed to keep classic radio alive as television matured and to challenge
CBS's Sunday night lineup---much of which had jumped there from NBC in the late 1940s, including (and especially) Jack Benny. But
The Big Show's initial success didn't last despite critics' praises; the show endured only two years, with NBC said to lose a million dollars on the project.
NBC Radio's last major programming push, in 1955, was
Monitor, a continuous, all-weekend mixture of music, news, interviews and features with a variety of hosts including such well-known television personalities as
Dave Garroway,
Hugh Downs,
Ed McMahon,
Joe Garagiola and
Gene Rayburn. The potpourri also tried to keep vintage radio alive in featuring segments from Jim and Marian Jordan (in character as
Fibber McGee and Molly),
Ethel & Albert, and iconoclastic satirist
Henry Morgan, among others.
Monitor was a success for a number of years, but after the mid-1960s local stations, especially in larger markets, became increasingly reluctant to break from their established formats to run non-conforming network programming. After
Monitor went off the air in early 1975, there was little left of NBC Radio beyond hourly newscasts and news-related features.
Later in 1975 NBC launched the NBC News and Information Service, which provided up to 55 minutes of news per hour around the clock to local stations that wanted to adopt an all-news format. The service attracted several dozen subscribers, but not enough to allow NBC to project that it would ever become profitable, and it was discontinued after two years. Near the end of the 1970s NBC started "The Source," a modestly successful secondary network that provided news and short features to FM rock stations.
After their 1986 acquisition of NBC, GE decided that the radio business did not fit their strategic objectives. NBC Radio's network operations were sold to
Westwood One, and the NBC-owned stations were sold to various buyers. While the chimes and an hourly newscast still appear on radio at certain times on weekdays, the NBC Radio Network as a programming service ceased to exist in 1989, and became a brand-name on material produced by Westwood One.
Television
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30 Rockefeller Center, also known as the GE Building, is the world headquarters of NBC. |
For many years NBC was closely identified with
David Sarnoff, who used it as a vehicle to sell consumer electronics. It was Sarnoff who ruthlessly stole innovative ideas from competitors, using RCA's muscle to prevail in the courts. RCA and Sarnoff had dictated the broadcasting standards put in place by the FCC in 1938, and stole the spotlight by introducing television to the public at the 1939-40 New York World's Fair. While rivals CBS and DuMont also offered color broadcasting plans, RCA convinced a waffling FCC that its color system should prevail, and in 1953 the FCC agreed; the NBC network was to begin offering color programming within days of the FCC's decision. NBC began broadcasting certain shows in color during the 1950's. In 1956 during a National Association meeting in Chicago, NBC announced that their Chicago TV station - WNBQ (channel 5), was the first color TV station in the nation (a least six hours of color broadcasts a day). The first NBC show to air all episodes in color,
Bonanza, began in the fall of
1959. In 1961 and 1962, NBC-TV offered "Color Weeks" where most of the primetime schedule would be broadcast in color. The event was marked by promotional pushes for RCA Color TV. By
1963, most of NBC's schedule was in color; without television sets to sell, rival networks followed more slowly,
CBS in
1965 and
ABC in
1966.
In
1983, NBC began its new fall season with nine new series. These nine series were:
Bay City Blues,
Boone,
For Love and Honor,
Jennifer Slept Here,
Manimal,
The Rousters,
Mr. Smith,
We Got it Made, and
The Yellow Rose. All nine of them were eventually cancelled before completing a year. This is the only time that a network's entire line of new series has failed to be renewed.
During the
1980s and
1990s, NBC produced several hit television shows and became a leader in comedy. Shows such as
Cheers,
Frasier,
The Cosby Show,
Seinfeld and
Friends would each finish as a season's #1 show at least once, and enjoy success in
syndication afterwards.
It was estimated in
2003 that NBC is viewable by 97.17% of all households, reaching 103,624,370 houses in the United States. NBC has 207 VHF and UHF affiliated stations in the U.S. and U.S. possessions. It is also seen throughout
Latin America and the
Caribbean via cable and satellite via the
WNBC feed. With the loss of
Friends in 2004 NBC was faced with several moderately-rated shows and few true ratings hits. This combined with CBS' popular
CSI franchise, FOX's
American Idol, and ABC hits like
Lost and
Desperate Housewives has led to NBC being currently ranked as the fourth most watched television network in the United States, after CBS, a resurgent ABC, and FOX.
During the 2004-2005 season, NBC became the first major television station to start producing any of its programming in widescreen, in hopes of attracting new viewers. Though NBC did see a slight boost in viewers, NBC didn't get any real ratings rise, for widescreen television is yet to catch on in popular culture.
In December 2005, NBC unleashed its first-ever week-long event,
Deal or No Deal. The game show, hosted by actor-comedian
Howie Mandel stormed to big ratings by the end of its first week-long run and returned for another week in February 2006 before moving into a multi-night shift in March 2006. Having enjoyed sustained success,
Deal or No Deal will return in the fall of 2006 on Monday and Thursday nights.
Children's programming has always played a part in NBC's programming since its initial roots in television. In
1947, NBC's first major children's series was
Howdy Doody, one of the era's first breakthrough television shows. The series, which ran for 13 years, featured a frecklefaced
marionette and a myriad of other characters and hosted by
"Buffalo" Bob Smith. Howdy Doody spent most of its run on weekday afternoons.
In 1956, NBC abandoned the children's programming lineup on weekday afternoons, relegating the lineup to Saturdays only with Howdy Doody as their marquee franchise for the series' remaining four years. Throughout the 1960s until 1992, the bulk of NBC's children's programming were derived from theatrical shorts like
Pink Panther and
Bugs Bunny, reruns of popular television series like
The Flintstones and
The Jetsons, foreign acquisitions like
Astro Boy and
Kimba the White Lion, original animated series (most notably
The Smurfs in the 1980s), popular stars and franchises like
Mr. T. and
ALF, and original live-action series.
In
1989, NBC premiered
Saved by the Bell, which originated at
The Disney Channel as
Good Morning, Miss Bliss.
Saved by the Bell would become one of the most popular teen series in television history as well as the number one series on Saturday mornings, dethroning
The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show in its first season.
NBC abandoned the animated series in
August 1992 in favor of a Saturday edition of
Today and more live-action series under the name
TNBC (
Teen NBC). Most of the series on the TNBC lineup were series produced by
Peter Engel such as
City Guys,
Hang Time,
California Dreams and
One World. Though there were exceptions, the short-lived
Just Deal, one of only two series without a studio audience and/or laugh track and the only "filmed" series was co-created and executive produced by
Thomas W. Lynch.
NBA Inside Stuff was also a part of the TNBC lineup during the duration of the NBA season.
In
2002, NBC began a deal with
Discovery Communications' Discovery Kids channel to air their original FCC-mandated educational programming under the banner
Discovery Kids on NBC. The schedule originally consisted of only live-action series, including a kid-themed version of
Trading Spaces and
J.D. Roth's Emmy-nominated reality game show
Endurance, but has expanded to include some animated series such as
Kenny the Shark,
Tutenstein, and
Time Warp Trio. In 2006, the Discovery Kids deal was allowed to lapse.
In May 2006, in order to replace the Discovery Kids Saturday Morning block, NBC announced plans to launch a new children's block on Saturday mornings starting in September 2006 as part of the
Smart Place for Kids endeavor teaming parent company NBC Universal with
Ion Media Networks,
Scholastic Press,
Corus Entertainment and
Classic Media/
Big Idea. "Smart Place" will include blocks to air on NBC,
Telemundo (the Spanish-language network owned by NBC Universal), and ion Media Networks's
i channel, as well as a 24/7 digital broadcast kids channel, video on demand services and a branded website.
NBC has used a number of logos throughout its history, early logos were similar to the logo of its then parent company,
RCA, but later logos included stylized
peacock images.
Returning comedies are in
red; new comedies are in
pink; returning dramas are in
green; new dramas are in
blue; returning reality and game shows are in
yellow; returning news shows are in
brown; sports programming is in
purple. Scheduled premiere dates are shown in parentheses.
All times are
Eastern and
Pacific (subtract one hour for
Central and
Mountain time). [
1]
| Fall 2006 | 7:00 PM | 7:30 PM | 8:00 PM | 8:30 PM | 9:00 PM | 9:30 PM | 10:00 PM | 10:30 PM | 11:00 PM | 11:30 PM | | Sunday † | Football Night in America (9/10) | Sunday Night Football (9/10) 1 | Local News | Local Programming |
|---|
| Monday | Local Programming | Deal or No Deal (9/18) | Heroes (9/25) | Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (9/18) | The Tonight Show with Jay Leno2 |
|---|
| Tuesday | Friday Night Lights (9/26) | Law & Order: Criminal Intent (NT) (9/19) | Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (9/19) |
|---|
| Wednesday | Twenty Good Years (10/4) | 30 Rock (10/11) | The Biggest Loser 3 (9/20)3 | Kidnapped (9/20) |
|---|
| Thursday | My Name Is Earl (9/21) | The Office (9/21) | Deal or No Deal †† (9/21) | ER †† (9/21) |
|---|
| Friday | Crossing Jordan (NT) (10/20)4 | Las Vegas (10/20)5 | Law & Order (NT) (9/22) |
|---|
| Saturday | Dateline NBC | Drama Repeats | Drama Repeats | Saturday Night Live (9/23) (to 1:01 AM)|}
*(NT) - New Time
*† - Sunday lineup airs live across the country (starting at 7 PM Eastern/6 PM Central/5 PM Mountain/4 PM Pacific)
*†† - Deal or No Deal (US game show) (Thursday) ends and ER begins at 9:59 PM ET/PT, 8:59 PM CT/MT
Medium and Scrubs are scheduled to return as midseason shows
1 The NFL Kickoff game will air Thursday, Sep. 7.
2 Followed by Late Night with Conan O'Brien (12:35 AM) and Last Call with Carson Daly (1:35)
3 Will air for 2 hours starting at 8:00 on 9/20 and 9/27
4 Additional episodes of "Deal or No Deal" will air in the timeslot from 9/22 through 10/13.
5 "Dateline NBC" specials will air in the timeslot from 9/22 through 10/13 NBC News currently has the highest rated evening news program (NBC Nightly News) and the highest rated morning show program (The Today Show).NBC News has a deal with BBC News (The British Broadcasting Corparation's News), they exchange sources and put each other's 'daily' news on at night.NBC Nightly News is shown on CNBC Europe. NBC is not shown outside the Americas on a channel in its own right. However, both NBC News and MSNBC are shown for a few hours a day on Orbit News in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. MSNBC is also shown occasionally on sister network CNBC Europe during breaking news.NBC Super Channel becomes NBC EuropeIn 1993, the Pan-European cable network Super Channel was taken over by General Electric, the parent of NBC, and became NBC Super Channel. In 1996, the channel was renamed NBC Europe, but was, from then on, almost always referred to as simply "NBC" on the air.
Most of NBC Europe's prime time programming was produced in Europe, but after 11PM Central European Time on weekday evenings, the channel aired The Tonight Show, Late Night with Conan O'Brien and Saturday Night Live, hence its slogan "Where the Stars Come Out at Night." Most NBC News programs were broadcast on NBC Europe, including Dateline NBC and NBC Nightly News, which was aired live. The Today Show was also initially shown live in the afternoons, but was later broadcast the following morning instead, by which time it was more than half a day old. NBC Europe stopped broadcasting in 1998.
* NBC News
* NBC Sports
* Must See TV
* List of programs broadcast by NBC
* List of United States television networks
* List of NBC affiliates
* List of NBC slogans
* Lists of corporate assets
* NBC chimes
* Brandon Tartikoff, Old NBC executive*NBC Television official site
*Museum of Broadcast Communications - NBC History
*1947 Video - Behind Your Radio Dial: The Story of NBC
*NBC corporate archive at the Wisconsin Historical Society - The original NBC office files from 1921-1955 (1.2 million documents, 3100 audio recordings)
*Screen captures of NBC logos past and present as well as footage of vintage promos
*NBC press releases and photos on NBC Universal Media Village
*Rockefeller Center (NBC's '30 Rock' headquarters building) official site
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