Product Details
CompanyColumbia Broadcasting System, Inc.Certificate TypeCommon/Preference StockDate IssuedApril 28, 1969 (red)
June 26, 1972 (blue)
June 23, 1970 (orange)
April 1, 1974 (brown)
December 24, 1971 (green)CanceledYesPrinterAmerican Bank Note CompanySignaturesMachine printedApproximate Size12" (w) x 8" (h)ImagesShow the exact certificate you will receiveGuaranteed AuthenticYesAdditional DetailsNA
Historical Context
CBS can trace its origins to the creation, on January 27, 1927, of the United Independent Broadcasters network. Established by New York City talent agent Arthur Judson, United soon looked for additional investors; the Columbia Phonographic Manufacturing Company (also owners of Columbia Records), rescued the company in April 1927, and as a result, the network was renamed Columbia Phonographic Broadcasting System. Columbia Phonographic went on the air on September 18, 1927, from flagship station WOR in Newark, New Jersey, and 15 affiliates.
Unable to sell enough air time to advertisers, on September 25, 1927, Columbia sold the network for $500,000 to William S. Paley, son of a Philadelphia cigar manufacturer. With Columbia Phonographic's removal, Paley streamlined the corporate name to Columbia Broadcasting System. Paley believed in the power of radio advertising; his family's company had seen their La Palina cigar become a best-seller after young William convinced his elders to advertise it on Philadelphia radio station WCAU.
In November of 1927, Columbia paid $390,000 to A. H. Grebe's Atlantic Broadcasting Company for a small Brooklyn station, WABC, which would become the network's flagship station. WABC was quickly upgraded, and the signal relocated to a stronger frequency, 860 kHz. In 1946 WABC was re-named WCBS; the station moved to a new frequency, 880 kHz, in the Federal Communications Commission's 1941 re-assignment of stations. As the network's flagship, WCBS was where much of CBS's programming originated; other owned-and-operated stations were KNX Los Angeles, KCBS San Francisco, WBBM Chicago, WJSV Washington, DC (later WTOP), KMOX St. Louis, and WCCO Minneapolis.
Later in 1928, another investor, Paramount Pictures Corporation (who ironically would eventually be co-owned with CBS), bought shares in Columbia stock, and for a time it was thought the network would be re-named Paramount Radio. Any chance of further Paramount involvement ended with the Stock Market Crash of 1929; the near-bankrupt studio sold its shares back to CBS in 1932.
As the third national network, CBS soon had more affiliates than either of NBC's two, in part because of a more generous rate of payment to affiliates. NBC's owner and founder of RCA, David Sarnoff, believed in technology, so NBC's affiliates had the latest RCA equipment, and were often the best-established stations, or were on "clear channel" frequencies. But Paley believed in the power of programming, and CBS quickly established itself as the home of many popular musical and comedy stars, among them Bing Crosby, Al Jolson, George Burns, and Gracie Allen. In 1938, NBC and the Columbia Broadcasting System each opened studios in Hollywood to attract top talent to their networks—NBC at Radio City on Sunset and Vine, CBS two blocks away at Columbia Square.
In the hard times of the early 1930s, CBS radio broadened its offerings; having refused an Associated Press (AP) franchise for news, Paley launched an independent news division, shaped in its first years by Paley's vice-president, former New York Times man Ed Klauber, and news director Paul White. Another early hire, in 1935, was Edward R. Murrow, brought in as "Director of Talks." It was Murrow's reports, particularly during the dark days of the London Blitz, which contributed to CBS News's image for on-the-spot coverage. As European news chief and later head of the news division, Murrow assembled a team of reporters and editors that propelled CBS News to the forefront of the industry.
As long as radio was the dominant advertising medium, CBS dominated broadcasting. All through the 1930s and 1940s, CBS programs were often the highest-rated. much-publicized "talent raid" on NBC in the mid-1940s brought Jack Benny, Edgar Bergen, and the Amos 'n' Andy show into the CBS fold. Paley also was an innovator in creating original programming; since broadcasting's earliest days, time had been sold to advertising agencies in half- or full-hour blocks. The agencies, not the networks, would then create the program to fill the time, thus it was "The Johnson's Wax Program, with Fibber McGee & Molly," or "The Pepsodent Show, with Bob Hope." At Paley's urging, beginning in the mid-1940s, CBS began creating its own programs; among the long-running shows that came from this project were You Are There (born as CBS Was There), My Favorite Husband (starring Lucille Ball; the show proved a kind of blueprint for her big CBS television hit I Love Lucy), Our Miss Brooks (whose star, Eve Arden, was encouraged personally by Paley to try out for the title role), Gunsmoke and the Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet. In time this idea was carried further, selling ad time by the minute, so that the agencies no longer had complete control over what went out over Mr. Paley's air.
CBS was slow to move into television; as late as 1950 it owned only one station; radio continued to be the backbone of the company. But gradually, as the television network took shape, the big radio stars began to drift to television. The radio soap opera The Guiding Light became the first television soap when it began to air on CBS in 1950. Burns & Allen made the move in 1950; Lucille Ball a year later; Our Miss Brooks in 1952 (though it continued simultaneously on radio for its full television life). The high-rated Jack Benny radio show ended in 1955, and Edgar Bergen's Sunday-night show went off the air in 1957. But when CBS announced in 1956 that its radio operations had lost money, while the television network had made money, it was clear where the future lay. The last of CBS's daytime serials went off the air November 25, 1960, and prime-time radio ended on September 30, 1962 when a CBS offering, the legendary Suspense. aired for the final time.
After the retirement of talk-show pioneer Arthur Godfrey in 1972, CBS radio programming consisted of hourly news broadcasts, occasional news features, and commentaries, and the nightly CBS Mystery Theater, the lone holdout of old-style programming. The CBS Radio Network continues to this da
