November 15, 1926…The First NBC Radio Broadcast, Part 2

The Basis Of The Red And Blue Networks

In part one, we laid out the important basics of how all this came to be, so if you haven’t read that, go there first and this will make a lot more sense.

Many believe that NBC created the first radio network but that is not exactly the case. As we saw in Part 1, AT&T’s first network radio broadcast was January 4, 1923 between WEAF in NYC and WNAC in Boston. RCA’s first network broadcast was in December of 1923 between WJZ in NYC and General Electric’s station WGY in Schenectady.

Below are some very interesting images from those first days of network radio. The first shows the WEAF Network which would in 1926 become the basis for the NBC Red Network. There are 17 stations on the network.

The second photo shows the performers on one of network radios first shows and was broadcast on the WEAF network. The star of the show is on the far right…that’s Will Rogers with The Waldorf Astoria Orchestra on ‘The Eveready Hour’ in 1923.

The next image shows the WJZ Network which had only four stations. This was the basis for the NBC Blue Network. The final image is a shot from the very cozy WJZ studios of one of their first network broadcasts.

More on all five of the early NBC networks in Part 3. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

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