[78-L] same or similiar

[Elizabeth McLeod]

Basically, the situation between Columbia and United Independent 
Broadcasters was that Columbia Phonograph bought $100,000 worth of air 
time from Judson's partner George Coats  before the network went on the 
air, with the idea of reselling it to other sponsors. The Columbia 
Phonograph Broadcasting Company was set up as a paper corporation to 
manage these sales, and actually had no other connection with UIB. But 
because Columbia was going to act as the main sales agent for the 
project, they convinced Coats and Judson to use the "Columbia 
Broadcasting System" as the on-air name.

Columbia found, however, that it couldn't sell the time, and ended up 
bailing out of the project before the sign-on in September 1927. But by 
then publicity about the "Columbia Broadcasting System" had already gone 
out and it was too late to bother changing the name, so it went out that 
way. There is no evidence that "Phonograph" was ever part of any on-air 
identification, and a good bit of evidence that it wasn't, despite what 
many authors have claimed.

What's often forgotten is that between Columbia's bailout and the arrival 
of Paley, Coats -- who was a con man of Kingfish-like proportions -- 
managed to convince Philadelphia sportsman Jerome Louchheim to pump 
several million dollars into the project to keep it going into the middle 
of 1928. During this period there were actually three separate 
corporations involved -- UIB, which managed the technical operations of 
the network, Columbia Broadcasting Company, which handled time sales, and 
Judson Program Service, which managed talent. It was a clumsy, bungling 
sort of enterprise which operated for over a year as little more than a 
blind for Coats's bogus stock promotions before Paley came along with his 
own millions, paid off Louccheim, ran Coats out the door, and merged the 
three corporations into the one Columbia Broadcasting System. Judson 
retained a minority interest in the new enterprise, and the Judson 
Program Service continuted as a sub-office of CBS at least into the early 
thirties, as their equivalent to the NBC Artists Bureau.

Elizabeth

>I don't understand your conflict of interest comment, because Arthur
>Judson was one of the founders of United Independent Broadcasters prior
>to the investment of Columbia Records which lent its name to the network
>run by United.  When Bill Paley bought in about a year later he dropped
>the United name and used the Columbia name for both the company and the
>network.  Judson was largely out of the network when he began his
>syndication company, but who did you expect him to use for his
>pressings?   The sister company of NBC, RCA Victor?????      
>
>So while there was a real connection between the use of the name
>Columbia between the broadcaster and the record company, and none with
>the bycycle, likewise there was no connection between the Victor
>projector and record company.  But there was some confusion.  Steve
>Allen wrote about it in an article that he reprinted in one of his
>books.  When he asked "Why 'Victor'?" on his TV show, I think that he
>wrote that he got a letter from the founder of the projector company
>whose name was Victor, who wrote that he had been a friend of Eldridge
>Johnson and that Nipper was HIS dog, and that Johnson had borrowed his
>name and his dog's image!    
>
>Mike Biel   mbiel at mbiel.com  
>
>
>
>From: "Don Chichester" <dnjchi78 at live.com>
>>>> As well as Columbia Phonographs and Columbia bicycles.
>Steven C. Barr wrote:
>>> and the Columbia Broadcasting System (which apparently was
>>> so named because Columbia Records provided financial
>>> assistance at their start...?!)
>From: David Lennick <dlennick at sympatico.ca>
>> Yup..they pulled out before the network actually got on the air
>> but left their name behind. And Columbia pressed for Arthur
>> Judson's syndicated broadcasts (he also booked the talent for CBS
>>..no conflict of interest that I can see, none whatsoever).  dl
>
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