[78-L] Amalgamated Broadcasting System

[David Lennick]

Why does Gross not even mention Gygi by name in his 4-page account of the 
fiasco in "I Looked and I Listened"? All other details are there..fascinating 
stuff.

On 2/4/2011 3:10 PM, David Lennick wrote:
> I know it's from WackyPackia but it cites impeccable sources, so let's quote
> the ABS story here.
>
> :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
>
> The Amalgamated Broadcasting System (ABS) was a radio network established on
> September 25, 1933 by two men: American comedian and radio star Ed Wynn, the
> "Fire Chief" of the original Fire Chief Program program on NBC and CBS; and
> Hungarian-born violinist Ota Gygi.
>
> Wynn had been concerned with two things: his own perilous-seeming future as an
> entertainer and the power the already-established networks had over the
> programming policies of their local affiliate stations. He hoped that ABS would
> serve as an alternative as well as helping him establish a more secure future
> for himself and his family, according to radio historian Elizabeth McLeod.
>
> In fact, Wynn poured his entire personal savings as well as his reputation into
> the project, then put together an investment group and bought New York station
> WBNX as its planned flagship, hoping to establish a 100-station network in due
> course. The investment team also looked to WOL Washington, WPEN Philadelphia,
> WHDH Boston and WCFL Chicago among planned key affiliates. The new network went
> on the air with a four-hour gala from WBNX's newly-built New York studios on
> September 25, 1933---even as Wynn was preparing a new season of The Fire Chief
> Program.
>
> Wynn, however, was also due to Hollywood to make a new film and put Gygi in
> charge of the network in his absence. That, McLeod wrote, proved the biggest
> mistake of his career, if not his life. At a press conference launching the new
> ABS, Gygi "managed to alienate almost the entire New York City press corps,"
> McLeod wrote, "by announcing . . . that he was only interested in what the New
> York Times thought of the project and had no use for any of the other papers."
> That irked then-powerful New York Daily News radio critic Ben Gross, whose lead
> in attacking the apparent ABS attitude was picked up by his peers---and by
> advertisers whom Gygi reportedly alienated by positioning ABS toward treating
> advertising as "a necessary but distasteful evil," McLeod continued. ABS would
> allow no advertiser mention other than at the beginning and end of programs and
> no advertising spots during any programs. That was commercial radio's original
> policy until NBC and CBS abandoned it as the 1930s progressed, McLeod noted,
> leaving ABS stranded for attracting top quality programming without big money
> advertisers to sponsor it.
>
> That attitude plus its weak organisation in Wynn's absence killed the project.
> Amalgamated went out of business on October 28, 1933, only five weeks after its
> first broadcast. Wynn had ended his association with ABS by that time but he
> had also vowed to repay his investors---their loss was over $300,000, according
> to McLeod---and that pressure, plus the end of The Fire Chief Program and his
> marital trouble two years later, helped drive the comedian toward a nervous
> breakdown by the end of the 1930s.
>
> A much more successful alternative network, the Mutual Broadcasting System, was
> established on September 29, 1934. Mutual was inspired in large part from the
> ideas behind Amalgamated, and in fact had one of Amalgamated's planned key
> affiliates, WXYZ Detroit, as one of its charter stations. A recording of ABS's
> launch gala is believed to survive and circulate among history-minded old-time
> radio fans.
>
> The film The Great Man (1956), which has a broadcasting background and features
> Wynn in a supporting role, is centered on a fictional network known as the
> "Amalgamated Broadcasting System".
> [edit] References
>
>       * Elizabeth McLeod, Tonight The Program's Gonna Be Different: The Life and
> Times of Ed Wynn, the Fire Chief
>       * The Museum of Broadcast Communications, The Encyclopedia of Radio
>
>
> dl
>
> On 2/4/2011 12:38 PM, Elizabeth McLeod wrote:
>>
>>
>> on 2/4/11 12:05 PM David Lennick wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> I think they all went out to get drunk around 10 o'clock and left somebody
>>> patching in remotes and whoever was still hanging around the studio.
>>> Around the
>>> last 45 minutes things start to pick up again, with a couple of live
>>> speakers
>>> and two cut-ins from Rex Stewart which are actually worth keeping.
>>>
>>
>> What I've never understood is why we were denied the opportunity of
>> hearing an Ota Gygi violin solo. It would have been sublime to see what
>> Ben Gross would have written about that.
>>
>> Elizabeth