Скачать или смотреть BW - EP90—005: The Hollywood Radio Western Boom—When Jack Benny Helped Make CBS The #1 Network

Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakers

This episode was originally released 04/2019.

Network radio opened the 1948-49 season fresh off its 14th consecutive year of record earnings, but television’s market surge had begun.

By December of 1948 more than 10,000 homes were turning on TV sets each month. In early 1949 that number would avalanche and soon over a million US homes had TVs.

It’s no coincidence that collectively, the top 50 rated radio shows lost an average of a million listeners.

In 1948 CBS had the country’s highest rated program, The Lux Radio Theater, but the network was still lacking the prestige of NBC thanks to NBC’s cavalcade of big stars.

At this time, stars operating as employees were taxed 77% of all yearly earnings over $70,000. Paley’s accountants figured out that by having the stars incorporate as businesses and sell their shows to the network, they could be taxed at 25% under Capital Gains laws, saving millions.

Paley borrowed $5 million from Prudential Insurance. His first target was Amos n Andy. Charles Correll and Freeman Gosden sold their show to CBS in September for $2 Million.

In late autumn, the biggest domino fell.

Jack Benny was unhappy with his NBC arrangement. His agent Lew Wasserman organized his activities into a corporation called Amusement Enterprises, Inc. Paley and Wasserman negotiated an agreement for CBS to buy Amusement Enterprises for $2.26 Million.

When William Paley heard that NBC president Niles Trammel was on his way to California to negotiate, Paley called Benny direct, asking to meet.

Benny was excited. He told Paley to come out to Los Angeles to talk in person, mentioning that if Benny jumped, so would a bunch of other disgruntled NBC stars.

The show’s sponsor, American Tobacco, was less convinced. From October through December in 1948, Benny’s NBC rating averaged 22.7.

Paley personally brokered a deal in which CBS would refund American Tobacco $1000 for every tenth of a ratings point The Jack Benny Program lost on CBS.

Floored at his willingness to offer such a proposal, all parties agreed to the deal. Head of NBC David Sarnoff never personally met with Jack Benny during the negotiations. Shortly before Christmas, William Paley offered his affiliated stations glad tidings in the form of a closed circuit press conference announcing Benny’s switch to CBS. Benny’s rating in January of 1949 was 28.3, tops on radio.

#jackbenny #podcast #radio #oldtimeradio #retro #americana #luckystrike #goldenageofhollywood #1940s #radiodrama #audiofiction #ushistory #history #theflintstones #midcentury #benny #otr #goldenageofradio #audiofiction #sitcom #1945 #christmas #worldwar2 #worldwarii #1946 #christmas1945 #christmas #peterLorre #goodmanace #fredallen #comedy #vaudeville #palmsprings #isaacstern #violin #mendelssohn #ronaldcolman #dennisday #peterlorre #raymilland #vanjohnson #ingridbergman #cbs #nbc