The Blue Network was the on-air name of an American radio production and distribution service from 1942 to 1945, which traced its formal origins back to 1927. It was born of a divestiture, arising from anti-trust litigation, of one of the two radio networks owned by the National Broadcasting Company, and is the direct predecessor of American Broadcasting Company.

Early history

The Blue Network can, in one sense, date itself to 1923, when the Radio Corporation of America acquired WJZ, Newark from Westinghouse (which had created the station in 1921 In a publication dated June 1943, the Blue Network itself traced its origins back to the founding of WJZ, as that eventually became the key station of the network. "The Blue Network Today," Blue Network Company, Inc. (New York, 1943), page 1 ) and moved it to New York City in May of that year. When RCA commenced operations of WRC, Washington on August 1, 1923, the root of a network was born, though it did not operate under the name by which it would later become known. Radio historian Elizabeth McLeod states that it would not be until 1924 that the "Radio Group" formally began network operations.

The core stations of the "Radio Group" were RCA's stations WJZ and WRC, the Westinghouse station WBZ, then in Springfield, Massachusetts, and WGY, the General Electric station in Schenectady, New York.