CBS Broadcasting Inc. (
CBS) is an American
radio and
television network. The name is derived from the initials of
Columbia Broadcasting System, its former legal name. The network is sometimes referred to as the
Tiffany Network, which alludes to the high perceived quality of CBS programming during the tenure of its founder
William S. Paley (1927-1990).
It can also refer to some of CBS's first demonstrations of
color television, which were held in a former
Tiffany & Co. building in New York City in 1950.
[According to a New York Times piece on November 9, 1950, "the first local public demonstrations of color television will be initiated Tuesday by the Columbia Broadcasting System. Ten color receivers are being installed on the ground floor of the former Tiffany building at 401 Fifth Avenue, near Thirty-seventh Street, where several hundred persons can be accommodated for each presentation."]
The network has its origins in United Independent Broadcasters Inc., a collection of 16 radio stations that was bought by William S. Paley in 1928 and renamed the Columbia Broadcasting System. Under Paley's guidance, CBS would first become one of the largest radio networks in the United States and then one of the big three American broadcast television networks. In 1939, it became the television arm of
Columbia Pictures. In 1974, CBS dropped its full name and became known simply as
CBS, Inc. The
Westinghouse Electric Corporation acquired the network in 1995 and eventually adopted the name of the company it had bought to become
CBS Corporation. In 2000, CBS came under the control of
Viacom, which coincidentally had begun as a spin-off of CBS in 1971. In late 2005, Viacom split itself and reestablished
CBS Corporation with the CBS television network at its core. CBS Corporation and the new Viacom are controlled by
Sumner Redstone through
National Amusements, the parent of the two companies.
History
Early years
The origins of CBS date back to the creation, on January 21, 1927 in Chicago, of the "United Independent Broadcasters" network. Established by New York talent agent
Arthur Judson, United soon looked for additional investors; the Columbia Phonographic Manufacturing Company (also owners of
Columbia Records), rescued the company in April 1927, and as a result, the network was renamed "Columbia Phonographic Broadcasting System." Columbia Phonographic went on the air on September 18, 1927, from flagship station WOR in Newark, New Jersey, and 15 affiliates.
Unable to sell enough air time to advertisers, on September 25, 1927, Columbia sold the network for $500,000 to
William S. Paley, son of a Philadelphia cigar manufacturer. With Columbia Phonographic's removal, Paley streamlined the corporate name to "Columbia Broadcasting System". Paley believed in the power of radio advertising; his family's company had seen their "La Palina" cigar become a best-seller after young William convinced his elders to advertise it on Philadelphia station
WCAU.
In November 1927, Columbia paid $410,000 to
A.H. Grebe's
Atlantic Broadcasting Company for a small Brooklyn station, WABC, which would become the network's
flagship station. WABC was quickly upgraded, and the signal relocated to a stronger frequency, 860
kHz. (In 1946, WABC was re-named
WCBS; the station moved to a new frequency, 880 kHz, in the FCC's 1941 reassignment of stations.) It was where much of CBS's programming originated; other owned-and-operated stations were
KNX Los Angeles,
KCBS San Francisco (originally KQW),
WBBM Chicago,
WJSV Washington, DC (later WTOP, which moved to the FM dial in 2005; the AM facility today is
WWWT, also a CBS Radio affiliate),
KMOX St. Louis, and
WCCO Minneapolis. These remain the core affiliates of the
CBS Radio Network today, with
WCBS still the flagship, and all except WTOP and WWWT (both
Bonneville Broadcasting properties) owned by CBS Radio.
Later in 1928, another investor,
Paramount Pictures (who ironically would eventually be co-owned with CBS, see below), bought Columbia stock, and for a time it was thought the network would be renamed "Paramount Radio". Any chance of further Paramount involvement ended with the
1929 stock market crash; the near-bankrupt studio sold its shares back to CBS in 1932.
As the third national network, CBS soon had more affiliates than either of
NBC's two, in part because of a more generous rate of payment to affiliates. NBC's owner and founder of RCA, David Sarnoff, believed in technology, so NBC's affiliates had the latest RCA equipment, and were often the best-established stations, or were on "
clear channel" frequencies. Paley believed in the power of programming, and CBS quickly established itself as the home of many popular musical and comedy stars, among them
Bing Crosby,
Al Jolson,
George Burns &
Gracie Allen, and
Kate Smith. In 1938, NBC and CBS each opened studios in Hollywood to attract movieland's top talent to their networks – NBC at Radio City on Sunset and Vine, CBS two blocks away at
Columbia Square.
In the hard times of the early 1930s, CBS radio broadened its offerings; having refused an
AP franchise for news, Paley launched an independent news division, shaped in its first years by Paley's vice-president, former
New York Times man Ed Klauber, and news director Paul White. Another early hire, in 1935, was
Edward R. Murrow, brought in as "Director of Talks." It was Murrow's reports, particularly during the dark days of the
London Blitz, which contributed to CBS News' image for on-the-spot coverage. As European news chief and later head of the news division, Murrow assembled a team of reporters and editors that propelled CBS News to the forefront of the industry.
On October 30, 1938, CBS gained a taste of infamy when
Orson Welles and the
Mercury Theatre broadcast an adaptation of
H. G. Wells'
The War of the Worlds. Its unique format, a contemporary version of the story in the form of
faux news broadcasts, had many CBS listeners panicked into believing invaders from
Mars were actually devastating
Grovers Mill,
New Jersey, despite three disclaimers during the broadcast that it was a work of fiction. CBS would later revive the format for television in the 1990s for
Without Warning, which told the story of asteroids crashing to Earth, but the television format allowed for disclaimers to air at every commercial break, avoiding a replay of what happened in 1938.
Also in 1938, CBS bought
American Record Corporation, the parent of its former investor
Columbia Records.
Before the onset of
World War II, CBS recruited
Edmund A. Chester from his position as Bureau Chief for Latin America at
Associated Press to serve as Director of Latin American Relations and Director of Short Wave Broadcasts for the CBS radio network (1940). In this capacity, Mr. Chester coordinated the development of the
Network of the Americas (La Cadena de las Americas) with the
Department of State, the
Office for Inter-American Affairs (as chaired by
Nelson Rockefeller) and
Voice of America. This network provided vital news and cultural programming throughout South America and Central America during the crucial World War II era and fostered benevolent diplomatic relations between the United States of America and the less developed nations of the continent. It featured such popular radio broadcasts as
Viva America [1] which showcased leading musical talent from both North and South America
accompanied by the
CBS Pan American Orchestra under the musical direction of
Alfredo Antonini. The post war era also marked the beginning of CBS's dominance in the field of radio as well
[Columbia Broadcasting System]
As long as radio was the dominant advertising medium, CBS dominated broadcasting. All through the 1950s and 1960s, CBS programs were often the highest-rated. A much-publicized "talent raid" on NBC in the mid-1940s brought
Jack Benny,
Edgar Bergen and
Amos 'n' Andy into the CBS fold. Paley also was an innovator in creating original programming; since broadcasting's earliest days, time had been sold to advertising agencies in half- or full-hour blocks. The ad agencies, not the networks, would then create the program to fill the time, thus it was " 'The Johnson's Wax Program', with
Fibber McGee & Molly", or " 'The
Pepsodent Show', with
Bob Hope." At Paley's urging, beginning in the mid-1940s, CBS began creating its own programs; among the long-running shows that came from this project were
You Are There (born as
CBS Was There),
My Favorite Husband (starring
Lucille Ball; the show proved a kind of blueprint for her big CBS television hit
I Love Lucy),
Our Miss Brooks (whose star,
Eve Arden, was encouraged personally by Paley to try out for the title role),
Gunsmoke and
The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet. In time this idea was carried further, selling ad time by the minute, so ad agencies no longer had complete control over what went out over "Paley's air".
CBS moved at a deliberate pace into
television; as late as 1950 it owned only one station;
radio continued to be the backbone of the company. Gradually, as the television network took shape, big radio stars began to drift to television. The radio
soap opera The Guiding Light moved to television in 1952 and still airs today; Burns & Allen made the move in 1950; Lucille Ball a year later;
Our Miss Brooks in 1952 (though it continued simultaneously on radio for its full television life). The high-rated
Jack Benny radio show ended in 1955, and Edgar Bergen's Sunday-night show went off the air in 1957. When CBS announced in 1956 that its radio operations had lost money, while the television network had made money, it was clear where the future lie. When the soap opera
Ma Perkins went off the air November 25, 1960 only eight, relatively minor series remained. Prime-time radio ended on September 30, 1962, when the legendary
Suspense aired for the final time.
After the retirement of talk-show pioneer
Arthur Godfrey in 1972, CBS radio programming consisted of hourly news broadcast and an extensive schedule of news features, known in the 1970s as Dimension, and commentaries, including the well received Spectrum series of commentaries which evolved into the Point/Counterpoint feature on the television network's 60 Minutes and First Line Report, a well-regarded news and analysis feature delivered by CBS correspondents and offered to the CBS radio stations. The network also continued to offer traditional radio programming through its nightly "CBS Mystery Theater", the lone holdout of old-style programming. The
CBS Radio Network continues to this day, but offers primarily its well-regarded newscasts, including its centerpiece World News Roundup in the morning and evening and news-related features like "The Osgood File" and "
Harry Smith Reporting" as well as other talk properties like "
Opie and Anthony"
The television years: expansion and growth
CBS's first television broadcasts were experimental, often only for one hour a day, and reaching a limited area in and around New York City (over station W2XAB channel 2, later called WCBW and finally WCBS-TV). To catch up with rival RCA, CBS bought Hytron Laboratories in 1939, and immediately moved into set production and color broadcasting. Though there were many competing patents and systems, RCA dictated the content of the
FCC's technical standards, and grabbed the spotlight from CBS,
DuMont and others by introducing television to the general public at the
1939 New York World's Fair. The FCC began licensing commercial television stations on July 1, 1941; the first license went to RCA and NBC's WNBT (now
WNBC); the second license, issued that same day, was to WCBW, (now
WCBS). CBS-Hytron offered a practical color system in 1941, but it was not compatible with the black-and-white standards set down by RCA. In time, and after considerable dithering, the FCC rejected CBS's technology in favor of by RCA.
During the
World War II years, commercial television broadcasting was reduced dramatically. Toward the end of the war, commercial television began to ramp up again, with an increased level of programming evident in the 1945–1947 period on the three New York television stations which operated in those years (the local stations of NBC, CBS and DuMont) But as RCA and DuMont raced to establish networks and offer upgraded programming, CBS lagged, advocating an industry-wide shift and re-start to UHF for their incompatible (with black and white) color system. Only in 1950, when NBC was dominant in television and black and white transmission was widespread, did CBS begin to buy or build their own stations (outside of New York) in Los Angeles, Chicago and other major cities. Up to that point, CBS programming was seen on such stations as KTTV Channel 11 in Los Angeles, which CBS--as a bit of insurance and to guarantee program clearance in Los Angeles--quickly purchased a 50% interest in. CBS then sold their interest in KTTV and purchased outright Los Angeles pioneer station KTSL (Channel 2) in 1950, renaming it KNXT (after CBS' existing Los Angeles radio property, KNX), later to become KCBS. The "talent raid" on NBC of the mid-forties had brought over established radio stars; they now became stars of CBS television as well. One reluctant CBS star refused to bring her radio show, "My Favorite Husband", to television unless the network would re-cast the show with her real-life husband in the lead. Paley and network president
Frank Stanton had so little faith in the future of
Lucille Ball's series, re-dubbed
I Love Lucy, that they granted her wish and allowed the husband,
Desi Arnaz, to take financial control of the production. This was the making of the Ball-Arnaz
Desilu empire, and became the template for series production to this day.
In the late 1940s, CBS offered imaginative and historic live television coverage of the proceedings
United Nations General Assembly(1949). This journalist tour-de-force was under the direction of
Edmund A. Chester, who was appointed to the post of Director for News, Special Events and Sports at CBS Television in 1948. The broadcast clearly underscored CBS's long term commitment to excellence in broadcast journalism in the post World War II era.
As television came to the forefront of American entertainment and information, CBS dominated television as it once had radio. In 1953, the CBS television network would make its first profit
[Paley, William S], and would maintain dominance on television between the years 1955 and 1976 as well
By the late 1950s, the network often controlled seven or eight of the slots on the "top ten" ratings list. This would continue for many years, with CBS bumped from first place only by the rise of
ABC in the mid-1970s. Perhaps because of its status as the top-rated network, during the late 1960s and early 1970s CBS felt freer to gamble with controversial properties like the
Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and
All in the Family and its many spinoffs during this period.
One of CBS's most critically acclaimed and popular shows at that time was
M*A*S*H, a
dramedy based on the hit
Robert Altman film. It ran from 1972-1983, and was set, like the
film, during the Korean War in a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital. The final episode aired on February 28, 1983 and was 2½ hours long. It was viewed by nearly 106 million Americans (77% of viewership that night) which established it as the most watched episode in United States television history, a record which still stands.
William Paley was a buyer of art, and a backer of New York's
Museum of Modern Art. CBS offices were filled with original works. Paley shared this interest with Frank Stanton (1908-2006), CBS President (1946–1971), who carried this belief over into the design elements surrounding the network. When CBS bought Los Angeles station KNX in 1936 for a west-coast production headquarters, Frank Stanton demanded that architect
William Lescaze be hired to create
Columbia Square, a distinctive, modern broadcasting center on Sunset Boulevard. Similarly, when CBS commissioned
Eero Saarinen to design a new corporate center in New York in the 1960s, Stanton supervised every aspect of the project, even dictating what could be displayed in employee offices and on desktops. This belief in art, graphics and branding carried over to such things as the CBS Television's logo, the unblinking eye logo (designed by
William Golden and introduced in 1951). An example of CBS's graphic-design particularity: on all official CBS letterhead, a tiny dot (at most a
point in diameter) was pre-printed to indicate to a secretary where the typewriter carriage should be positioned for the salutation of a letter. Golden's successor as Creative Director,
Lou Dorfsman, worked with Dr. Stanton to develop the CBS Inc. corporate look that survives to this day.
Color telecasts
Although CBS-TV was the first with a working color television system, they lost out to
RCA in 1953, due in part because the CBS color system was incompatible with existing black-and-white sets. Although
RCA (parent company of
NBC) made its color system available to CBS, the network was not interested in boosting
RCA's profits and only televised a few specials in color for the rest of the decade. The specials included the
Ford Star Jubilee programs (which included the first telecast ever of the 1939 film classic
The Wizard of Oz), the 1957 telecast of
Rodgers and Hammerstein's
Cinderella,
Cole Porter's 1958 musical version of
Aladdin, and
Playhouse 90s only color broadcast, the 1958 production of The Nutcracker. Beginning in 1959, The Wizard of Oz
, now telecast as a family special in its own right (after the cancellation of Ford Star Jubilee
), became an annual tradition on color TV.
By the early 1960s, CBS-TV was void of transmitting anything in color—save for a few specials and only if the sponsor would pay for it.
Red Skelton was the first CBS host to telecast his weekly programs in color, using a converted movie studio, in the early 1960s; he tried unsuccessfully to persuade the network to use his facility for other programs, then was forced to sell it. Color was being pushed hard by rival
NBC. Even
ABC-TV had several color programs in 1962. One famous CBS-TV special made during this era was the tour of the White House with First Lady Jackie Kennedy. It was, however, shown in black-and-white. This would all change by the mid-1960s, when market pressure forced CBS-TV to add color programs to the regular schedule for the 1965–66 season. By 1973, all of CBS's TV programs were being shown in color, as they were on
NBC and
American Broadcasting Company (ABC).
The conglomerate
During the 1960s, CBS began an effort to diversify, and looked for suitable investments. In 1965, it acquired
electric guitar maker
Fender from
Leo Fender, who agreed to sell his company due to health problems. The purchase also included that of
Rhodes electric pianos, which had already been acquired by Fender. This and other acquisitions led to a restructuring of the corporation into various operating groups and divisions.
In other diversification attempts, CBS would buy (and later sell) sports teams (especially the
New York Yankees baseball club), book and magazine publishers (
Fawcett Publications including
Woman's Day, and
Holt, Rinehart and Winston), map-makers, toy manufacturers (Gabriel Toys, Child Guidance, Wonder Products), and other properties.
As William Paley aged, he tried to find the one person who could follow in his footsteps. Over the years any number of accomplished, successful businessmen were recruited, loudly praised to the press, only later to be summarily dismissed. By the mid-1980s, the investor
Laurence Tisch had begun to acquire substantial holdings in CBS. Eventually he gained Paley's confidence, and then his blessing, taking control of CBS in 1986. But Tisch had no dreams of quality or of "Tiffany" networks; he expected a return on his investment.
When CBS faltered, under-performing units were given the axe. Among the first properties to go, and among the most prestigious, was the
CBS Records group, which had been part of the company since 1938. Tisch also shut down in 1986 the
CBS Technology Center in
Stamford, CT, which had started in New York City in the 1930s as
CBS Laboratories and evolved to be the company's technology
R&D unit.
CBS Records group
CBS Records was a record label group (as Columbia Records in the US and Canada) owned by CBS since 1938. CBS sold CBS Records to the Japanese
conglomerate Sony in 1988 initiating the Japanese buying spree of US companies (
MCA,
Pebble Beach,
Rockefeller Center,
Empire State Building, et al.) that continued into the 1990s and the record label company was re-christened
Sony Music Entertainment in 1991, as
Sony had a short term license on the CBS name. Eventually the entity known as Sony Music Entertainment would become
Sony BMG Music Entertainment when Sony and
BMG merged in 2004.
Sony purchased from
EMI its rights to the Columbia Records name outside the US, Canada and Japan. Sony BMG now uses Columbia Records as a label name in all countries except Japan, where Sony Records remains their flagship label.
CBS Corporation revived
CBS Records in 2006.
CBS Musical Instruments division
Forming the CBS Musical Instruments division, the company also acquired
Steinway pianos,
Gemeinhardt flutes,
Lyon & Healy harps,
Rodgers (institutional) organs,
Gulbransen home organs, Electro-Music Inc. (
Leslie speakers), and
Rogers drums. The last musical purchase was the 1981 acquisition of the assets of then-bankrupt
Arp Instruments, developer of electronic
synthesizers.
Between 1965 and 1985 the quality of Fender guitars and amplifiers declined significantly. Encouraged by outraged Fender fans, CBS Musical Instruments division executives executed a leveraged buyout in 1985 and created
FMIC, the Fender Musical Instrument Corporation. At the same time, CBS divested itself of Rodgers, along with Steinway and Gemeinhardt, all of which were purchased by Steinway Musical Properties. The other musical instruments properties were also liquidated.
Film production
CBS made a brief, unsuccessful move into film production in the late 1960s, creating
Cinema Center Films. This profit-free unit was shut down in 1972, today the distribution rights to the Cinema Center library rest with Paramount Pictures for home video (via
CBS DVD) and theatrical release, and with CBS Paramount Television for TV distribution (most other ancillary rights remain with CBS). It released such films as
The Reivers (1969), starring
Steve McQueen, and the musical
Scrooge (1970), starring
Albert Finney.
Yet ten years later, in 1982, CBS was talked into another try at Hollywood, in a joint venture with
Columbia Pictures and
HBO called
Tri-Star Pictures. Their first release, in 1984, was
The Natural. Their second movie was a flop remake of the 1960 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer picture
Where the Boys Are. CBS dropped out of the venture in 1984.
In 2007, CBS Corp. announced its desire to get back into the feature film business slowly launching CBS Films and hiring key executives in the Spring of 2008 to startup the new venture. The name CBS Films was actually used once before in 1953 when the name was briefly used for CBS' distributor of off-network and first-run syndicated programming to local TV stations in the United States and abroad.
Home video
CBS entered into the home video market, when joined with
MGM to form
MGM/CBS Home Video in 1978, but the joint venture was broken by 1982. CBS joined another studio:
20th Century Fox, to form
CBS/Fox Video. CBS's duty was to release some of the movies by
Tri-Star under the
CBS/Fox Video label.
Gabriel Toys
CBS entered the video game market briefly, through its acquisition of Gabriel Toys (renamed CBS Toys), publishing several arcade adaptations and original titles under the name
CBS Electronics for the
Atari 2600 and other consoles and computersand also a one of the first karaoke recording/players called Star Studio model # 55000 (1985). CBS Electronics also distributed all
Coleco-related video game products in Canada, including the
ColecoVision. CBS later sold Gabriel Toys to
View-Master.
New owners
By the early 1990s, profits had fallen as a result of competition from cable companies, video rentals, and the high cost of programming. About 20 former CBS affiliates switched to the rapidly rising
FOX Television Network in the mid 1990s, with many television markets across the country (e.g.
KDFX in
Palm Springs, California and
KECY in
Yuma, Arizona reportedly the first to do so in August 1994) lost their CBS affiliate for awhile. CBS ratings were acceptable, but the network struggled with an image of stodginess. Laurence Tisch lost interest and sought a new buyer.
[
sullivan theater.jpg|thumb|right|230px|CBS's [[Ed Sullivan Theater] in
Manhattan, home to the
Late Show with David Letterman]].
Westinghouse Electric Corporation
In 1995,
Westinghouse Electric Corporation acquired CBS for $5.4 billion. As one of the major broadcasting group owners of commercial radio and television stations (as
Group W) since 1920, Westinghouse sought to transition from a station operator into a major media company with its purchase of CBS. This was followed in 1997 with the $4.9-billion purchase of
Infinity Broadcasting Corporation, owner of more than 150 radio stations. Also that year, Westinghouse began the CBS Cable division by acquiring two existing cable channels (
Gaylord's
The Nashville Network and
Country Music Television) and starting a new one (CBS Eye on People, which was later sold to
Discovery Communications).
Following the Infinity purchase, operation and sales responsibilities for the
CBS Radio Network was handed to Infinity, which turned management over to
Westwood One, a company Infinity managed. WWO is a major radio program syndicator that had previously purchased the Mutual Broadcasting System, NBC's radio networks and the rights to use the "NBC Radio Networks" name. For a time, CBS Radio, NBC Radio Networks and CNN's radio news services were all under the WWO umbrella.
As of 2008,
Westwood One continues to distribute CBS radio programming, but as a self-managed company that put itself up for sale and found a buyer for a significant amount of its stock.
CBS also owned
CBS Telenoticias, a Spanish-language news network.
In that same year of 1997, Westinghouse changed its name to
CBS Corporation, and corporate headquarters were moved from
Pittsburgh to New York. And to underline the change in emphasis, all non-entertainment assets were put up for sale. Another 90 radio stations were added to Infinity's portfolio in 1998 with the acquisition of American Radio Systems Corporation for $2.6 billion.
In 1999, CBS paid $2.5 billion to acquire
King World Productions, a television syndication company whose programs include
The Oprah Winfrey Show and
Wheel of Fortune. By the end of 1999, all pre-CBS elements of Westinghouse's industrial past (beyond retaining rights to the name for
brand licensing purposes) were gone.
By the 1990s, CBS had become a broadcasting giant, but in 1999 entertainment
conglomerate Viacom (1971-2005), a company created years earlier to syndicate old CBS series, announced it was taking over CBS in a deal valued at $37 billion. Following completion of this effort in 2000,
Viacom was ranked as the second-largest entertainment company in the world.
CBS Corporation and CBS Studios
Having assembled all the elements of a communications empire, Viacom found that the promised synergy was not there, and at the end of 2005 it split itself in two. CBS became the center of a new company,
CBS Corporation, which included the broadcasting elements, Paramount Television's production operations (renamed
CBS Paramount Television), Viacom Outdoor
advertising (renamed
CBS Outdoor),
Showtime,
Simon & Schuster, and
Paramount Parks, which the company sold in May 2006.
The second company, keeping the
Viacom name, kept Paramount Pictures (ironically a former share holder in CBS, see above, also owned a stake in the
DuMont Television Network, whose Pittsburgh O&O is now CBS-owned
KDKA-TV), assorted MTV Networks, BET, and, until May 2007,
Famous Music, which was sold to
Sony/ATV Music Publishing.
As a result of the aforementioned Viacom/CBS corporate split, as well as other acquisitions over recent years, CBS (under the moniker CBS Studios) owns a massive television library spanning over six decades; these include not only CBS in-house productions and network programs, but also programs aired originally on competing networks. Shows in this library include
I Love Lucy,
The Twilight Zone,
The Honeymooners,
Hawaii Five-O,
Gunsmoke,
The Fugitive,
Little House on the Prairie,
Star Trek,
The Brady Bunch,
Cheers,
The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles,
Evening Shade, and
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, among others.
Both CBS Corporation and the new Viacom are still owned by Sumner Redstone's company, National Amusements. As such,
Paramount Home Entertainment continues to handle DVD distribution for the CBS library.
Corporate tidbits
A.C. Nielsen estimated in 2003 that CBS can be seen in 96.98% of all American households, reaching 103,421,270 homes in the United States. CBS has 204 VHF and UHF affiliated stations in the U.S. and U.S. possessions. CBS is currently the most watched television network in the United States, with the prime draws being the
CSI and
Survivor franchises. It was the number one network until the
Fox Network overtook it in 2008 for 2 weeks.
Logos and slogans
TV network logos
CBS eye logo, popularly known as the "CBS Eye" or "Eyemark".
[
]
font]] lettering
CBS unveiled its
Eye Device
logo on October 17, 1951. Before that, from the 1940s through 1951, CBS Television used an oval spotlight on the block letters C-B-S.
[See an illustration of this early logo at ] The Eye device was conceived by
William Golden based on a
Pennsylvania Dutch hex sign as well as a
Shaker drawing. (While commonly attributed to Golden, there is speculation that at least some design work on the symbol may have been done by another CBS staff designer, Georg Olden, one of the first African-Americans to achieve some notoriety in the postwar graphic design field.)
[Lasky, Julie, "The Search for Georg Olden". (Steven Heller with Georgette Ballance, editors) Graphic Design History, New York: Allworth Press, 2001; pp. 121–122.] The Eye device made its broadcasting debut on October 20, 1951. The following season, as
Golden prepared a new
ident, CBS President
Frank Stanton insisted on keeping the Eye device and using it as much as possible.
An example of CBS Television Network's imaging (and the distinction between the television and radio networks) may be seen in a video of the
Jack Benny Program (undated) which aired on the television network. The video appears to be converted from
kinescope, and "unscoped" or unedited. One sees the program as very nearly one would have seen it on live television.
Don Wilson is the program announcer, but also voices a promo for "Private Secretary", which alternated weekly with
Jack Benny on the television network schedule. Benny continued to appear on CBS radio and television at that time, and Wilson makes a promo announcement at the end of the broadcast for Benny's radio program on the
CBS Radio Network. The program closes with the "CBS Television Network" ID slide (the "CBS eye" over a field of clouds with the words "
CBS Television Network" superimposed over the eye). There is, however, no voiceover accompanying the ID slide. It is unclear whether it was simply absent from the recording or never originally broadcast.
[See the video at The Jack Benny Program]
The CBS eye is now an American icon. While the symbol's settings have changed, the Eye device itself has not been redesigned in its entire history. In the network’s new graphic identity created by
Trollback + Company in 2006, the eye is being placed in a “trademark” position on show titles, days of the week and descriptive words, an approach highly respecting the value of the eye. The eye logo has frequently been copied or borrowed by television networks around the world, notable examples being the Austrian Broadcasting System (
ORF) which used to use a red version of the eye logo,
Associated TeleVision in the United Kingdom and
Frecuencia Latina in
Peru. The logo is alternately known as the
Eyemark, which was also the name of CBS's domestic and international
syndication divisions in the mid to late 1990s before the King World acquisition and Viacom merger.
1980s
Through the years, CBS has developed several notable image campaigns, and several of the network's most well-known slogans date from the 1980s. 1981's "Reach for the Stars" used a space-themed campaign to capitalize on both CBS's stellar improvement in the ratings and the historic launch of the space shuttle Columbia. 1982's "Great Moments" juxtaposed scenes from classic CBS programming such as "I Love Lucy" with scenes from the network's then-current classics such as "Dallas" and "M*A*S*H". From 1983 through 1986, CBS (by now firmly atop the ratings) featured a campaign based on the slogan "We've Got the Touch". Vocals for the campaign's jingle were contributed by Richie Havens (1983–1984 and 1984–1985), Aaron Neville (1984–1985) and Kenny Rogers (1985–1986). The 1986–1987 programming season ushered in the "Share the Spirit of CBS" campaign, the network's first to use full-out computer graphics and DVE effects. Unlike most network campaign promos, the full length version of Share the Spirit not only showed a brief clip preview of each new fall series, but also utilized the CGI effects to map out the entire fall schedule by night. The success of that campaign led to the 1987–1988 "CBSpirit" campaign. Most CBSpirit promos utilized a procession of show clips once again. However, the new graphic motif was a swirling (or "swishing") blue line, that was used to represent "the spirit". The full length promo, like the previous year, had a special portion that identified new fall shows, but the mapped-out fall schedule shot was abandoned.
For the 1988–1989 season, CBS unveiled its new image campaign, officially known as "Television You Can Feel" but more commonly identified as "You Can Feel It On CBS". The goal was to convey a more sensual, new-age image through distinguished, advanced-looking computer graphics and soothing music, backgrounding images and clips of emotionally-powerful scenes and characters. However, it was this season in which CBS began its ratings free fall, the deepest in the network's history. CBS ended the decade with "Get Ready for CBS". The 1989–90 version was a very ambitious campaign that attempted to elevate CBS out of last place (among the major networks); the motif was network stars interacting with each other in a remote studio set, getting ready for photo and TV shoots, as well as for the new season on CBS. The high-energy promo song and the campaign's practices saw many variations across the country as every CBS affiliate participated in it, as per a network mandate. Also, for the first time in history, CBS became the first broadcast network to team with a national retailer to encourage viewership, with the CBS/Kmart Get Ready Giveaway.
1990s
For the 1990–91 season, the campaign featured a new jingle—
The Temptations offered an altered version of their hit "Get Ready". The early 1990s featured less-than-memorable campaigns, with simplified taglines such as "This is CBS" (1992) and "You're On CBS" (1995). Eventually, the advertising department gained momentum again late in the decade with
Welcome Home to CBS (1996–1997), simplified to
Welcome Home (1997–1999) and succeeded by the spin-off campaign
The Address is CBS (1999–2000).
2000s
Throughout the 2000s, CBS's ratings resurgence was backed by their "It's All Here" campaign, and their strategy led, in 2005, to the proclamation that they were "America's Most Watched Network". Their most-recent campaign, beginning in 2006, proclaims "We Are CBS".
Programming
CBS presently operates on an 87½-hour regular network programming schedule. It provides 22 hours of
prime time programming to affiliated stations: 8–11 p.m. Monday to Saturday (all times ET/PT) and 7–11 p.m. on Sundays. Programming will also be provided 11 a.m.–4 p.m. weekdays (game show
The Price Is Right and soaps
The Young and the Restless,
The Bold and the Beautiful,
As the World Turns and
Guiding Light); 7–9 a.m. weekdays and Saturdays (
The Early Show);
CBS News Sunday Morning, nightly editions of the
CBS Evening News, the Sunday political talk show
Face the Nation, a 2½-hour early morning news program
Up to the Minute and
CBS Morning News; the late night talk shows
Late Show with David Letterman and
The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson; and a three-hour Saturday morning live-action/animation block under the name
KEWLopolis.
In addition, sports programming routinely appears on the weekends, although with a somewhat unpredictable schedule (mostly between noon and 7:00 p.m. ET).
Prime time
Returning comedies are in red; new comedies are in pink; returning dramas are in green; new dramas are in blue; returning reality shows are in yellow; new reality shows are in gold; returning game shows are in orange; news programming is in cyan.
All times are
Eastern and
Pacific (subtract one hour for
Central and
Mountain time).
The Friday 9:00 p.m. time slot is currently vacant (following the cancellation of
The Ex List) and is currently featuring a rotation of CBS programming;
NCIS, Numb3rs,
Ghost Whisperer,
The Mentalist, and
The Price Is Right Primetime are among the shows that have aired in this rotating time slot.
Daytime
Currently,
CBS airs four daytime soap operas each weekday:
The Young and the Restless (1973– ),
The Bold and the Beautiful (1987– ),
As the World Turns (1956– ), and
Guiding Light (which debuted on radio in 1937 and moved to TV in 1952). While most CBS affiliates air the soaps in this order, some do not.
Notable daytime soaps that once aired on CBS include
Love of Life (1951–1980),
Search for Tomorrow (1951–1982), which later moved to NBC,
The Secret Storm (1954–1974),
The Edge of Night (1956–1975), which later moved to ABC, and
Capitol (1982–1987).
CBS' daytime schedule is also the home of the popular long-running game show
The Price Is Right.
The Price is Right, which began production in 1972, is notable as the longest (and last) continuously running daytime game show on network television.
Notable daytime game shows that once aired on CBS include
Match Game (1973–1979),
Tattletales (1974–1978 and 1982–1984),
The $25,000 Pyramid (1982–1988),
Press Your Luck (1983–1986),
Card Sharks (1986–1989) and
Family Feud (1988–1993). CBS games that also aired in prime time include
Beat the Clock (1950–1958 and 1979–1980),
To Tell the Truth (1956–1968) and
Password (1961–67, and a 2008 prime time revival). Two long-running primetime-only games were the panel shows
What's My Line? (1950–1967) and
I've Got a Secret (1952–1968, 1976).
Children's programming
CBS broadcast the live action series
Captain Kangaroo on weekday mornings from 1955 through 1982, and on Saturdays through 1984. From 1971 through 1986, the CBS News department produced one-minute
In the News segments broadcast between other Saturday morning programs. Otherwise, in regards to children's programming, CBS has aired mostly animated series for kids, such as
Jim Henson's Muppet Babies,
Garfield and Friends and
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. In 1997, CBS began broadcasting
Wheel 2000, and was broadcasting it simultaneously with
GSN.
By 1998, CBS began contracting out to other companies to provide programming and material for their Saturday morning schedule, The first of these special blocks was
The CBS Kids Show, which featured programming from Canada's
Nelvana studio. It aired on CBS Saturday mornings from 1998 to 2000, with shows like
Anatole,
Mythic Warriors, Rescue Heroes, and
Flying Rhino Junior High. Its tagline was,
"The CBS Kids Show: Get in the Act."
In 2000, CBS's deal with Nelvana ended; the
CBS Kids Show block was replaced with another block of programming from a network which, at the time, was in the same family as CBS —
Nick Jr. on CBS.
In 2001, CBS began a deal with
Nickelodeon (owned by CBS's former parent company Viacom, which at one time was a subsidiary of CBS) to air its original programming under the banner
Nick on CBS. In 2004, CBS changed the lineup by going for the somewhat undercourted preschool market by switching its lineup from programming from Nickelodeon back to
Nick Jr. In 2006, after the Viacom-CBS split (as described above), CBS decided to discontinue the Nick Jr. lineup in favor of a lineup of programs produced by
DiC, as part of a three-year deal which includes distribution of selected Formula One auto races on tape delay.
[World Screen - Home]
In 2006 the
Nick on CBS blocked was replaced with
KOL Secret Slumber Party on CBS. In the inaugural line-up, two of the programs were new shows, one aired in syndication in 2005 and three were pre-2006 shows. In mid-2007, KOL withdrew sponsorship from CBS's Saturday Morning Block and the name was changed to
KEWLopolis on CBS. Complimenting CBS's 2007 line-up was
Care Bears,
Strawberry Shortcake, and
Sushi Pack.
International broadcasts
CBS is shown outside North and Central America on a channel in its own right, it even began terrestrial coverage in the
Philippines on October 1, 2006, and has affiliates in the latter country (the Philippines contains a simulcast from
KCBS-TV in Los Angeles being broadcasted from
Makati City). However, CBS News is shown for a few hours a day on satellite channel
Orbit News in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. The CBS Evening News is shown in the UK, Ireland, Australia and Italy on
Sky News, despite the fact that Sky is part of
News Corporation (owners of
Fox News).
In Australia,
Network Ten has an output deal with CBS Paramount giving them rights to carry the programs
Jericho,
Dr. Phil,
Late Show with David Letterman,
NCIS and
NUMB3RS as well access to stories from
60 Minutes (the rights of which have been sold to the
Nine Network which broadcasts
their own 60 Minutes).
In
Bermuda, there is a CBS affiliate owned by the state-run
Bermuda Broadcasting Company using the callsign
ZBM.
In Canada, CBS, like all major American TV networks, is carried in the basic program package of all cable and satellite providers. The broadcast is shown exactly the same in Canada as in the United States. However, CBS's programming on Canadian cable and satellite systems are subject to the practice of "
simsubbing", in which a signal of a Canadian station is placed over CBS's signal, if the programming at that time is the same. As well, many Canadians live close enough to a major American city to pick up the over the air broadcast signal of an American CBS affiliate with an antenna.
Criticism
In 1982, the network aired the documentary
The Uncounted Enemy: A Vietnam Deception, suggesting
General William Westmoreland deliberately misled the public about the
Vietnam War in order to maintain public support. Westmoreland filed a 120 million dollar libel suit that was ultimately settled in exchange for an on-air clarification. However, an internal study found that the documentary had violated CBS News Standards.
[Uncounted Enemy, The]
In 2004, the
FCC imposed a record $550,000 fine on CBS for its broadcast of a
Super Bowl half-time show (produced by then sister-unit MTV) in which singer
Janet Jackson's breast was briefly exposed. It was the largest fine ever for a violation of federal decency laws. Following the incident CBS apologized to its viewers and denied foreknowledge of the event, which was broadcast live on TV. In 2008 a Philadelphia federal court annulled the fine imposed on CBS, labelling it "arbitrary and capricious".
CBS suffered another embarrassment in September of that year, when the network aired a controversial episode of
60 Minutes, which questioned
U.S. President George W. Bush's service in the
National Guard.
[New Questions On Bush Guard Duty, 60 Minutes Has Newly Obtained Documents On President's Military Service - CBS News] Following allegations of
forgery, CBS News admitted that
documents used in the story had not been properly authenticated. The following January, CBS fired four people connected to the preparation of the news-segment.
[CBS Ousts 4 For Bush Guard Story, Independent Panel Faults 'Myopic Zeal' To Be 1st To Deliver Story - CBS News]
Former network news anchor
Dan Rather has filed a $70 million lawsuit against CBS, contending the story, and his termination were mishandled.
In 2006, CBS announced it would air only three of its NFL games per week in high definition. The move created some outrage among fans, with some accusing the network of being "cheap."
In 2007, retired Army Major Gen.
John Batiste, consultant to
CBS News, appeared in a political ad for
VoteVets.org critical of President Bush and the war in Iraq.
[YouTube - General Batiste: "Protect America, Not George Bush"]
Two days later, CBS stated that appearing in the ad violated Batiste's contract with them and the agreement was terminated.
Partnership
CBS is partner with
Wetpaint, a
wiki farm company.
CBS also has engaged in "egg-vertisng", a campaign in the Fall of 2006 which etched television advertisements in 35 million eggs across North America.
[2] [3]
See also
Notes
