June 19, 1926: NBC Is Founded

TTheir 1979-86 logo. It's my favorite because

it's the only one they've ever used

that combines the letter N with a peacock.

June 19, 1926: The Radio Corporation of America (RCA) founds the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), the 1st major broadcast network in America.

RCA was then owned by General Electric (GE), American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T), Westinghouse, and United Fruit Company (forerunner of Chiquita Brands). In 1932, GE had to sell its shares of RCA, due to antitrust charges.

In 1986, with Ronald Reagan as President, and the federal government no longer caring about antitrust laws -- AT&T had been broken up in 1982, but that was a process begun under the Carter Administration -- GE was able to buy RCA, and therefore NBC, in its entirety. In 2011, Comcast bought NBC from GE, and remains the owner.

The 4 longest-continuously-running television series in American history are all still currently running on NBC: The weekly news program Meet the Press, which debuted in 1947; the morning news and entertainment program Today, or The Today Show, 1952; The Tonight Show, originally just Tonight, 1954; and Saturday Night Live, which, since 1975, has tried to do for Saturday what The Tonight Show does for weeknights.

RCA chairman David Sarnoff made NBC the first coast-to-coast radio network. In 1927, he established a 2nd radio network, which became known as NBC Blue or "The Blue Network." In 1939, he began to move NBC into television. In 1943, antitrust laws forced him to sell Blue, which became ABC. By 1947, NBC had beaten CBS in the race to become the 1st nationwide TV network.

Microphone logo, 1943-57 

In 1948, NBC became the 1st network to televise the two major American political parties' national nominating conventions. Their teaming of Chet Huntley and David Brinkley to do cover the conventions in 1956 led to the two of them co-anchoring the 1st half-hour nightly news broadcast, The Huntley-Brinkley Report, which lasted until 1970.

Huntley-Brinkley was replaced by the much more generically-titled NBC Nightly News, with John Chancellor as anchor. He was succeeded by Tom Brokaw in 1982, Brokaw was followed by Brian Williams in 2005, and Williams was succeeded by Lester Holt in 2015. (UPDATE: In 2025, Holt was succeeded by Tom Llamas.)

In 1957, NBC debuted its Peacock logo, designed to symbolize the transition to color television. It would be shown with the following announcement: "The following program is brought to you in living color on NBC."

Peacock logo, 1957-75

Its official name is Johnny Chimes, after the three-note programming cue that NBC has used since 1929: "G₃ E₄ C_4." In 1959, NBC introduced the animated "Snake" logo that would appear at the end of every broadcast, with the Chimes playing as the animation played out. It also appeared at the base of every sportscaster's microphone.

But the Snake never proved as popular as the Chimes, which remained NBC's main identifier on radio, or the Peacock, which became even more identified with the network. So much so that, when they decided to retire the Peacock in 1975, there was an uproar. The Snake was retired at the same time, but few people cared. The Peacock was used for the last time to start The Tonight Show on New Year's Eve, December 31, 1975. And host Johnny Carson roasted the network over it. He could do that: The network was not going to fire its most popular employee over a few non-profane jokes.

This 50th Anniversary logo never caught on.

The Peacock was brought back in 1979, in a combination of the new "N" logo. In 1986, NBC dropped the N, switching from an 11-feathered Peacock facing the viewer's left, which every version thus far had been, to a 6-feathered Peacock facing right, which they have used ever since.

NBC was a sports pioneer. Their 1st coast-to-coast broadcast of anything was the 1927 Rose Bowl. NBC became the 1st network to broadcast a baseball game, in 1939; a football game, that same year, first at the college level, then in the NFL; the 1st to broadcast the World Series, in 1947; and the 1st to broadcast coast-to-coast in color, with the Rose Bowl again, in 1962.

In the 1966 season, NBC owned the broadcast rights to the American Football League, while CBS held those to the NFL. As part of the leagues' merger that season, both got to cover Super Bowl I. Regrettably, due to the high cost of videotape, which led to so many events, sports and otherwise, being taped over, no complete color videotape copy of Super Bowl I exists.

This is also true for most of NBC's World Series broadcasts up until 1975. Some black & white copies, meant as backups, survive. It's only because of a resourceful New York sports fan that the 1969 "miracles," the Jets' win in Super Bowl III and the Mets' home games (3, 4 & 5) in the World Series, have been saved in their entirety. (The subsequent 1970 NBA Finals, won by the Knicks, were on ABC.)

NBC's headquarters is at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, on 6th Avenue between 49th and 50th Streets in Midtown Manhattan. Nicknamed "30 Rock," it has officially been known as the RCA Building from its opening 1933 to 1988, the GE Building from then until 2015, and the Comcast Building ever since.

NBC also owns the cable networks CNBC and Bravo, the Spanish-language network Telemundo, and the streaming service Hulu; and, with Microsoft, co-owns the cable network MSNBC. (UPDATE: In 2026, NBC restructured its cable holdings, creating the holding company Versant, and MSNBC became MS NOW.)

NBC's affiliates for major league cities include:

* New York: WNBC-4 (formerly W2XBS, WNBT and WRCA)

* Philadelphia: WCAU-10 (formerly KYW-3)

* Baltimore: WBAL-11

* Washington: WRC-4

* Boston: WBTS-15 (formerly WBZ-4)

* Atlanta: WXIA-11

* Tampa: WFLA-8

* Miami: WTVJ-6

* Pittsburgh: WPXI-11

* Cleveland: WKYC-3

* Cincinnati: WLWT-5

* Detroit: WDIV-4

* Chicago: WMAQ-5

* Milwaukee: WTMJ-4

* Minneapolis: KARE-11

* St. Louis: KSDK-5

* Kansas City: KSHB-41

* Dallas: KXAS-5

* Houston: KPRC-2

* Denver: KUSA-9

* Phoenix: KPNX-12

* San Diego: KNSD-39

* Los Angeles: KNBC-4

* San Francisco: KNTV-11

* Seattle: KING-5

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June 19, 1926 was a Saturday. These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the Chicago White Sox, 6-5 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Babe Ruth went 2-for-3 with a walk and 2 RBIs. Lou Gehrig went 2-for-4.

* The New York Giants lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates, 4-2 at the Polo Grounds.

* The Brooklyn Robins (as the Dodgers were known while Wilbert Robinson was their manager from 1914 to 1931) beat the Chicago Cubs, 7-1 at Ebbets Field.

* The St. Louis Cardinals swept a doubleheader from the Boston Braves, 4-0 and 3-2 at Braves Field in Boston. Jesse Haines pitched a 7-hit shutout in the opener. Over the 2 games, Rogers Hornsby, player-manager for the Redbirds, went 3-for-9 with an RBI.

* The Cincinnati Reds swept a doubleheader from the Philadelphia Phillies, 8-2 and 14-8 at Baker Bowl in Philadelphia.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Cleveland Indians, 8-3 at League Park in Cleveland. Tris Speaker, player-manager for the Tribe, went 0-for-3 with a walk.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Philadelphia Athletics, 5-3 at Navin Field (later Briggs Stadium and Tiger Stadium) in Detroit. Ken Holloway outpitched Lefty Grove. Ty Cobb, player-manager for the Tigers, went 2-for-3 with 2 RBIs. For the A's, Jimmie Foxx went 0-for-3.

* And the St. Louis Browns beat the Washington Senators, 9-4 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis.

March 7, 1917: "Livery Stable Blues" Is Released

Left to right: Henry Ragas, Larry Shields,

Edward Edwards, Nick LaRocca and Tony Spargo

March 7, 1917: "Livery Stable Blues" is released by The Original Dixieland Jass Band. It is believed to be the 1st jazz song ever recorded, the session being 9 days earlier, on February 26, at the Victor Talking Machine Company, predecessor of RCA Victor, at 46 West 38th Street in Midtown Manhattan. 

The group's name is a misnomer. There was nothing original about them: Jazz was invented in New Orleans by black men, and the ODJB was all white, although they were from New Orleans. The name of the music genre had not yet been standardized as "jazz," so "jass" was still fairly common. Later in the year, they accepted the more familiar version, and officially changed their name to The Original Dixieland Jazz Band. The members:

* Dominick "Nick" LaRocca, 1889-1961, cornet.

* Larry Shields, 1893-1953, clarinet.

* Edward "Daddy" Edwards, 1891-1963, trombone.

* Henry Ragas, 1890-1919, piano.

* Antonio Sbarbaro, a.k.a. Tony Spargo, 1897-1969, drums.

"Livery Stable Blues" was written by Ray Lopez (1889-1979), who was of Spanish descent; and Alcide Nunez (1884-1934), who was half-Spanish and half-French Creole. Both were cornet players, and the key to the song was making the cornet solo sound like a whinnying horse, hence, "livery stable."

Later in the year, the ODJB recorded "Tiger Rag," a.k.a. "Hold That Tiger," which LaRocca wrote, became a much-better-known song, and one of the landmarks of jazz. Unfortunately, he was also a nasty racist, claiming that he, not any black man, invented jazz, calling himself, probably due to his Italian ancestry, "the Christopher Columbus of Music."

Ragas died in the Spanish Flu epidemic. He was replaced by J. Russel Robinson (1892-1963). The ODJB broke up in 1929.

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March 7, 1917 was a Wednesday. Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. Professional basketball barely existed. The National Hockey Association was in season -- its last, as it turned out, as it was replaced by the National Hockey League. The Montreal Canadiens beat the Ottawa Senators, 5-2 at the Montreal Arena.

February 10, 1942: The 1st Gold Record

February 10, 1942: For the 1st time, a song is awarded a gold record. It's the recording of "Chattanooga Choo Choo" (no hyphen in the title) by Glenn Miller and His Orchestra. The award is by RCA Victor Records, for achieving the sale of 1 million copies.

The music was composed by Harry Warren. The lyrics were written by Mack Gordon, and they're a little troubling today, due to the retroactively obvious racism. It begins with a traveler at New York's Pennsylvania Station talking to a shoe-shine man, and men in that profession were nearly always black:

Traveler: Pardon me, boy: Is that the Chattanooga Choo Choo?

Shine man: Yes, yes, Track 29!

Traveler: Boy, you can give me a shine.

Shine man: Can you afford to board the Chattanooga Choo Choo?

Traveler: I've got my fare, and just a trifle to spare.

At the time, there were 3 trains that ran from Penn Station to Chattanooga. The Southern Railway's Birmingham Special, as its name suggests, went on to Birmingham, Alabama. The Tennessean went on to Memphis. The Pelican went past Birmingham to New Orleans, and remains in operation on Amtrak today, under the name of the Crescent.

Supposedly, Gordon and Warren rode the Birmingham Special together, and were inspired to write the song. But they took some artistic license. "Track 29" may rhyme with "shine," but Penn Station only had 21 tracks at the time. The Birmingham Special didn't "leave the Pennsylvania Station 'bout a quarter to four," 3:45 PM, unless it was seriously delayed: It left at 12:30.

And all 3 of those trains went through western Virginia into East Tennessee, through the State Line-straddling city of Bristol. U.S. Route 11 was built roughly parallel to this line, and Interstate 81 was added. So, if you had ham and eggs for breakfast on the train, it could be in the Great Smoky Mountains, but it would be in Tennessee, not in North or South Carolina.

Miller and His Orchestra recorded the song in Manhattan on May 7, 1941. Saxophonist Gordon "Tex" Beneke (so nicknamed because he came from Fort Worth, Texas) sang lead, and Paula Kelly and The Four Modernaires sang backup. It was released on RCA's Bluebird Records subsidiary on July 25, was included in the film Sun Valley Serenade that premiered on August 21, and hit Number 1 on November 29.

Tex Beneke, the biggest-selling singer you've

(probably) never heard of, until now.

For years, I was under the incorrect impression that the lead singer on the original version was Ray McKinley, a.k.a. "Eight Beat Mack," Miller's drummer. While he sing lead on some Miller recordings, including a later version of this song, he did not sing it on the original recording.

Glenn Miller disappeared during a flight over the English Channel in 1944, his plane probably crashing due to icing on the wings. Alex Gordon died in 1959, Harry Warren in 1981, Ray McKinley in 1995, and Tex Benecke in 2000.

Built in 1909, Chattanooga's Terminal Station closed in 1970, with the Birmingham Special canceled, due to the bankruptcy of the Southern Railway. The station was converted into a train-themed hotel in 1973. Although "Chattanooga Choo Choo" remains America's most popular train-themed song -- ahead of "The Ballad of Casey Jones," "The Orange Blossom Special," "M.T.A." and "The City of New Orleans" -- since its incorporation in 1971, Amtrak has never provided service to Chattanooga.

There's an old joke about "singing cowboy" Roy Rogers having a brand new pair of boots. After camping out all night, he hears a noise outside his tent. A mountain lion is chewing up his boots. Roy shoots it, and brings it home. When he gets home, his wife and co-star, Dale Evans, sees the dead lion and the chewed-up boots, and says, "Pardon me Roy, is that the cat that chewed your new shoes?"

And in 2007, Senator Larry Craig of Idaho, a Republican known for his pro-gun and anti-gay crusades, was arrested in a rest room at the airport in Minneapolis, having tapped shoes with the man in the stall next to him, a signal from one gay man to (potentially) another that he's interested. The man in the next stall was a cop, and Craig was arrested, and the joke was, "Pardon me, boy: Is that the chap that tapped your new shoe?"

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The first "precious metal" record was a silver record, awarded by Regal Zonophone to British singer George Formby, in 1937, for selling 100,000 copies of his song "The Window Cleaner." RCA Victor copied this by waiting until "Chattanooga Choo-Choo" sold over a million.

In 1958, the Recording Industry Association of America decided to make it official, introducing the gold record award for any record, whether a single or an album, that sold at least one million copies domestically. Foreign sales were not included. Under this system, the 1st single to receive a gold record was "Catch a Falling Star" by Perry Como, and the 1st album to get one was the soundtrack to the film version of the musical Oklahoma!

In 1976, the RIAA introduced the platinum record, for 1 million albums and 2 million singles, downgrading the gold record to 500,000 albums, while keeping 1 million as the standard for singles. This time, an album crossed the threshold first, Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975) by The Eagles, followed by the 1st single, "Disco Lady" by Johnnie Taylor.

In 1999, by which point the gold record threshold for singles had also been dropped to half a million, the RIAA introduced the diamond record, for 10 million units. The 1st single so certified was the new version of "Candle in the Wind" that Elton John sang for Princess Diana.

For albums, they went retroactive: The 1st one certified diamond was The Wall by Pink Floyd, even though, as of February 10, 2022, several albums have sold more, including Pink Floyd's own Dark Side of the Moon, with Michael Jackson's Thriller topping them all with over 51 million sales certified, and probably a lot more than that which can't be certified.

The RIAA has never stopped record companies from taking matters into their own hands. In 2017, Universal Music Group gave Luis Fonsi a plutonium disc for the sales of "Despacito." It's sold 36 million digital copies -- not physical units like records or compact discs.

Bing Crosby's original 1942 version of "White Christmas" remains the biggest-selling single record ever, with over 50 million in sales, while Elton's 1997 version of "Candle in the Wind" is a distant 2nd, at 33 million. With 41 million sales, the best-selling song digitally is Ed Sheeran's 2017 "Shape of You."

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February 10, 1942 was a Tuesday. Baseball and football were out of season. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. There were 2 games played in the NHL. The New York Rangers lost to the Chicago Black Hawks, 5-2 at the old Madison Square Garden. And the Boston Bruins beat the Montreal Canadiens, 8-1 at the Boston Garden.