American Broadcasting Company Blue Network was purchased by the new company Noble founded, the American Broadcasting System. Noble subsequently acquired the rights to the "American Broadcasting Company" name from George B. Storer in 1944; its parent company adopted the corporate name American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. Woods retained his position as president and CEO of ABC until December 1949, and was subsequently promoted to vice-chairman of the board before leaving ABC altogether on June 30, 1951. Meanwhile, in August 1944, the West Coast division of the Blue Network, which owned San Francisco radio station KGO, bought Los Angeles station KECA from Earle C. Anthony
Edward J. Noble 1958, after several months of illness. In 1943, Noble bought the St. Catherines Island on the coast of Georgia; in 1968, ten years after his death, the island was transferred to the Edward J. Noble Foundation. The island is now owned by the St. Catherines Island Foundation, and the island's interior is operated for charitable, scientific, literary, and educational purposes. The foundation aims to promote conservation of natural resources, the survival of endangered species, and the preservation of historic sites, and to expand human knowledge in the fields of ecology, botany, zoology, natural history, archaeology, and other scientific and educational