Donald Jason Flamm investigation, and lawsuits that reached the New York Supreme Court by 1949. Flamm was eventually paid a settlement but did not get WMCA back. Noble had sold the station in 1943 to Nathan Straus, former Federal Housing Authority administrator, for $1,250,000 in order to found the “Blue Network,” which became the American Broadcasting Company (ABC). The Congressional investigation of the FCC absolved Noble, but drew a blistering dissent from the Republican minority. In 1944, lawyer John J. Sirica resigned as chief counsel to the Select Committee in protest of the handling of the case. Donald Flamm was then offered a
NBC Sarnoff. After losing on final appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court in May 1943, RCA sold Blue Network Company, Inc., for $8 million to the American Broadcasting System, a recently founded company owned by Life Savers magnate Edward J. Noble. After the sale was completed on October 12, 1943, Noble acquired the rights to the Blue Network name, leases on landlines, the New York studios, two-and-a-half radio stations (WJZ in Newark/New York City; KGO in San Francisco and WENR in Chicago, which shared a frequency with Prairie Farmer station WLS); contracts with actors; and agreements with around 60 affiliates. In