Television in the United States Gray Television, whose 131 stations cover mostly smaller metropolitan areas reaching only 10% of the population. The five major U.S. broadcast television networks are the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), CBS (formerly known as the Columbia Broadcasting System), the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), the Fox Broadcasting Company (Fox) and the CW Television Network. The first and elder three (which are colloquially known as the "Big Three") began as radio networks: NBC and CBS respectively began operations in 1924 and 1927, while ABC was spun off from NBC to Edward J. Noble in 1943 as the Blue Network during FCC inquiries over
Capitol Broadcasting Company Capitol Broadcasting Company The Capitol Broadcasting Company (CBC) is an American media company based in Raleigh, North Carolina. Capitol owns three television stations and nine radio stations in the Raleigh-Durham and Wilmington areas of North Carolina and the Durham Bulls minor league baseball team. A.J. Fletcher founded the Capitol Broadcasting Company in 1937, when he founded Raleigh radio station WRAL (1240 AM, now WPJL). WRAL radio began transmission two years later in 1939, using a 250 watt transmitter, becoming Raleigh's second radio station (after WPTF). In 1942, Capitol created the Tobacco Radio Network, a farm news radio service which was