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
Edward J. Meeman the Edward J. Meeman Journalism Building. In 1976, the University of Memphis published Meeman's posthumous autobiography oddly titled, "The editorial we: A posthumous autobiography". Edward J. Meeman Edward John Meeman (October 2, 1889 – November 15, 1966) was a crusading journalist who edited, among other publications, the since defunct "Memphis Press-Scimitar" in his adopted home city of Memphis, Tennessee, a position from which he retired in 1962. He began work as a $4 a week cub reporter in his native Evansville, Indiana, but left a multimillion-dollar estate to foster studies of biology, conservation, and the environment. Meeman was born to