Cumulus Media Networks the market, it was sold in 1943 to businessman Edward J. Noble, owner of Life Savers candy and the Rexall Drug store chain, for the asking price. After Noble took over, the network identified itself on-air as "The Blue Network." It was officially renamed the "American Broadcasting Company, Inc." in June 1945 after the company bought the rights to the name from (what would later become) Storer Broadcasting. With about 65 affiliates, ABC began with few of the big names and popular shows the other networks offered, so counter-programming became an ABC specialty. Industry policy had been to forbid taped
Edward J. Noble Edward J. Noble Edward John Noble (October 8, 1882 – December 28, 1958) was an American broadcasting and candy industrialist originally from Gouverneur, New York. He co-founded the Life Savers Corporation in 1913. He founded the American Broadcasting Company when he purchased the Blue Network in 1943 following the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) decree that RCA divest itself of one of its two radio networks. Edward Noble was born in Gouverneur, New York, and educated in the public schools. He attended Syracuse University and graduated from Yale in 1905. In 1912, chocolate manufacturer Clarence Crane of Cleveland, Ohio invented Life