When "The Voice of Firestone" arrived on television in the fall of 1949, NBC simulcast the show on radio and TV, one of the first programs to use that technology. Thanks to the appearance on the show of famous classical-music soloists, some from the New York Metropolitan Opera, along with Broadway musical stars, the show was considered quite prestigious, but the ratings always remained low. In an era when successful programs were capable of garnering as many as half the viewers available in a given time slot, "The Voice of Firestone" typically only had three million viewers, a comparatively small number for what was rapidly becoming the nation's most influential mass medium. In 1954, NBC asked Firestone's permission to move the program to a different night or time period. Firestone refused, and the television series was picked up by ABC. The radio series stayed with NBC and ended in 1956.