King recalled that due to the number of calls coming in during the early days of the show "there was more than one occasion when code 703 blew". King said that he originally wanted a toll-free telephone number for call-in, but came to believe that he got a better quality of calls when the callers had to pay for them. The show was successful, starting with relatively few affiliates and eventually growing to more than 500, when King retired from the show in 1994. In 1985, King began appearing on television with the interview program Larry King Live for CNN; he continued to broadcast his Mutual radio show later in the evening.