Page "Mutual Broadcasting System" Paragraph 11

In April 1938, the network picked up The Green Hornet from former member WXYZ.

Mutual gave the twice-a-week series its first national exposure until November 1939, when it switched to NBC Blue.

( The series would return very briefly to Mutual in the fall of 1940 ).

MBS also provided the national launching pad for Kay Kyser and His Kollege of Musical Knowledge ; Kyser's enormous success at Mutual soon allowed his show to move to NBC and its much larger audience.

By May 1939, MBS was broadcasting the Indianapolis 500.

That autumn, Mutual won exclusive broadcast rights to the World Series.

As described in a 1943 Supreme Court ruling upholding the regulatory power of the Federal Communications Commission, Mutual " offered this program of outstanding national interest to stations throughout the country, including NBC and CBS affiliates in communities having no other stations.

CBS and NBC immediately invoked the ' exclusive affiliation ' clauses of their agreements with these stations, and as a result thousands of persons in many sections of the country were unable to hear the broadcasts of the games.

" This was the first example given in the ruling of " abuses " perpetrated by the two leading broadcast companies.