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The Daily Insight Hub

When was the first American broadcast?

Author

Matthew Harrington

Updated on January 09, 2026

This was just the sort of thing Westinghouse had in mind, and it asked Conrad to help set up a regularly transmitting station in Pittsburgh. On November 2, 1920, station KDKA made the nation’s first commercial broadcast (a term coined by Conrad himself).

What year did ABC start broadcasting?

1948
American Broadcasting Company

TypeTelevision network (1948–present) Radio network (1943–2007, 2015–present)
CountryUnited States
AvailabilityWorldwide
FoundedMay 15, 1943 in New York City, United States by Edward J. Noble & Louis Blanche
SloganAmerica’s Network: ABC; ABC Funny (comedy programming)

When did broadcast start?

The radio broadcasting of music and talk intended to reach a dispersed audience started experimentally around 1905–1906, and commercially around 1920 to 1923. VHF (very high frequency) stations started 30 to 35 years later.

What is the origin story of ABC or the American broadcasting Company?

Created in 1943 from the former ABC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948. As one of the Big Three television networks for its first 45 years, its programming has contributed to American popular culture.

What is the oldest TV show?

With a whopping 69 years of runtime, “Meet the Press” takes the cake for being the longest-running television show in not just American television history, but global television history as well.

What was the first radio station in the world?

KDKA
world’s first commercial radio station, KDKA, began broadcasting in Pittsburgh in 1920.

What was the name of the American Broadcasting Company?

Television in the United States: Getting started. …programming on the four networks—the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS; later CBS Corporation), the National Broadcasting Co. (NBC), and the DuMont Television Network, which folded in 1955—was scarce.

When did the American Broadcasting Company become Disney?

It would later become an independent television network known as the American Broadcasting Company in 1943, and be purchased by The Walt Disney Company on February 6, 1996.

When did ABC first start broadcasting on TV?

It first broadcast on television in 1948. Corporate headquarters are in Manhattan in New York City, while programming offices are in Burbank, California adjacent to the Walt Disney Studios and the Walt Disney Company corporate headquarters. ABC is the most watched television network in the United States as of 2008.

Who are the owners of National Broadcasting Company?

Written By: National Broadcasting Co., Inc. (NBC), major American commercial broadcasting company, since 2004 the television component of NBC Universal, which is jointly owned by General Electric Co. (GE) and Vivendi. Origins.