ABC Network - Seattle 1929-Linden's

East and West

G A. Coats

Washington Star, November 1, 1928

Paley making "the connection"
to ABC

It is now hard to understand Linden’s thinking in

taking his next steps so we are left to speculate.

On August 25, 1928 Linden announced the opening of ABC New York offices at 119

West 57th Street. The press statement also reported that George A. Coats had

been named ABC’s Eastern Representative and Frederick C. Dahlquist ABC’s general

manager. While Coats was working from the New York location Dahlquist may

have been at KYA in San Francisco. But in order to understand Linden’s opening of

New York quarters one needs to look at another network - the Columbia

Broadcasting System.

Coats was an entrepreneur and has been described as someone

whose principal interest was making money without having much

attachment to any particular field in which it was generated.

Radio was new and thriving and, while his money had been

earned in other arenas including paving equipment, he apparently

saw radio as promising. The National Association of Broadcasters’

Fourth Annual Meeting was held on September 14, 1926, at which

Coats made a huge splash in a fiery speech opposing moves by

the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) for radio

performance fees. David Sarnoff was then in the midst of planning for the

National Broadcasting Company (NBC) launch two months later and would have

attended. Likely, artist representative Arthur Judson was also present. Judson

was then pitching Sarnoff to establish an artists bureau which he hoped would

furnish talent to the NBC – a plan of which Sarnoff had been encouraging. Judson

may already have known Coats as they had mutual friends through the New York

Philharmonic which Judson managed. In any event, Judson and Coats incorporated

the Judson Radio Program Company on September 26 intending to supply

programming to NBC.

Following the formal announcement of NBC’s launch, Judson returned to Sarnoff to

move his venture along and, to his surprise, was rebuffed. Sarnoff liked the idea

but had decided to take Judson’s plan and create an in-house division of NBC for

that purpose. A stung Judson then retorted that he would start his own network

which prompted a skeptical laugh from Sarnoff.

Judson and Coats (along with 2 other principals) incorporated United Independent

Broadcasters (UIB) on January 27, 1928 and set about establishing a network to

compete with NBC and utilize their talent company’s artist services.

Coats was a promoter – pure and simple. He calls to mind something akin to the

Professor Harold Hill character in Meredith Willson’s “The Music Man”. Willson had

actually been hired by Linden for the KJR/ABC staff in 1928 although there is now

no basis for believing that the Hill character was even partially based upon Coats.

In any event, UIB was nothing but an incorporation document in February, 1928

when Coats went on the road to find affiliated stations and money to launch the

network. Ultimately, he persuaded the Columbia Phonograph Company to invest

$163,000 in the venture and UIB and Columbia jointly caused the incorporation of

the Columbia Phonograph Broadcasting Corporation (CPBC) on April 5. The plan

was for Columbia Phonograph to invest its $163,000 in the new CPBC which would,

in turn, sell advertising to sponsors on the new network the funds from which

would repay Columbia Phonograph’s original $163,000 investment.

Coats was partially successful. Getting stations to affiliate with a network which

had no programming and no public position wouldn’t have been easy and yet he

did secure affiliations with 16 stations. Raising capital proved harder and CPBC

limped onto the air on September 18, 1927 with Coats scaring up capital wherever

he could find it over the next 11 months. However, it was clear the new network

would soon fail for lack of financing.

Likely during the summer of 1928 Coats left for Philadelphia pitching purchase of

the network to various parties which resulted in Congress Cigar Company family

interests making a significant investment. A young family member, William Paley,

had previously dabbled with radio advertising for the company’s La Palina Cigar

division, had thus become interested in radio. Recognizing the family's

investment, he was appointed president of the network in September, 1928 and,

fairly promptly, renamed the network the Columbia Broadcasting System.

So Coats’ perseverance and salesmanship saved CPBC and launched CBS. Linden

must have been both impressed and attracted by Coats’ proven ability to snatch

salvation from disaster. Clearly hoping Coats would work the same magic, he

installed Coats in ABC's New York office as the network's Eastern Representative.

For reasons that are not now entirely clear, Linden also set up a separate

corporation, the Allied Broadcasting Companies, Inc.(All-BC) to manage ABC’s

interests for matters “as far West as Chicago”. While it isn’t clear how early Coats

was formally brought into Linden’s orbit, by May, 1928 Linden had also brought

Eric H. Palmer into the fold.

Palmer had a durable resume. He was in charge of advertising for the

Freed-Eisemann Radio Corporation, a major radio manufacturer located in

Brooklyn, NY, and was a frequent contributor to publications like Radio World,

Radio Digest, Radio Doings and similar publications. He was president of the

Brooklyn Press Club and was also appointed the City

of Brooklyn’s official “radio negotiator” for radio

matters before that city. Palmer was also

occasionally an official representative for

Freed-Eisemann and general radio industry matters in

Europe. So, Palmer had a strong position in the New York radio industry in the

1920s.

By 1928, however, Palmer had left Freed-Eisemann and was the publicity director

for the Cigar Institute of America in which capacity he might well have known Bill

Paley. Palmer’s professional roots seemed more in radio than tobacco, however,

so he must have been intrigued Linden’s emerging network.

On November 1, 1928 Linden formally incorporated Allied Broadcasting Companies,

Inc. (All-BC) with offices in the same New York location originally announced for

the American Broadcasting Company. It is not clear in which state All-BC was

incorporated although the incorporation announcement was carried in the

Washington, D.C. “Star” newspaper. Linden was the new corporation’s president

and, by November 17, Eric Palmer was being identified as its vice-president.

Likely, Linden thought Palmer could be helpful in

lining up affiliated stations and for general

representation of ABC’s interests in the east while

Coats’ would seemingly have been more

responsible for securing investment capital.

It is hard to know why Linden decided to establish

a second corporation. The use of the plural

(Companies) in the All-BC name suggests a

potentially broader vision than ABC’s network

business. Or perhaps Linden or Coats wanted a

more east coast-focused enterprise in which to

invest their energies. Or perhaps Linden believed

it would be easier to attract capital for the radio

network with a more solid eastern office and staff. Press coverage of the

relationship between ABC and All-BC is exceedingly vague and both Palmer and

Coats were variously described as handling both ABC’s and All-BC’s eastern

interests.

Linden and Coats were both already involved with

Linden's

venture by the time Paley took over Columbia. So,

since

Columbia had no western affiliates, its was doubtless Coats who suggested to Paley

that ABC’s western stations would provide Columbia western outlets and, indeed,

such a deal was made. Following what were probably seen as tests beginning

October 9, 1927, the Columbia-ABC “connection” was formally inaugurated on

January 9, 1929. .

It’s possible that Linden envisioned some type of formal or informal alliance with

Paley/Columbia although it is somewhat difficult to envision that plan in light of

Linden’s establishing his own offices and personnel on Paley’s doorstep in

Manhattan.

From this point forward ABC and All-BC seem to have traveled somewhat parallel

paths with occasional, confusing intersections.