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Color was just an improvement on the existing BW network going from NYC west as it was built after the war but it was not a NBC/RCA/CBS/ABC/Dumont network. It was the monopoly of AT&T Long Lines and all of their charges for transmission to the local stations. Coaxial at first and then microwave along with improvements to local stations on the net to pass color.
Why build two network controls when one would do? It was analog, proc amps all along the path to keep the signal good and NYC had all the resources for the full network. And ad agency contracted announcers for any given refrigerator commercial could not be on both coasts. These were the day when ad agencies ruled. No need to keep a second crop of announcers, staff, studios, film, stagehands, et al in LA. Just use two one way paths. NYC was the center of the universe.
LA was perfect for talent, studios and shows going east then back west. Let NYC do the heavy lifting going west.
When I got in to broadcasting in 1970, AT&T was still pretty much the same one-way system. NFL on Sunday via CBS was an adventure to get on the air with early and late games. There was a closed-circuit AT&T show on Fridays on CBS after the afternoon soaps with a bunch of engineer types with thin black ties documenting all the switches and patches that needed to be made for any Sunday for the markets and time zones.
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“Once you eliminate the impossible...whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth." Sherlock Holmes.
Last edited by Dave A; 11-19-2017 at 07:14 PM.
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