Mutual Broadcasting System (fictional)

The Mutual Broadcasting System (MBS) is a American English-language commerical broadcast television network that is the flagship property of MBS Corp. The network is headquartered at the MBS Building in New York City with an additional major office in Los Angeles (the Mutual Pictures backlot).

MBS has fifteen owned and operated stations and nearly 200 affiliates throughout the United States and its territories, some of which are also available in Canada via pay-television providers or in border over-the-air.

MBS is sometimes called the Pentagon Network in reference to is current and most famous logo, introduced on July 9, 1969.

1934-1939: Beginnings
On October 34, 1934, The Mutual Broadcasting System was incorporated. There were originally 4 stations, WOR, WGN, WLW, and WXYZ. WXYZ left Mutual for NBC Blue after August 1935. The three national radio networks already in operation—the Columbia Broadcasting System and the National Broadcasting Company's NBC Red and NBC Blue—were corporate controlled: programming was produced by the network (or by advertising agencies of program sponsors that purchased airtime on the network) and distributed to affiliates, most of which were independently owned.

During 1936, an offer by Warner Bros. purchase the network was apparently made and rejected.

In January 1937, ownership of WAAB was consolidated with that of another Boston station controlled by Shepard: WNAC was flagship of the Yankee Network, a circuit of New England radio stations whose membership partially overlapped with that of Colonial.Yankee flagship WNAC had been an affiliate of CBS Radio, changing affiliation to NBC Red later in 1937 when CBS purchased WEEI in that city.

1940's: Launch of Television Network
Until January, 1940, six groups bore the expense of the network operation in varying degree: stations WGN and WOR owned all the stock of the corporation and guaranteed to make up any deficit; the Colonial Network in New England, the Don Lee System on the Pacific Coast, and the group of stations owned by the Cleveland Plain Dealer, participated in responsibility for running expenses.

Within two years, the Colonial Network's affiliate roster and shares in Mutual had been fully absorbed into the Yankee Network by John Shepard III; WNAC was the sole flagship, WAAB having been moved to Worcester, in central Massachusetts, to avoid duopoly restrictions.

Still, because Mutual affiliates were mostly in small markets or lesser stations in large ones, the network lagged way behind in advertising revenue—NBC took in eleven times as much as Mutual that year.

On January 10, 1942, Mutual filed a $10.275 million suit against NBC and its parent company, RCA, alleging a conspiracy "hindering and restricting Mutual freely and fairly to compete in the transmission in interstate commerce of nationwide network programs." These developments appear to have been of more symbolic than practical value to Mutual—the transfer of the NBC Blue stations to the new American Broadcasting Company did little to help Mutual's competitive position.

On March 31, 1945, Mutual launched a television network, branding as MBS. It had a practice of adapting its own programming into television and airing programming rejected by the other networks. The inaugural broadcast was an announcement of the murders of 10 political prisoners in Zutphen by Sicherheitsdienst.

1950's: New Ownership
Around the same time, Mutual acquired the television broadcast rights to the World Series and All-Star Game for the next six years.

The Don Lee Broadcasting System, with its major station groups KHJ in Los Angeles and KFRC in San Francisco and its shares in the Mutual Broadcasting System, was sold to General Tire (which already had a stake in Mutual via its Yankee Network holdings).

Mutual was likely reindulging in TV network dreams or was simply taking advantage of a long-standing business relationship; in either case, Mutual sold the broadcast rights to NBC in time for the following season's games at an enormous profit.

In July 1957, General Tire sold Mutual to a group led by Dr. Armand Hammer.

Under its new chairman, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hal_Roach_Jr. Hal Roach Jr.], F.L. Jacobs put Mutual into Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

MBS Television continued its rising into network television. It agreed with DuMont Laboratories to acquire the latter's television network following its demise. In markets where MBS affiliates were non-existant, DuMont affiliates directly affiliated with MBS after the former's demise. DuMont programs carried over to MBS. However, MBS was still last-place in the ratings.

1960's: Narrowed Focus
In the spring of 1960, the 3M Company stepped in, purchasing Mutual and restoring much-needed stability to the operation.

The following month, after the death of Mutual stalwart [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulton_Lewis_Jr. Fulton Lewis Jr.], his son Fulton Lewis III took over his Monday-to-Friday, 7 p.m. slot.

In July 1966, 3M sold the network to a privately held company, Mutual Industries, Inc., headed by John P. Fraim.

Under Little, Mutual began its own niche programming services, taking advantage, like ABC, of the prevailing FCC requirement that all radio stations, of whatever primary format, regularly air news and public affairs (a responsibility that would be eliminated in the early 1980s).

His replacement was Victor C. Diehm, owner of several Mutual-affiliated radio stations and active on the Mutual Affiliates Advisory Council.

When ABC Radio "split" into four demographically targeted networks on January 1, 1968, Mutual unsuccessfully sued to block the move.

With the announcement of its fall 1969 schedule, MBS unveiled its current and most famous logo, designed by Landor Associates. It became the official logo on September 21, 1969, in time for its 35th anniversary. The first wordmark was in Helvetica. It is known as the "Pentagon" due to the logo having 5 straight sides.

1970's: Peak
On January 18, 1970, the soap opera Flowerbed Way premiered on MBS Television. The eponymous street is in a fictional city in California called Evansville. The premiere pulled significant ratings and MBS airs the show regularly ever since. That same year, due to the FCC's Financial Interest and Syndication Rules, MBS spun off the original MBS Films into a seperate company called United Television Distributors.

On May 1, 1972, the network launched the Mutual Black Network (MBN) and the Mutual Spanish Network (Mutual Cadena Hispánica); each provided 100 five-minute-long news and sports capsules a week, along with other programming.

While the Spanish-language service would last only six months, by 1974 MBN had 98 affiliates.

During the 1970s the network carried a daily 5-minute show "This is Liberty Lobby" which espoused far-right extremist views of the Liberty Lobby.

On September 30, 1977, Amway bought the network.

Additional targeted services, such as the Mutual Southwest Network and Mutual Lifestyle Radio, followed from Mutual.

From 1970 through 1977, Mutual was the national radio broadcaster for Monday Night Football.

In 1974, Mutual began using its distinctive "Mutualert" network cue tones, or "bee-doops" as they were frequently called.

It was eventually spun off and acquired by the Sheridan Broadcasting Corporation, leading to the creation of American Urban Radio Networks.

1980's: Decline
At the beginning of the year, Mutual had begun broadcasting its final drama series, Mutual Radio Theater, formerly Sears Radio Theater, which it had just picked up.

In 1980, Amway purchased WHN in New York, giving Mutual a second major-market owned-and-operated station.

In 1981, Mutual launched Dick Clark's National Music Survey, a three-hour-long weekly program combining music and interviews.

In September 1985, Amway sold the network to Westwood One for $39 million.

In 1987, the number got even bigger: Westwood One snapped up Mutual's long-time competitor, the NBC Radio Network, for $50 million.

In November 1983, Amway sold off Mutual's WCFL to Statewide Broadcasting.

Mutual Radio Theater, the network's last ever original dramatic series, aired its final new episode on December 19, 1981.

Mutual had the news operations that Westwood lacked.

Westwood and Mutual were a good match: The demographics of Mutual affiliates tended to be adult; most of the stations that bought Westwood's programming, much of it in the pop music field, had substantially younger audiences.

1990's: Fate of the radio network, formation of MBCT
In 1993, when Larry King switched his all-night radio show to a shorter daytime version a year before giving it up, the late-night call-in slot went to WCFL alumnus Jim Bohannon; within a few years, it was a Westwood One–branded show.

Westwood One was itself taken over by Infinity Broadcasting in 1994.

In 1995, MBS was affected by the 1994 United States broadcast TV realignment. It saw its three largest affiliates, WWOR, KTLA and WGN respectively, affiliate with UPN (the former) and The WB (the latter) respectively. To make up for the loss of affiliation, MBS purchased Mountain Broadcasting Corporation (owners of WMBC) and Golden Orange Broadcasting (owners of KDOC) and rebranded the two stations as WMBS and KMBS, respectively.

In a deal announced in June 1996 and completed that December, CBS's new parent company, Westinghouse, acquired Infinity for just shy of $5 billion. Earlier that year, Cox agreed to sell WAXN to MBS's owners as they were planning to rechristen the station as "MBS 64".

Mutual and NBC Radio newscasters sat back to back in the Westwood One studio, the former main Mutual facility in Crystal City, Virginia.

In early 1999, Westwood One announced it was dropping the Mutual name in favor of CNN Radio, which it began distributing through a deal with Time Warner's Turner Broadcasting System.

A former member of the Mutual news team described the end: "Official time of Mutual Radio's death was Midnight 4/17/99. No tribute, no mention it was the last newscast ... it just died."

The Crystal City facility was closed in March 2001, and Westwood's primary operations were transferred to the CBS Broadcast Center in New York City.

After Mutual Radio's fate, Westwood sold MBS Television to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. MBS Productions was folded into MGM Television, and shows based on Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer properties began to air on the network. As a result, its Saturday morning block, MBS Funhouse, was converted to a standalone TV channel, simply called Funhouse.

2000's: First decade of MBCT ownership
In 2000, despite some big hits, MBS was in fourth place in the ratings, behind ABC, NBC, and CBS, and ahead of Fox, The WB, and UPN.

In September 2001, as a result of a carriage dispute, Comcast removed MBS's owned and operated stations. They were reinstated in October that year.

On February 28, 2003, MGM made a division called MBS Films. This revives the brand name after 33 years.

In September 2003, MBS made an agreement with Seven Network and Network Ten to air Home and Away and Neighbours respectively. In 2007, as a result of Seven and Ten demanding 10x more money than usual, MBS pulled both series from its daytime lineup.

In 2005, UBS was in need of money as a result of Motorola's growing losses. MGM Holdings, the owner of MBS, gave UBS $500 million. This started a relationship between MBS and UBS.

In 2008, MBS rebranded with a change of font from Helvetica to DIN. This did not affect its divisions. MBS aired a revival of Lum and Abner that was cancelled as a result of low ratings. It also aired adaptations of foreign game shows, such as Numbers and Letters, Good Fortune, and Blocks.

In 2009, MGM, MBS's parent company, was insolvent. As a result, despite the premiere of the hit James Bond show, MBS fell to fourth place, behind ABC and ahead of Fox.

2010s: Emergence from bankruptcy, acquisition, and later spin off from UBS Corp
In 2010, MBS revived the American version of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! It pulled significant ratings and MBS began adapting other reality series.

In 2016, MBS switched its font from DIN to a bespoke font known as Elson. A new identity coincided with the switch to Elson. This affected its divisions, where MBS Sports switched from Winner to Elson.

In 2017, UBS Corp announced its plans to acquire MGM Holdings. UBS Corp had UBS, Matinee, and The U. Under special request, The Department of Justice and the FCC approved the deal, and the merger was subject to laws in other countries.

In 2018, after the completion of the acquisition, MGM, MBS, and other assets were brought into UBS Corp. MBS and UBS owned-and-operated stations are now in duopolies. Telema and Matinee are now under one company, Telema-Matinee, Inc. Mutual and The U are under one subsidiary, UBS Cable Networks.

In 2019, due to a change of strategy at UBS Corp, the company spun the MBS units off into a separate company, MBS Corp. The new company began operations in January 2020.

Identity
Until 1969, the MBS Television logo was in the style of each time's radio logo. In 1969, Landor Associates designed the current and most famous logo. The simplicity of the logo was an advantage for MBS. From 1972 to 1999, the wordmark was in the font of the radio network.

In 1980, for the "MBS People Don't Miss Out!" campaign, MBS's logo was given a metallic look. This was the first three-dimensional look.

Throughout the years, MBS's on-screen identity advanced with technology. For example, a campaign, "MBS is What Television is For!", was made by Pixar.

In 2017, MBS switched from Helvetica to Elson. This affected other divisions.

Stations
See: List of MBS affiliates