How many radio networks did the National Broadcasting Company have in the 1930's?

NBC owned two radio stations, WEAF and WJZ. On New Year’s Day, 1927, the company decided to employ a new marketing strategy and created two divisions, the Red Network and the Blue Network.

WEAF and its affiliated stations formed the Red Network, which broadcast commercially-sponsored programming. WJZ and its affiliates of the Blue Network carried news and “cultural” programs. The networks' colors were suggested either by the red and blue push-pins engineers used to identify the stations of the two new networks or by the colored pencils they used, which had red ends and blue ends.

NBC expanded to the West Coast and, on April 5, 1927, established its “Orange Network”, also referred to as the “Pacific Coast Network”. On October 18, 1931, it established the “Gold” or “Pacific Coast Gold” Network. The Orange Network broadcast the same programming as the Red Network, while the Gold Network carried Blue Network material. In the 1930’s, NBC built its “White Network” of shortwave radio stations.

A few years after reaching this peak of five networks, NBC merged its Orange Network stations into the Red Network and its Gold Network stations into the Blue Network, reducing the number of networks to three. After a long legal battle ending with a 1943 US Supreme Court case, RCA sold Blue to the American Broadcasting Company. ABC was born on June 15, 1945, when the sale was completed. The White Network no longer exists.