Cumulus Media Networks

Cumulus Media Networks was an American radio network owned and operated by Cumulus Media. From 2011 until its merger with Westwood One, it controlled many of the radio assets formerly belonging to the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), which was broken up in 2007; Cumulus owned the portion of the network that was purchased by Citadel Broadcasting that year.

The network adopted its final name in September 2011, following Cumulus's acquisition of Citadel; prior to this, it had been known as Citadel Media Networks since April 2009, after licensing the "ABC Radio Networks" name from The Walt Disney Company for nearly two years. ABC now operates ABC Audio which produces mostly short-form audio content for radio stations.

As ABC Radio Networks, it was the penultimate of the original major radio networks to still be owned by its original founding company, CBS Radio being the last. The Mutual Broadcasting System and the NBC Radio Network were both dissolved in 1999 after both were sold to the original Westwood One a decade earlier.

History

Cumulus Media Networks had its origins in an early network set up by WJZ (now WABC) in New York City which provided programs to other stations over Western Union lines.

NBC Blue Network

WJZ radio, originally owned by Westinghouse and its informal network were absorbed into the National Broadcasting Company in 1927. To the parent company Radio Corporation of America (RCA), WJZ and affiliates were known as the Blue Network while New York station WEAF and its affiliates (also absorbed into NBC) were known as the "Red Network". On the air, both were identified as "NBC, the National Broadcasting Company." The distinctions between the two networks were, beyond staff and advertisers, mostly a matter of the more popular and established programming appearing on NBC Red.