Metromedia

Origins[edit]

The company arose from the ashes of the DuMont Television Network, the world's first commercial television network.^[2] DuMont had been in economic trouble throughout its existence, and was seriously undermined when ABC accepted a buyout offer from United Paramount Theaters in 1953. The ABC-UPT deal gave ABC the resources to operate a national television service along the lines of CBS and NBC. DuMont officials quickly realized the ABC-UPT deal put their network on life support, and agreed in principle to merge with ABC. However, it was forced to back out of the deal when minority owner Paramount Pictures raised antitrust concerns. UPT had only spun off from Paramount four years earlier, and there were still doubts about whether the two companies were really separate.^[3]


By 1955, DuMont realized it could not compete against the other three networks and decided to wind down its operations. Soon after DuMont formally shut down network service in 1956, the parent firm DuMont Laboratories spun off the network's two remaining owned and operated stations, WABD in New York City and WTTG in Washington, D.C., to shareholders as the DuMont Broadcasting Corporation.^[4][5] The company's headquarters were co-located with WABD in the former DuMont Tele-Centre (which was later renamed the Metromedia Telecenter) in New York.


In 1957, DuMont Broadcasting purchased two New York area radio stations, WNEW (now WBBR)^[6] and WHFI (later WNEW-FM and WWFS),^[7][8] and later that year changed its name to the Metropolitan Broadcasting Corporation to distance itself from its former parent company.^[9] The following year, Paramount sold its shares in Metropolitan Broadcasting to Washington-based investor John Kluge, enough to give Kluge controlling interest. Kluge installed himself as chairman, and later increased his holdings to 75 percent.^[10] WABD's call letters were later changed to WNEW-TV to match its new radio sisters.^[11]