Liberty Broadcasting System
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The Liberty Broadcasting System was a U.S. radio network of the late 1940s and early 1950s founded by Gordon McLendon, which mainly broadcast live recreations of Major League baseball games, by following the action on the newswires. This was before baseball owners allowed live on-the-scene broadcasts of games.
Founded in 1948, the network was mainly in Texas and the southwest but did have an outlet in Los Angeles. At one time it had about 500 radio stations on the line, being second in size only to the Mutual Broadcasting System.
It carried various types of programs but McLendon, known as the "Old Scotchman", and his ball game recreations off the Western Union ticker provided the big money maker. The re-creations used himself and future sportscasting stars such as Lindsey Nelson and Jerry Doggett.
Interestingly, it was a live, not re-created game that provided McLendon and Liberty with their greatest career moment. The Scotchman himself was behind the Liberty mic at the Polo Grounds in New York for the October 3, 1951 finale of the three-game National League play-off series between the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers).
Radio was still the more popular nationwide medium then. With Russ Hodges' famous radio call limited to the Giants' network, McLendon's call is how most Americans heard the NL clincher, including Giant Bobby Thomson's ninth-inning three-run homer into the left-field stands to win it for New York. Excerpts of the McLendon broadcast were highlighted in the 2001 HBO documentary Shot Heard 'Round the World.
Late night band remotes were another feature carried by Liberty.
According to Time magazine articles of the era, McLendon only paid Major League Baseball $1,000.00 per year for the rights to broadcast the games, but in 1951, the leagues raised the price to $250,000.00 per year, and prohibited broadcasts in any city which had a Minor League franchise and in the northeastern and Midwestern United States.[1]
Since the baseball games were a major draw for both listeners and affiliates, the black-out was a disaster for the fledgling company, which had only posted modest profits during its first few years of operation. More than 100 stations left the network, and, faced with mounting debts, in May of 1952 the network ceased broadcasting.
There is now a new LBS. Affiliates are KTRW AM 970 Spokane, Washington and KTAC FM 93.9 Moses Lake, Washington. The new LBS is not affilaited with the original network, but is affilated with ACN ( The American Christian Network) and Tom Read Broadcasting.
This new LBS airs religous talk programs, old time radio programs and nostalgic music. ( see: http://www.ktrw.com)
