CBS

CBS (COLUMBIA BROADCASTING SYSTEM)
 
 
CBS  (an initialism of the network’s former name, the Columbia Broadcasting System) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network.  CBS is sometimes referred to as the “Eye Network”, in reference to the company’s iconic logo, in use since 1951.  The network has its origins in United Independent Broadcasters, Inc., a collection of 16 radio stations that was purchased by William S. Paley in 1928, and renamed the Columbia Broadcasting System.  Under Paley’s guidance, CBS would first become one of the largest radio networks in the United States, and eventually one of the Big Three American broadcast television networks.  (More from Wikipedia)
 
 
The band, now redubbed the Magicians, added Allan “Jake” Jacobs (guitar and vocals) and John Townley (guitar and bass) when Mike Appel and Everett Jacobs left the band.  The band became better known when they replaced the Lovin’ Spoonful as the house band at the Night Owl nightclub in the Village.  At one point, Felix Pappalardi – later of the hard rock band Mountain – was interested in joining up as the bass guitarist, but it didn’t work out.  They even managed to score an appearance on a local CBS television show called Eye on New York – quite a coup considering that they did not have a hit song or an album. 
 
(December 2011)
 
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In 1953, “Crazy Man, Crazy” by Bill Haley and His Comets became the first rock and roll song to be televised nationally when it was used in the soundtrack of an episode of the CBS anthology series Omnibus called Glory in the Flower that starred James Dean.  Rock Around the Clock was their next record, and the band continued with a string of hits in the mid-1950’s that included “Shake, Rattle and Roll”, “See You Later, Alligator”, “Skinny Minnie”, and “Razzle Dazzle”. 

 

(June 2013/1)

 

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Josie and the Pussycats probably didn’t seem like a ground-breaking animation program at the time, when the Hanna-Barbera show debuted on CBS television in 1970; but if I am not mistaken, it was the first Saturday morning cartoon show to have all female lead characters.  The cartoon show was based on an Archie comic strip of the same name, though the premise of the show was more in line with the Scooby Doo series of the same time period.  

 

(November 2013)

  
Last edited: March 22, 2021