ABC TV Trivia Quiz Questions and Answers
In the world of Television, what is ABC?
A: The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcast
radio and television network.
Who owns it?
A: It’s owned by the Disney Media Networks division of The Walt Disney
Company.
Where is the network headquartered?
A: In Burbank, California, directly across the street from Walt Disney
Studios and adjacent to the Roy E. Disney Animation Building.
Where are the network's secondary offices, and
headquarters of its news division?
A: In New York City, at their broadcast center in the Upper West Side of
Manhattan.
Since 2007, when ABC Radio (also known as Cumulus Media
Networks) was sold to Citadel Broadcasting, ABC has reduced its broadcasting
operations almost exclusively to what?
A: Television.
The fifth-oldest major broadcasting network in the
world and the youngest of the Big Three television networks, ABC is
nicknamed what?
A: "The Alphabet Network".
ABC launched as a what?
A: A radio network.
When did it launch?
A: On October 12, 1943.
It served as the successor to the NBC Blue Network,
which had been purchased by whom?
A: Edward J. Noble.
It extended its operations to television in what year?
A: 1948.
In the mid-1950s, ABC merged with who?
A: United Paramount Theatres, a chain of movie theaters that formerly
operated as a subsidiary of Paramount Pictures.
How did Leonard Goldenson, who had been the head of
UPT, make the new television network profitable?
A: By helping develop and greenlight many successful series.
In the 1980s, after purchasing an 80 percent interest
in cable sports channel ESPN, the network's corporate parent, American
Broadcasting Companies, Inc., merged with whom?
A: Capital Cities Communications, owner of several print publications, and
television and radio stations.
In 1996, most of Capital Cities/ABC's assets were
purchased by whom?
A: The Walt Disney Company.
The television network has eight owned-and-operated and
how many affiliated television stations throughout the United States and its
territories?
A: over 232.
Some ABC-affiliated stations can also be seen where via
pay-television providers?
A: In Canada.
ABC News provides news and features content for select
radio stations owned by whom?
A: Cumulus Media, as these stations are former ABC Radio properties.
In the 1930s, radio in the United States was dominated
by what three companies?
A: The Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), the Mutual Broadcasting System,
and the National Broadcasting Company (NBC).
The last was owned by electronics manufacturer Radio
Corporation of America (RCA), which owned two radio networks that each ran
what?
A: Different varieties of programming, NBC Blue and NBC Red.
The NBC Blue Network was created in 1927 for what
primary purpose?
A: Testing new programs on markets of lesser importance than those served by
NBC Red.
NBC Red served what markets?
A: The major cities.
In 1934, Mutual filed a complaint with the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) regarding its difficulties in doing what?
A: Establishing new stations, in a radio market that was already being
saturated by NBC and CBS.
In 1938, the FCC began a series of investigations into
what?
A: The practices of radio networks.
Published in 1940, the report recommended what?
A: That RCA give up control of either NBC Red or NBC Blue.
At that time, the NBC Red Network was the principal
radio network in the United States and, according to the FCC, RCA was using
NBC Blue to do what?
A: To eliminate any hint of competition.
Having no power over the networks themselves, the FCC
established a regulation forbidding licenses to be issued for radio stations
if they were what?
A: Affiliated with a network which already owned multiple networks that
provided content of public interest.
Once Mutual's appeals against the FCC were rejected,
RCA decided to do what?
A: To sell NBC Blue in 1941, and gave the mandate to do so to Mark Woods.
Edward J. Noble, the owner of Life Savers candy,
drugstore chain Rexall and New York City radio station WMCA, purchased the
network for how much?
A: $8 million.
Due to FCC ownership rules, the transaction, which was
to include the purchase of three RCA stations by Noble, would require him to
do what?
A: To resell his station with the FCC's approval.
The Commission authorized the transaction on October
12, 1943, and soon afterward, the Blue Network was purchased by what new
company Noble founded?
A: The American Broadcasting System.
Noble subsequently acquired the rights to what?
A: The American Broadcasting Company name from George B. Storer in 1944.
ABC became an aggressive competitor to NBC and CBS when
continuing what?
A: NBC Blue's traditions of public service.
It aired symphony performances conducted by whom?
A: Paul Whiteman.
It also hosted performances from the Metropolitan
Opera, and jazz concerts aired as part of its what?
A: Broadcast of The Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street announced by
Milton Cross.
The network also became known for suspenseful dramas
such as what?
A: Sherlock Holmes, Gang Busters and Counterspy.
When did the ABC television network make its debut?
A: On April 19, 1948, with WFIL-TV in Philadelphia (now WPVI-TV) becoming
its first primary affiliate.
What was the first program ever broadcast on the
network?
A: On the Corner, featuring satirist Henry Morgan.
What other stations carried the initial broadcast?
A: WMAR-TV in Baltimore, WMAL-TV in Washington, D.C., and WABD, the DuMont
station in New York City.
