Editing Amalgamated Broadcasting System (section)

==Operations==
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 | header            = '''Amalgamated Broadcasting System (1933)''' <ref name="dud">[https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Radio-Craft/1930s/Radio-Craft-1933-12.pdf#page=13 "Ed Wynn Chain a Dud"], ''Radio-Craft'', December 1933, page 331. For the "Stations of the Amalgamated Chain" chart, the originally listed station transmitting wavelengths have been converted to their corresponding frequencies.</ref>
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An initial roster of approximately 15 affiliate stations, located in the Northeast, was recruited for the new network, with plans to add additional geographical groups of stations over time. The charter stations were almost all small ones with limited transmitting ranges: their combined powers totaled less than half of that of many individual NBC and CBS stations.<ref name="dud"/> (ABS's flagship, WBNX, at only 250 watts, was dwarfed by the three 50,000-watt NBC and CBS flagship stations, which were also located in New York City). To reduce expenses, instead of the specially prepared telephone lines employed by NBC and CBS to link stations together, ABS decided to use Western Union telegraph wires, despite the admonition by one reviewer that using telegraph lines was known to be problematical, and "Broadcast engineers in the know never use them except in a dire emergency."<ref name="dud"/>

As company president, Wynn was actively involved in overseeing developments, and planned to be on-hand for the network's launch. However, the delay in the starting date eventually required him to leave in July for Hollywood, for the filming of a movie "The Fire Chief". This left Gygi in charge, who, unlike Wynn, proved to be unpopular, in addition to being unqualified for the task of running a radio network. At a press conference launching ABS, Gygi "managed to alienate almost the entire New York City press corps", "by announcing... that he was only interested in what ''[[The New York Times]]'' thought of the project and had no use for any of the other papers." This irked the influential ''[[New York Daily News]]'' radio critic Ben Gross, whose lead in attacking the apparent ABS attitude was picked up by his peers — and by advertisers whom Gygi reportedly alienated by positioning the network toward treating advertising as "a necessary but distasteful evil", which in turn caused ABS difficulty attracting sponsors needed to pay for the promised top quality programming.<ref name="tonight">[https://www.otrr.org/FILES/Articles/Elizabeth%20McLeod/wynn.htm "Tonight The Program's Gonna Be Different: The Life and Times of Ed Wynn, the Fire Chief"] by Elizabeth McLeod. (otrr.org)</ref>

The new network finally debuted with a four-hour gala on September 25, 1933, broadcast from its newly built studios (and luxurious offices) at 501 Madison Avenue in New York City. Personalities appearing on the program schedule included [[Vaughn De Leath]] and [[Norman Brokenshire]], with welcoming addresses by Postmaster General [[James Farley|James A. Farley]], Judge E. O. Sykes, chairman of the [[Federal Radio Commission]], and Representative [[Sol Bloom]] of New York, who spoke from Washington via WOL.<ref>[https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1933/1933-10-01-BC.pdf#page=8 "Amalgamated Network Gets Started"], ''Broadcasting'', October 1, 1933, page 14.</ref> Ed Wynn did not appear, in part because his radio contract would not allow him to be on a competing network. Ben Gross, who attended, later described the event as poorly organized and disrupted by an unruly audience.