Editing Mutual Broadcasting System (section)

====Mutual's involvement in television====
Late in the 1940s, there was a brief exploration into the idea of launching a Mutual-branded television network, serious enough to prompt talks with [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]] as a potential source of programming talent.<ref>{{harvp|Segrave|1999|p=22}}. For more on the evaporation of Mutual's TV plans, see {{harvp|Schwoch|1994}}.</ref> Plans for the proposed Mutual-branded network advanced far enough that, at the annual meeting of Mutual stockholders in April 1950, network president Frank White made an official announcement of the planned creation of a limited five-station Mutual network ([[Boston]]-[[WNAC-TV (Boston)|WNAC]], [[New York City]]-[[WWOR-TV|WOR]], [[Washington, D.C.]]-[[WUSA (TV)|WOIC]], [[Chicago]]-[[WGN-TV|WGN]], and [[Los Angeles]]-[[KCAL-TV|KHJ]]).<ref name="Eugene Register-Guard">{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=PR01AAAAIBAJ&pg=6828%2C3171846 |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=MBS Television Plans Readied |page=2 |newspaper=Eugene Register-Guard |agency=United Press |date=1950-04-17 |access-date=2024-10-03 |archive-date=October 7, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007091847/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=PR01AAAAIBAJ&pg=6828,3171846 |url-status=live }}</ref> At that same time Mutual radio station [[KQV]] in [[Pittsburgh]], which was engaged in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to get a television license, was reportedly hoping for their station to be a Mutual television affiliate.<ref name="Pittsburgh Press">{{cite news |url= https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=YOUdAAAAIBAJ&pg=2373%2C1487863&q=KQV+lincese+gets+hopes+these+days+join+Mutual's+just+nounced+five-station |author=Si Steinhauser |title=TV Fans Rush to 'Aid' Silent Star on Vedio [sic] |page=43 |newspaper=The Pittsburgh Press |date=1950-04-18 |access-date=2024-10-03 }}</ref> "Mutual Television Network" ended up being the decided-on branding for the Mutual-branded network.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Malloy, C.S.C |first1=Edward A. |title=Monk's Tale: The Pilgrimage Begins, 1941–1975 |date=24 August 2009 |publisher=University of Notre Dame Press |isbn=978-0-268-16201-6 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Monk_s_Tale/tWEFDgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22mutual+television+network%22&pg=PT24&printsec=frontcover |language=en |quote=Television provided my first exposure to Notre Dame when I happened to watch an Irish football game in the 1950s on the Mutual Television Network (Washington [D.C.] being one of the few cities to have an outlet). |archive-date=December 22, 2024 |access-date=November 29, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241222102115/https://www.google.com/books/edition/Monk_s_Tale/tWEFDgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22mutual+television+network%22&pg=PT24&printsec=frontcover |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=The Times-News |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1bsbAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA4&dq=%22mutual+television+network%22&article_id=2289,143405&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiD9sbm8pKNAxVONNAFHfREH00QuwV6BAgFEAc#v=onepage&q=%22mutual%20television%20network%22&f=false |publisher=The Times-News |language=en |quote=As a journalist, Mr. Sholar covered Olympic Games in Helinski, Melbourne, and Rome for the Mutual Television Network and newspapers. |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.-->}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Robb |first1=Brian |title=Quicklook at Television |date=1 August 2012 |publisher=Quicklook Books Limited |isbn=978-1-908926-66-1 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Quicklook_at_Television/UBUxDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22mutual+television+network%22&pg=PA26&printsec=frontcover |language=en |quote=As a result, the so-called Mutual Television Network was doomed.}}</ref> However, the 5-station Mutual network failed in short time (operating for only 11 months), and Mutual became the only radio network outside the "Big Three" U.S. radio networks, even with a short-lived trial in TV, not to be long-term connected to (and eventually lose its dominance to) a television network. While the Mutual TV network was short-lived, this did not mean the group did not have an influence over commercial television's early development. Several Mutual radio affiliates launched their own television stations that would often be affiliated with the television networks of ABC, [[NBC]], CBS or [[DuMont Network|DuMont]].

The cooperative also held the rights to a number of valuable radio properties that made the transition to the new medium possible, including two of the era's most popular variations on what would later become known as the [[tabloid talk show]] and [[reality television|"reality" programming]]: the crabby gabfest ''[[Leave It to the Girls]]'' and, in particular, ''[[Queen for a Day]],'' which both started on Mutual radio in 1945. Referred to by some as a "misery show," ''Queen for a Day'' "awarded prizes to women who could come up with the most heart-stabbing stories told by the sick and the downtrodden&nbsp;.... On one show, a mother of nine requested a washing machine to replace one that broke when it fell on her husband and disabled him—and who, by the way, also needed heart surgery."<ref>{{harvp|Nachmann|2000|p=350}}.</ref> In May 1947, a simulcast version began airing on the Don Lee system's experimental TV station in Los Angeles, W6XAO (later [[KCBS-TV|KTSL]]). It was a smash hit, and by the turn of the decade, TV stations all along the coast were broadcasting it to high ratings.<ref>{{harvp|Cassidy|2005|pp=40–43, 187–188}}.</ref>{{efn|Media historian Marsha Francis Cassidy also refers to Mutual's wish-fulfillment show ''Heart's Desire'' as one of those that "made the shift to local or regional television",{{r|Cassidy 2005, p. 41}} but it has not been possible to confirm this. For a detailed account of this model of radio art, see:<ref>{{cite web|url=http://online.ceb.com/calcases/CA2/99CA2d56.htm|title=Kovacs v. Mutual Broadcasting System (1950) 99 CA2d 56 (California 2d District Court ruling)|date=August 18, 1950|access-date=March 1, 2010|publisher=Continuing Education of the Bar—California (University of California/State Bar of California)|archive-date=February 11, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230211072655/http://online.ceb.com/calcases/CA2/99CA2d56.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>}} In the 1950s, Mutual would stare down NBC for four years as the mighty network sought to take control of the show.
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