Old Radio

October 7, 1940: The soap opera Portia Faces Life aired for the first time on the NBC Red network. It revolved around the lives of Portia Blake Manning, a lawyer, a widow, and her son. The program was a huge success and obtained several sponsors, including Maxwell House coffee, Post Toasties, Grape Nuts Wheat Meal, Grape Nuts Flakes and Jell-O desserts. The NBC Red Network was the more exclusive of the two radio channels of the National Broadcasting Company. After NBC thought it necessary to divest itself from its Blue Program (which would become the United states Broadcasting Company), the Red Network ran ongoing NBC Radio channels. The NBC radio networks were the first two professional radio channels in the U.S.A (the CBS Radio networks having been founded two years after). The NBC radio networks are no longer dominant under their exclusive configuration, having been gradually included into the greater business of Westwood One.