William Paley is credited with establishing which network in 1927?

• A. CBS
• B. NBC
• C. ABC
• D. FOX

Answer: (A)

The main idea here is recognizing who built a national radio network in the late 1920s and how that network came to be a lasting brand in American broadcasting. William Paley is famously associated with creating the Columbia Broadcasting System, which became CBS. He turned a group of individual stations into a coordinated network, standardizing programming and advertising to give sponsors a national reach. That move established CBS as one of the era’s premier networks and set the pattern for how networks operated across the country.

NBC was already operating as a major network under RCA, so its origin isn’t tied to Paley. ABC didn’t form until later, in 1943, after a split with NBC. Fox came into prominence far later in the history of TV and radio. So the network Paley established in 1927 is CBS.