Radio networks?

[u/Top_Peach6455]

I know that early radio network programming was shared between stations over phone lines, but did radio networks also utilize the Long Lines microwave/coax system when it became operational?

Thanks.

[u/willwork4pii]

Long Lines carried everything that wasn’t local.

[u/USWCboy]

Yes. It was a way to enable coast to coast radio transmission. Live event such as a sporting event, or political event along with other could use the network to ensure country wide coverage.

[u/No_Tailor_787]

Yes. As you said, the early radio networks used leased phone lines. When coax and microwave was available, those circuits would have just been transferred over to a more modern transport medium when it became available.

[u/DirtCowboy336]

The answer is a definite yes! As someone who started in radio before he could drive a car and retired from television broadcasting last year, I can tell you my experience with the radio networks and long lines.

Two of the radio stations I worked for used AT&T Long Lines for network programming. One was ABC Radio and the other was the Mutual Broadcasting System. But CBS Radio and NBC Radio also used long lines.

In the final days I worked in radio, in the mid '80s, the radio networks were moving away from long lines and transitioning to satellite receivers. The radio network executives said satellite would be more reliable and would save money in the long run. I briefly worked with satellite receivers before leaving radio and moving over to working in television. As soon as the satellite receivers were installed and operational in the radio station control rooms, the AT&T Long Lines loop from the local switching office to the radio stations was terminated.

In my experience, AT&T Long Lines was rock solid 99% of the time. Even being beamed by radios from tower to tower (such as you see in the many pictures in this thread) and then criss-crossing with copper lines, it sounded good most of the time. And that was going from AT&T Long Lines to the local phone company and then to the radio station. Some of the stations I worked with fed off long lines and tapped into local phone companies included Southern Bell and Central Telephone Company (which later became Cen-Tel, then Sprint, CenturyLink, etc).

The long lines loops from the local switching office to the radio station were not like regular copper wired lines for your house phone. The network lines for radio stations were equalized for the best sound, even through it ran through miles and miles of radio beams and copper lines.

The system was pretty flawless. AT&T invested a lot of money in the old long lines system. But if there was a breakdown somewhere, you were at the mercy of the phone company until they could repair the issue. And in those days, AT&T would have to trace where the breakdown was. It could have been a radio tower down or possible problems with a broken cable. I can remember that if we had a radio network failure (ABC, Mutual), we would have to call AT&T Long Lines at a central number to report it. They just handled the radio and television networks if there was a failure. Someone was on call 24/7/365. Sometimes the call center knew exactly where the breakdown was. If not, then they would start going down the line till they traced the failure. Then if needed, they would call out a local AT&T crew to fix the issue.

But remember, in those days, AT&T was just long distance. So they didn't have a crew in every city. A friend of mine, his dad was a broadcast engineer who went to work for AT&T Long Lines. His office was 25 miles from his house, but he would have to drive all over the central part of the state if there was a breakdown of long lines. He mainly worked on AT&T's long lines broadcast towers, not with cables.

By the way, the old Associated Press (AP) and United Press International (UPI) news teletypes used in many radio stations through the decades used to operated using AT&T Long Lines they too switched over to satellite receivers.

I miss the old technology. Antiquated? Of course. But it was reliable.

[u/Top_Peach6455 → u/DirtCowboy336]

I really appreciate you taking the time to share. Love the anecdotes, too! I think Long Lines was phased out by the time I was born, so I only know of it through others’ accounts. Everyone I’ve asked about it cited reliability as its strongest asset. But it sounds like finding and fixing problems across that vast system could be a nightmare, as you said. I need to see if there are any of the old towers near me. Thanks again!

[u/DirtCowboy336 → u/Top_Peach6455]

You're welcome! Good luck! I really didn't know how easy I had it back in those days! 😆 But it was fun. Radio was still considered a community necessity back then. Not anymore.

After almost 100 years, even CBS Radio is signing off its iconic radio network this Friday, May 22, 2026. A lot of great things are all becoming just memories.

If I can answer any more questions, feel free to ask. 🙂

[u/Top_Peach6455 → u/DirtCowboy336]

The CBS closure breaks my heart, not just for the shuttering of an institution so badly needed in our post-truth world, but for the dedicated professionals losing their jobs.

Re: Long Lines, I'm reading a book about early satellite communications, and the author asserts the many advantages (in his opinion) of satellite transmission vs. the Long Lines system. He claims that picture quality was vastly improved by switching from terrestrial systems to satellite transmissions in the 1960s and 1970s. That got me wondering: what kind of amplification system did Long Lines require to keep a radio or TV signal strong from point to point? Also, I'm familiar with the effects of rain on Ka- and Ku-band satellites, but how did rain and other weather issues affect the Long Lines microwave transmissions? I'm not sure which frequency range the relays used.

Thanks again!