Metromedia was a media company that owned radio and television stations in the United States from 1956 to 1986 and owned Orion Pictures from 1986-1997. The company arose from the ashes of the DuMont Television Network, the world's first commercial television network. By 1955, DuMont realized it could not compete against CBS, NBC and a revived ABC, and decided to shut down network operations. Soon after DuMont formally shut down network operations in 1956, it spun off its two remaining owned and operated stations, WABD in New York City and WTTG in Washington, D.C., to shareholders as the... DuMont Broadcasting Corporation. The company's headquarters were co-located with WABD in the former DuMont Tele-Centre in New York. In 1957, DuMont Broadcasting purchased two New York area radio stations, WNEW and WHFI , and later that year changed its name to the Metropolitan Broadcasting Corporation to distance itself from its former parent company.
more