two years on the market, it was sold in 1943 to businessman Edward J. Noble, owner of Life Savers candy and the Rexall Drug store chain, for the asking price. After Noble took over, the network identified itself on-air as "The Blue Network." It was officially renamed the American Broadcasting Company, Inc. in June 1945 after the company bought the rights to the name from (what would later become) Storer Broadcasting. With about 65 affiliates, ABC began with few of the big names and popular shows the other networks offered, so counter-programming became an ABC specialty. Industry policy had been to forbid taped or pre-recorded programs; ABC lured some big-name stars by adapting the tape technology developed in World War II. To add to its programming, ABC bought stations KECA (now KABC) in Los Angeles and WXYZ (now WXYT) in Detroit, the latter home and originator of many popular serials such as The Lone Ranger. Financially unable to match the larger networks, ABC merged with United Paramount Theaters early in 1953. Through the 1950s, network radio declined in popularity, and ABC radio gradually became more oriented to its local stations, especially its two pop-music powerhouses, New York's WABC (formerly WJZ) and Chicago's WLS (which was owned and operated by the Prairie Farmer in a time-share arrangement with ABC-owned WENR until both stations merged in 1954; ABC acquired the Farmer's minority stake in 1959). Some network programs held on into the television era: Don McNeill's Breakfast Club, one of the first and longest-running morning shows in the country, hosted by Don McNeill, ran from 1933 to 1968. Other long-running ABC programs included the National Barn Dance, running from 1924 to 1960, and Paul Harvey's daily commentary, which ran from 1951 until his death in 2009. In 1958, ABC collaborated with its sister television network to produce the first national stereophonic sound broadcasts, when it simulcast The Plymouth Show (one of two shows hosted by Lawrence Welk at the time); the TV side broadcast one audio channel and the radio side broadcast the other in synchronization; viewers had to tune into both devices to achieve the stereophonic effect. John F. Kennedy assassination bulletin ABC Radio broadcast the first nationwide report of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Kennedy was shot in a motorcade in Dallas, Texas at 18:30 UTC on November 22, 1963, and ABC Radio's Don Gardiner anchored the network's