operated by other interests." National Broadcasting Company (NBC) era On September 13, 1926, RCA's chairman of the board Owen D. Young and president James G. Harbord announced the formation of the National Broadcasting Company, Inc., to begin operations upon RCA's acquisition of WEAF on November 15. WEAF became the flagship of the NBC Red Network, which sometimes would still be referred to as the WEAF chain, while WJZ became the originator of the NBC Blue Network. On November 11, 1928, the Federal Radio Commission implemented a major reallocation under the provisions of its General Order 40. This introduced frequencies reserved for "clear channel" stations, and WEAF was assigned exclusive nighttime operation on 660 kHz. In 1941, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) forced RCA give up one of its radio networks, citing antitrust concerns, by announcing that it would no longer license radio stations that were affiliated with an organization operating more than one network. This ruling was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court two years later, and RCA decided to keep the flagship station WEAF and the Red Network, which was rebranded as the NBC Radio Network after the Blue Network was divested, along with several stations (including WJZ), to Edward J. Noble. The Blue Network was renamed the American Broadcasting Company. WEAF's call letters were changed to WNBC in 1946, then to WRCA in 1954, and back to WNBC in 1960. The decline of scripted network radio programming in the late 1950s saw the station gradually relaunched into a middle-of-the-road musical format. 1960s By the early 1960s, the station gradually switched from NBC network programs to more local-oriented programs and adjusted its music policy from traditional standards to incorporate more popular hits while staying away from harder rock and roll. In the late 1960s, it adopted a talk format, the first in New York radio. Hosts included genial morning-drive companion Big Wilson, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson announcer Ed McMahon, New York-based actor Robert Alda, NBC Radio comedian/satirist Mort Sahl, the witty mid-morning game-show host ("Fortune Phone") Sterling Yates, late-morning talk radio provocateur Joe Pyne, midday voices Lee Leonard and later Jim Gearhart, sports talk host Bill Mazer, plus late-nighters Brad Crandall (later of NFL Films) and Long John Nebel. On weekends, WNBC aired almost all of the NBC Radio Network's Monitor program, which featured many of WNBC's own hosts as well as the already established lineup holding