Will Rogers (far right), Art Gillham, Wendell Hall, Carson Robison, Eveready Quartet, Graham McNamee and the Waldorf-Astoria Dance Orchestra. |File:Graham McNamee in 1925 smiling.jpg |Graham McNamee in the WEAF studio, 1925. }} WEAF's first network program was transmitted on January 4, 1923, using dedicated telephone lines to link to one additional station, WNAC (now WBIX) in Boston, Massachusetts. A more ambitious three-month link began operation on July 1, 1923, when Colonel Edward H. R. Green arranged for AT&T to provide WEAF's programming for rebroadcast by his station, WMAF in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts. The summer of 1923 also saw the opening of WCAP in Washington, D.C., licensed to the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company, an AT&T subsidiary. The resulting New York-to-Washington link was extensively used to gain engineering knowledge in using telephone lines for radio network connections. Initially the WEAF network had few advertisers, so most of its schedule consisted of unsponsored "sustaining" programs which network stations had to pay for, although they were not charged for sponsored programs. An important early sponsored program was The Eveready Hour, which debuted over WEAF in December 1923, and began to be carried over a rapidly growing number of stations in early 1924. The first transcontinental link was made in early 1924, and that fall a coast-to-coast network of 23 stations broadcast a speech by President Coolidge. By the end of 1925 there were 26 affiliates in the standard WEAF chain network, extending westward to Kansas City, Missouri. Reacting to AT&T's innovations, RCA began efforts to establish its own network, originating from its New York City station, WJZ (now WABC), but was badly handicapped in competing effectively. AT&T maintained that the cross-licensing agreements gave it the exclusive right to sell airtime. AT&T also normally refused access to its high-quality telephone lines to competitors, so RCA's efforts generally used telegraph lines to connect stations, which would prove to have inadequate fidelity and reliability. RCA also investigated using high-powered or shortwave stations to establish network connections, but none of these alternatives matched the quality of AT&T's telephone links. Thus, while President Coolidge's March 1925 inauguration was sent over a growing AT&T transcontinental network of 23 stations, the WJZ chain's broadcast of the speech was carried by only four stations, all located in the East. Formation of the Broadcasting Company of America On May 11, 1926, AT&T announced that "The radio broadcasting activities heretofore carried on by