See page 9 of the NYT in post #1 regarding NBC, the Red and Blue networks, the FCC and James Fly.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Lawrence_Fly
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Network
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Broadcasting_Co._v._United_States
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,851170,00.html
I didn’t know about any of this.
What made you go digging around in NYT archives?