CBN

Central Broadcasting Network (CBN)

Type	Broadcast television network (1955-present), Radio Broadcaster (1936-1991)
Branding	CBN
Country	Austenesia
Availability	National
Founded	April 17, 1936 by Central Broadcasters of Austenesia
Slogan	True and Trusted
Headquarters	Fargo Tower Devana City, AST
Owner	Austenesia News Corp.
Key people	Andre Barnes (President)
Launch date	Radio:April 30, 1936 Television:May 7, 1955
Broadcast Format	Limpic, DCS
Picture format	1080i (HDTV) 480i (SDTV)
Language	Austish
Replaced	CBN Radio

The Central Broadcasting Network (CBN) is an Austenesian commercial television broadcast network that is owned by the Austenesia News Corporation. The network is headquartered at the Fargo Tower in Devana City, making it the only major television broadcast network not headquartered in Austenesia's largest city, Portmouth. Founded in 1936 by Earl Peggerson and Mathias Hamner through the Central Broadcasters of Austenesia, it originally started as a radio broadcaster that competed with ABN. In 1955 however, CBN began to also do television broadcasts and established the most developed television broadcast network in eastern Austenesia. After facing financial hardship as a result of its expansion, its parent company dissolved in 1986 and it was purchased by the Austenesia News Corp. In 1991, CBN sold its radio stations to CPR. In 2017, CBN became the first Austenesian broadcaster to purchase the rights to the XIII Winter Olympics.

CBN uses both the Limpic broadcasting system and the DCS to broadcast its content on both national channels and among its thirty local stations. CBN's current President is Andre Barnes who was appointed by the Austenesia News Corp's Directorate in 2010.

History

Radio

Founding and Early Stations

The Central Broadcasting Network began as the idea of two local radio hosts in Devana City, Earl Peggerson and Mathias Hamner. Peggerson and Hamner operated a small local radio station and began to have serious grievances with the major network they had become a part of, the Austenesia Broadcasting Network. ABN had been charging them high rates and they didn't feel like they got very much attention or quality news from the network. But in addition to the grievances, Peggerson and Hamner both realized that ABN had very sparse coverage of anything to the east of Devana City.

On April 17, 1936, the two formed the Central Broadcasting Network under the oversight of their radio company which they named Central Broadcasters of Austenesia. They had their first radio broadcast on April 30, 1936 from their station, XNZ 1340. Soon after, they began establishing other local radio stations throughout Eastern Austenesia and their first major radio stations included ZFN 130 in Sheba and ZLF 230 in Port Jasper. During their early years until around 1945, most content was created and reported by local broadcasters while their main station produced a syndicated news briefing for the day.

The Kipper Era

When Arnold Kipper took over as head of CBN in May of 1945, he began to push some major changes to how the stations were run. While previously, station managers had been given a large amount of leeway in deciding what content they could broadcast and even if they had to broadcast the network wide content, Kipper pushed for a more centralized structure. He consolidated the programming authority to reside only with the main station in Devana City and had all local radio station managers be required to request permission to change the set programming schedules. This changes didn't set well with some station managers, resulting in the Faraday Radio Strike of 1947 in which over twelve different radio stations shutdown after their managers quit and shuttered the station.

The strike was unsuccessful and ended a week later after Kipper fired everyone who worked at the striking stations and had many of them sued in court for violating their broadcast contracts they had signed. But during this period, Kipper began to realize that it was important to have more stations so he began creating stations in West Austenesia as well. His decision to begin broadcasting east of Ukon Mountain Range was considered to be very controversial as up until then, only the ABN had broadcast coverage of the area and there was a certain stigma attached to CBN about how they were a "eastern" radio station. Nonetheless, by 1950, Kipper had built a formidable broadcast network in western Austenesia that began competing with the ABN for coverage.

CBN's Golden Age

The Golden Age for CBN's radio broadcasting service began in the early 60s. Even though TV was becoming a popular medium, radio was the most trusted and established medium for news and information in Austenesia, and CBN began riding that wave. Even though ABN continued to step up their competition, CBN responded by diversifying. Under Ernwell, CBN not only covered news and some entertainment events but also began covering sports as well which increased their viewership. The most successful accomplishment of CBN however was providing radio to rural areas that until then, had little to no coverage with the exception of a massive public radio network that the government was building.

CBN's expansion into rural areas was done not only to help make their network more expansive but also to increase their listening base in areas that ABN didn't even have stations in. The downside to this however was that the operating costs of maintaining this expansive and enormous radio network were increasingly large and even after receiving subsidies from the government, it eventually became unsustainable. But for the sixties and the seventies, CBN's dominance in rural east Austenesia made them one of the most listened radio networks.

Decline

While CBN had begun to broadcast television as early as 1955, television didn't become a primary part of the network until the late seventies. By then, television had become so popular that CBN found themselves having to cut down on some of their radio stations to cover the costs of expanding their television network. This came at a cost for CBN's radio stations which began to lose listeners to independent stations and the Commonwealth Public Radio network which had also begun expanding to deliver news to rural and eastern communities.

By the mid eighties, CBN was finally feeling the financial burden of trying to maintain a massive radio and TV network at the same time. In 1986, the Central Broadcasters of Austenesia was dissolved and bought by the Austenesia News Corporation which had owned many local newspapers and its own radio network. With the change of ownership, Phineas Harp was appointed as the new President of CBN. Harp was very pro-TV and believed radio was a thing of the past. Additionally, Harp wanted to see CBN's resources go into participating in the new DCS technology that was being implemented by other major broadcasters, allowing them to reach a greater audience in rural areas where it was hard to get good reception and allow them to have a broader variety of channels to select from.

In October of 1990, CBN began negotiations with Commonwealth Public Radio to sell significant parts of their station network and by September of 1991, a deal was finalized in which CPR would purchase half of CBN's stations while the other half would simply be turned into extensions of their television broadcasting network.

Television

Beginnings

While televisions existed in Austenesia since the 1930s, they weren't considered a consumer good until the fifties and even then, were often seen as mediums for watching home movie watching. ABN was the first broadcaster in Austenesia to develop their first broadcast television network and it was a weekly evening news report. Their decision to begin broadcasting TV was in response to the increasing competition from Kipper and by 1955, Kipper also began to start developing a TV network for CBN.

CBN's first television station was basically a copy of ABN and was an evening news broadcast done twice a week, beginning on May 7, 1955 after a couple errors happened in their technology rolling out. Their first news channel starred Adam Wadkins, who was a famous radio host in Devana City, and he became CBN's first TV anchor. Within a few years, CBN began working on establishing more TV stations throughout western Austenesia to help them compete with ABN. But their competition was often symbolic as the brunt of CBN's financial and logistical support was still vested in their expansive eastern radio network.

Bringing TV to the East

In 1972, CBN began to take advantage of their large eastern radio network by bringing television to the east. Around this time, ABN had already attempted to establish some TV stations in the east but they lacked the infrastructure to successfully do so on a large scale. But despite their limited reach, television had also begun to take root in the east as residents of major cities and towns had begun purchasing their own television sets. Not wanting to miss this opportunity, CBN President Portney Hatchet began to push CBN to start establishing more TV stations in the east.

CBN's first TV station was called CBN-Channel 10 and was based out of Sheba. Built in 1973, the station broadcasted to the surrounding area and using their own radio centers previously there, they were able to expand their reach much farther than the ABN station was. CBN also created a second station in Port Jasper and began broadcasting from there as well. By the early 80s, much of eastern Austenesia was being covered by CBN's television network.

The Dominance of TV

By the mid eighties, television had obviously become the primary medium of news information and entertainment for many people. While CBN had stations established all across Austenesia, they weren't able as successful as their competitors and soon began to suffer as other networks began to utilize the DCS technology that was coming out to increase their views and revenue. After the Central Broadcasters of Austenesia was bought out by the Austenesia News Corporation, the new President, Phineas Harp, charted a new path for CBN.

Instead of trying to compete with the DCS technology that ABN was utilizing, Harp decided to embrace it. During this move, as a sign of the major shift in CBN, its radio program was dismantled and sold to CPR. With radio no longer eating up a significant chunk of CBN's finances, Harp had CBN start offering its own channels through the DCS system which allowed them to become competitive once again with ABN. While CBN also adapted many of the talk show style formats that ABN and others had used for their channels, Harp also utilized CBN's unique location in Devana City to allow them to develop channels based on entertainment.

Modern Day

By the beginning of the new millennium, CBN had become a television broadcaster with a host of offerings in entertainment news as well through they many DCS channels it offered. CBN became the primary platform for entertainment news and gossip as well as the new platform for many entertainment stars and figures who began to host their own talk and reality TV shows. CBN also began to develop their own sports channel like many others and began buying up the rights for many important sporting events. The most recent buy was when CBN purchased the rights to the XIII Winter Olympics in Prescott, Electrum.

Today, CBN is a dominant force in reporting sports and entertainment news. While they do a fairly good job in reporting national news, their dominance in the east has been broken by the rise of intercom news and the proliferation of competing media networks. Even though CBN trails its ratings behind ABN and CBC, it is one of the highest ranked television networks when it comes to trustworthiness and accurate reporting.

Programming

Programming on CBN is divided into two categories: broadcasted programming and DCS programming. Broadcasted programming is usually broadcasted via the national station to local stations and sometimes created by local stations. This content is often free and done through the Limpic broadcast system which is the standard broadcasting system used by Austenesia media organizations. DCS content however is done through a DCS service provider with a servicing and subscription fee. Channels broadcasted through DCS usually include broadcasted programming as well as special programs or entertainment pieces.

Broadcast Programming

As per the Austenesia Fair Communications Act, any broadcasts by news networks that provide coverage of domestic and national events on a scale in which the public has a right to know must be broadcasted through the free Limpic broadcast system. The most common news program covered by this is CBN News. CBN News is a national news program that is filmed at their national studios in Devana City and is broadcasted to all affiliated stations in the morning at 7:00 AM and in the evenings at 6:00 PM. In addition to national news, CBN may also make special national broadcasts to cover important political events such as speeches or important national/international sporting events like the Olympics. When not covering prime time news from local or national programs, CBN usually runs re-runs of past TV shows and may also feature various children or family channels.

DCS Programming

DCS programming primary includes sports coverage, entertainment news coverage, some reality TV shows, and talk shows as well as nature or history shows. While the exact show schedules vary from time to time, here's a list of the famous programs and shows played through the DCS from CBN.

• CBN Sports: A sports show that provides coverage of most sporting competitions and events in Austenesia as well as tracking various teams during international competitions
• CBN Entertainment: An entertainment show that focuses on drama, gossip, and rumors circulating around the entertainment industry including interviews of famous celebrities, reviews of movies, and scandals
• CBN Travel: An travel show in which viewers get to visit and explore different places in Austenesia and abroad across the world
• The Larry David Show: A famous entertainment talk show hosted by Larry David that focuses on politics, gossip, news, and anything else worth discussing
• The Timmy Weier Show: An entertainment talk show hosted by Timmy Weiner that focuses primarily on entertainment and cultural issues with some humor and fun tossed in
• Mother Nature: A nature show that covers the various wonders of Austenesia and the world
• The Dog House: A comedy show/satirical show that pokes fun at politics and society in Austenesia

For a complete list of TV shows and programs offered by CBN, see List of TV Shows and Programs in Austenesia.

Local Programming

While most national content is syndicated from national studios and can override local content at anytime, especially when it is breaking news, most local stations have some choice in what they choose to show when national content isn't being pushed. Local stations issue traffic, weather, and news reports each day at 6:00 AM, 12:00 PM, 5:00 PM, and 7:00 PM unless they are override by national programming. Local stations also can do their own investigative features and can launch specialized content as long as they follow guidelines established by the national studios.

Stations and Channels

Each of CBN's channels is managed and broadcasted by a local station that covers a specific geographic area of Austenesia. Below is a list of all channels and the geographic areas they cover.

• CBN-1 (Devana City)
• CBN-2 (Portmouth)
• CBN-3 (Moroni City)
• CBN-4 (Ashcant)
• CBN-5 (Goron)
• CBN-6 (Overton)
• CBN-7 (Hiremath)
• CBN-8 (Mishicot Gardens)
• CBN-9 (Sinbad)
• CBN-10 (Sheba)
• CBN-11 (Port Jasper)
• CBN-12 (Trenton Gardens)
• CBN-13 (Bayview)
• CBN-14 (Bael)
• CBN-15 (Fort Adelboro)
• CBN-16 (Moroni Gardens)
• CBN-17 (Little Portmouth)
• CBN-18 (Crystal City)
• CBN-19 (Madrigal
• CBN-20 (Cardax)
• CBN-21 (Reyno)
• CBN-22 (Kirkland)
• CBN-23 (Atron)
• CBN-24 (Dewhurst)
• CBN-25 (Fort Belizar)
• CBN-26 (Vreyton)
• CBN-27 (Beluzza)
• CBN-28 (Moab)
• CBN-29 (Mossat)
• CBN-30 (Braggerville)

Presidents