Zenith funded a commercial-free radio station for decades beginning in 1940.

Evidence

In fact, McDonald disliked commercials even during the radio era. He believed that radio commercials had too many “roars, grunts, squawks, yaps, burps, and a mixture of adenoidal and…honey-chile voices.” “McDonald v. the Adenoidal,” 66. For this reason, starting in 1940 McDonald and Zenith spent 75,000 a year, approximately 900,000 in today’s terms, to support WWZR, a radio station that only broadcast music, without any commercials. — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 1368

Categorization

• CANDY: A major radio manufacturer spent real money to run a commercial-free station — fun trivia with an ironic twist given the book’s subject.
• XREF: Connects to the opening chapter on radio’s early anti-commercial ethos in this same book.