Major U.S. broadcasting company and network.
It began in 1928 as the Columbia Broadcasting System, a small radio network directed by Bing Crosby , and Kate Smith increased audience ratings into the 1940s. Jack Benny , Ed Sullivan , Lucille Ball , Mary Tyler Moore , and Walter Cronkite made CBS the dominant television network into the 1970s. The company diversified into several other fields, but only Columbia Records was successful, and the corporation sold all its other divisions in 1985 to concentrate on broadcasting. A decline in ratings and in the number of affiliated stations led to its sale to {{link=Westinghouse Electric Corp.">Westinghouse Electric Corp. in 1995. CBS Corp. was purchased by Viacom Inc. in 2000.