At 4:30PM on March 20th, 1949 Robert Trout took to the air for NBC with five minutes of news, sponsored by Pillsbury.

As Spring of 1949 began five of radio’s top-ten programs aired on CBS, four on NBC, and one on ABC. Just one year prior, NBC controlled thirteen of the top fifteen shows on the air. The broadcasting landscape was shifting.

Internationally, the Cold War in Berlin had grown tense.

On March 19th, the East German People's Council in Berlin adopted a constitution. It called for the creation of a central government in unified Germany after the Allied occupation. It was meant to impede the establishment of a West German state.

Meanwhile, Allied authorities in Germany declared the Deutsche Mark the sole currency of West Berlin. It made the East German mark virtually worthless.

In France, local elections were being held as The U.N. feared the oncoming growing communist sentiment in the western world.

On March 20th in London, a parade by members of Oswald Mosley's Union Movement was disrupted by violent clashes with Communists. Ten policemen were injured and thirty-five Communists were arrested. As a result, the UK Home Office prohibited all political marches in the city for three months.

On March 23rd In the middle east, Lebanon and Israel signed an agreement to settle the international Lebanese-Palestinian border line and exchange prisoners of war.