NBC was started by RCA, and at the time of its launch, RCA owned 50 percent of NBC, GE owned 30 percent of NBC, and Westinghouse owned the remaining 20 percent—but no company could have accomplished this alone, not even RCA or GE. In 1921, the retail value of radios sold in the United States was $5 million; seven years later it was $650 million. In 1921, the radio audience in the U.S. was 75,000 people; at the beginning of 1929, it was 40 million.
