Arthur Judson

Arthur Leon Judson (February 17, 1881, Dayton, Ohio – January 28, 1975, Rye, New York) was an artists' manager who also managed the New York Philharmonic and Philadelphia Orchestra and founder of CBS. He co-founded the Handel Society of New York with entrepreneur James Grayson in 1966.

Judson studied violin beginning at the age of eight, and continued his studies for one year as a teenager with the composer, conductor, violinist Max Bendix and the violinist Leopold Lichtenberg in New York. At the age of nineteen, he became the dean of the music department at Denison University, Granville, Ohio from 1900 to 1907. In 1903 at Denison, he performed the Richard Strauss Violin Sonata in what he called the first public performance in the United States. He returned to New York in 1907 to attempt a recital career. He also spent eight years on the staff of Musical America magazine, serving as advertising manager and critic. Disillusioned of a concert career (he said of this time "I was a good violinist, but no Kreisler or Heifetz"), Judson was pleased to be offered a lucrative management career.

A benefit of Judson's Musical America job was traveling to hear concerts and meeting the people who performed or attended the concerts. Judson was therefore already known for his knowledge of music and judgment on musicians of quality when he was appointed as the manager of the Philadelphia Orchestra in July 1915. Within months, he launched Concert Management Arthur Judson, Inc. in Philadelphia to manage artists, and commuted daily to his New York office where he set up a second artists’ management office. With three partners, he organized the Judson Radio Program as another venue for his artists in 1926. His attempt to get an exclusive contract with David Sarnoff at the National Broadcasting Company for the radio program failed. Judson and his partners therefore purchased a low-power station owned by the Atlantic Broadcasting Company and by January 27, 1927 signed up a network of sixteen stations known as the United Independent Broadcasters to carry his program. William S. Paley purchased this network on September 25, 1927 and it became the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), with Judson as the second largest stockholder.

...
Wikipedia