Watch Liberty Grow

"We have never sought national publicity," said President Gordon McLendon of the Liberty Broadcasting System, "because we wanted to gain as much strength as possible before other networks found out what was happening to them. But now we're ready." One of the main reasons why McLendon's Texas-born Liberty network was ready last week was a visit he paid to Houston's oil-rich Hugh Roy Cullen. The $1,000,000 Cullen agreed to invest in Liberty was enough to make him a partner in a network that has become the nation's second biggest in number of stations.*

Liberty started three years ago by offering major-league baseball broadcasts to the backwoods (TIME, Sept. 4). Last year it expanded from a six-to a 16-hour-a-day network, added music, comedy and drama to its staple of news and sports, now has 431 affiliates in 43 states, Hawaii and Alaska, and is outranked only by Mutual's 545. McLendon, who still announces an occasional major-league game from Dallas with the help of play-by-play descriptions wired in from Manhattan (though by now most of the games come in live), is full of plans for how to use his new money to keep Liberty growing.

Next month he will sign up a Manhattan outlet, and one in Japan. With his New York station, McLendon will be able to offer sponsors nationwide coverage. And by next summer, brash young Gordon McLendon, 30, confidently expects to have the biggest network in the business.

* Though still far behind the leaders in income, talent, programing.

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