What became CBS was founded as the Columbia Broadcasting System in 1927 as a joint venture of Columbia Records and New York City talent agent Arthur Judson. It originally went on the air on September 18, 1927, as the Columbia Phonograph Broadcasting System with 47 radio stations.

This radio network lost money in its first year, and on January 18, 1929, Columbia Records sold out its interests in the radio network to a group of private investors. The network was renamed the Columbia Broadcasting System, and for the next nine years Columbia Records and CBS were independent unrelated companies.

In 1938, radio was a major force in entertainment while the record industry was still in the doldrums from the Great Depression, and CBS purchased its former parent company, Columbia Records.

In March 1968 CBS/Sony Records Inc. (CBS/Sony) was established as a 50-50 joint venture between CBS Inc. (USA) and Sony (Japan). It was renamed CBS Sony Inc. in August 1973 and again to CBS/Sony Group Inc. in August 1983.

In 1988, CBS sold the CBS Records Group (including the venerable Columbia label) to Sony, which renamed the group Sony Music Entertainment Inc..

In 2004, Sony Music Entertainment merged with BMG as a 50-50 joint venture between those two companies, which ended in 2008.

Note: In 2007, a new and unrelated CBS Records was started by CBS Broadcasting that has no relation to Sony Music.

Label code: LC 0149

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