 On September 30, 1977, Amway bought the network. Soon after the purchase, Mutual began developing what would become the first nationwide commercial broadcast satellite network, leading to the end of decades of reliance on telephone lines for the broadcast industry's transmission capacity. In 1979, Amway purchased WCFL from the Chicago Federation of Labor. For the first time, the network that had been founded by radio stations directly controlled a station of its own, and in one of the country's largest markets. Mutual also reached its greatest number of affiliates that year — 950. This was fewer than ABC, whose multipronged approach had proven very successful, but far in front of NBC and CBS. It appeared that Amway was ready to pose a major challenge to the industry leaders.
