Despite plans to eventually expand nationwide, the network never grew beyond its original group of affiliates, and ceased operations at midnight November 1, 1933, just five weeks after its debut.
Despite his professional and financial success, Wynn was concerned about his future and the power the established networks had over the programming policies of their local affiliate stations.
It was his hope that ABS would provide a programming alternative, and would also insure a more stable financial future for himself and his family, explaining that "acting is such an uncertain profession, and I want to establish a business for my actor son, Keenan, which will be sane and secure and bring in plenty of profits".
Irving Berlin and Daniel Frohman were rumored to be planning to join the effort, and the new company, which it was reported "has Radio Row atwitter", was said to have already signed $1,000,000 of business contracts.
[6] Plans for ABS gained support in January 1933 from George W. Trendle, president of the recently founded Michigan Regional Network, who stated his stations would join Amalgamated once it expanded westward.
(The restriction of advertising messages to short announcements at the start and close of each program had been the original network radio policy, until NBC and CBS abandoned it as the 1930s progressed.)
"[7] He also hoped that, with the country mired in the depths of the Great Depression, his network would provide an additional source of employment for the numerous unemployed actors and other entertainers.
This irked the influential New York Daily News radio critic Ben Gross, whose lead in attacking the apparent ABS attitude was picked up by his peers — and by advertisers whom Gygi reportedly alienated by positioning the network toward treating advertising as "a necessary but distasteful evil", which in turn caused ABS difficulty attracting sponsors needed to pay for the promised top quality programming.
[10] The new network finally debuted with a four-hour gala on September 25, 1933, broadcast from its newly built studios (and luxurious offices) at 501 Madison Avenue in New York City.
Personalities appearing on the program schedule included Vaughn De Leath and Norman Brokenshire, with welcoming addresses by Postmaster General James A. Farley, Judge E. O. Sykes, chairman of the Federal Radio Commission, and Representative Sol Bloom of New York, who spoke from Washington via WOL.
The plan to greatly restrict advertising "ballyhoo" was even more successful than intended, for despite Wynn's claim in March that there were "twenty-seven sponsors ready",[7] none of the ABS offerings ever gained sponsorship.
Within a few days creditors had forced the network into involuntary bankruptcy and liquidation, with the $10,000 pipe organ sold for $1,000, and the studios acquired for use by a Newark, New Jersey, station, WNEW.