Question about TV and how the business was/is organized in the U.S.

Hi folks,
here in Germany, TV was broadcast by state-run companies for several decades, from the first programs during the 1930s (for a very limited number of viewers, obviously ;-) until the early 1980s. Only then the first TV companies owned by private persons or societies were established. Now I would like to know - was it the same in the U.S. ? Or was there private ownership only, from the early days on? I could also imagine that it all began with some stations run by the federal government and later on, the "market" was "opened" to commercial use.
To further explain what I mean: In Germany, in almost every "Land" except the smallest among them (a "Land" or more exactly a "Bundes-Land", written without the hyphen is a territory similar to a State which is part of the U.S., or a province of Canada) there exists a company which is not run exclusively by "Land" officials but is subsidized with lots of money by the Land and, in consequence, to a large extent influenced by politicians of the "land" and/or our Central Government at Berlin. I wonder whether there are (or have been, in the past) similar companies in the various States of the U.S., e.g. something like "Oregon TV" under the direct influence of Oregon politicians, "New York State TV" run by politicians from New York state, and so on. But I've never heard of anything like that, so if they ever existed, then it must have been a long time ago.
Just curious :-)
Of course the really "Big Ones", like NBC, CNN and the like are HEAVILY government-influenced; but PRO FORMA they have statutes like "private commercial enterprises", haven't they?
Kind regards
Andreas (123all4me)