Good night and good luck and goodbye — CBS News Radio signs off after nearly 100 years

As a vigor nonrecreational who grew up aspiring to enactment astatine CBS News Radio, anchor Steve Kathan understood the value of the words helium wrote and recorded Friday connected the last broadcast of “World News Roundup.”

“America’s longest moving newscast signs disconnected for the past time,” Kathan said successful the tiny dimly lighted workplace successful the CBS Broadcast Center connected Manhattan’s West Side. “It each began connected March 13, 1938,” helium said, referring to the iconic quality program.

Kathan played a signaling of Edward R. Morrow, the legendary CBS News writer who delivered his archetypal study connected the debut of the program, saying “the champion successful vigor reporting is yet to beryllium — bully nighttime and bully luck.”

“And goodbye,” Kathan added, ending the tally of astir 23,000 editions of the 10-minute signature broadcast, delivered from CBS’ vigor web . A last quality update was scheduled to tally aboriginal Friday night.

CBS News Radio and its 26 employees became a unfortunate of fund cuts crossed parent-company Paramount’s quality part announced successful March. “A displacement successful vigor presumption programming strategies, coupled with challenging economical realities, has made it intolerable to proceed the service,” the institution said.

Privately, longtime insiders astatine CBS News accidental the part has struggled for years to find ways to financially crook astir its vigor business. The portion was operating astatine a nonaccomplishment with monthly revenues precocious falling arsenic debased arsenic $67,000, according to a web enforcement not authorized to sermon the substance publicly. The work held connected due to the fact that it inactive had worth successful promoting CBS News and its journalism, reaching 20 cardinal listeners a week.

Leadership implicit the years person enactment disconnected the messy task of winding the vigor concern down owed to its iconic presumption astatine the company. CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss was reluctant to marque the cuts arsenic well, according to radical wrong the institution acquainted with her thinking. But with Paramount taking connected important indebtedness to get Warner Bros. Discovery, considerations of the division’s bequest are apt to substance little successful ongoing efforts to trim costs.

Kathan had heard rumblings astir CBS getting retired of vigor going each the mode backmost to its archetypal ownership alteration successful the 1980s erstwhile Larry Tisch acquired the company. “Even though I’ve been present 39 years, the thought was someone’s going to determine to bash it,” helium said.

As tv dominated the media landscape, CBS News Radio retained its relation arsenic what Kathan called “the inheritance way of American history.”

As a kid increasing up successful Connecticut, Kathan recalls watching Douglas Edwards, the “World News Roundup” evening anchor for 2 decades, doing TV quality updates successful betwixt the soap operas his parent watched connected CBS. After Kathan joined the web successful 1987 arsenic a writer and producer, helium would spot Edwards and different celebrated names from the part walking done the hallways of the broadcast halfway earlier doing his day newscasts.

“Just the information that you were moving with them made you deliberation and recognize you had to up your game,” Kathan said. “You wanted the assemblage to spot you arsenic overmuch arsenic it trusted them.”

“World News Roundup” roseate to prominence during World War II, erstwhile Murrow and different CBS News correspondents delivered unrecorded reports from Europe.

Once TV supplanted vigor arsenic a root for scripted entertainment, quality and accusation became the superior ngo of CBS’s vigor part that began successful 1927. In 1967, the institution converted its owned AM vigor stations — including its Los Angeles outlet KNX — to an all-news format.

While the stations focused connected section news, traffic, upwind and sports, they besides prominently featured CBS News Radio reports astatine the apical of the hr and different features passim the day.

Longtime listeners became acquainted with Edwards, Dallas Townsend, Reid Collins, Richard C. Hottelet, Christopher Glenn and different CBS News veterans who brought nationalist and satellite stories to listeners passim the day, introduced by a five-note sounder that simulated a telegraph. Dan Rather and Walter Cronkite were heard regular with analysis.

The vigor web developed a large prima successful Charles Osgood, who joined WCBS successful New York arsenic anchor. He went nationalist successful 1971 with a twice-daily conception called “The Osgood File.”

Osgood wrote two-minute reports successful succinct prose delivered successful his mellifluous tones. He occasionally offered commentary successful verse, which earned him the rubric of poet-in-residence astatine CBS News.

Osgood’s popularity was lone rivaled by ABC Radio property Paul Harvey. CBS News adjacent allowed him to work commercialized transcript to fulfill anxious advertisers who wanted their merchandise messages presented successful his comforting voice. When Osgood became a big connected the TV broadside successful the 1990s connected “CBS News Sunday Morning,” his sign-off remained “I’ll spot you connected the radio.” He filed his last “Osgood File” study successful 2017.

Charles Osgood successful the WCBS vigor workplace successful New York connected July 25, 1967.

(CBS Photo Archive/CBS)

CBS sold disconnected its vigor stations successful 2017, but continued to nutrient and administer its web programs arsenic the concern faced contention from integer media.

Dustin Gervais, method operations manager for the network, said CBS News Radio struggled arsenic much audio advertisers similar integer contented due to the fact that of its effectiveness astatine targeting circumstantial demographic groups. The displacement is reflected successful vigor advertisement revenue, which dipped astir 2% to $14.37 cardinal according to media probe steadfast Kagan. But the integer advertisement gross information of that pastry continued to grow, topping $1.75 billion.

Charles Forelle, managing exertion for CBS News, said the institution plans to stay successful the audio journalism concern done podcasting and not consecutive newscasts. “We person a full clump of antithetic things successful improvement that are little quality speechmaking and much different things,” helium told The Times.

Not each of radio’s problems are related to digital. Michael Socolow, a prof of connection and journalism astatine the University of Maine notes that the manufacture troubles began successful 1996 erstwhile deregulation loosened the bounds connected the fig of stations a azygous entity tin own. Buying sprees of outlets led to owners who became highly leveraged and little capable to put successful programming, which enactment the compression connected suppliers specified arsenic CBS News Radio.

“Radio was hollowed retired by the corporations, earlier its inferior to the American national ended,” Socolow said . “You tin hint it to the Telecom Act of 1996.”

Some of the 26 employees astatine CBS News Radio who were severed from the institution person recovered enactment astatine Worldwide News Network, a work launched by John Catsimatidis, the proprietor of New York’s top-rated speech presumption WABC. The institution said the service, which begins Saturday, volition present “hard news, breaking headlines, and fact-driven reporting to affiliates crossed the country.”

CBS News Radio’s biggest lawsuit — the all-news stations owned by Audacy including KNX — person already switched their web work to ABC News Audio.