NEW YORK — CBS News said Friday it will shut down its storied radio news service after nearly 100 years of operation, blaming challenging economic times as audiences move to digital sources and podcasts. Longtime CBS News anchor Dan Rather said, “It’s another piece of America that is gone.”
The service, which went on the air in September 1927, was a precursor to the entire network and helped launch William S. Paley’s career. Edward R. Murrow’s rooftop reports during the Nazi bombing of London in World War II were among its defining moments. CBS News Radio, known best for its top-of-the-hour news roundups, supplies material to an estimated 700 stations nationwide. The service will end on May 22, the network said.
“Radio is woven into the fabric of CBS News and that’s always going to be part of our history,” CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss told staff, saying the company tried to find a viable solution to sustain the radio operation but “just could not find a way to make that possible.”
CBS had already cut some radio programming late last year, eliminating shows such as the “Weekend Roundup” and the “World News Roundup Late Edition” in an effort to keep the service afloat. It was unclear how many jobs will be lost because of the shutdown. On Friday, CBS News announced it was cutting about 6% of its workforce, roughly more than 60 people. The network is also navigating broader industry upheaval as parent company Paramount Global pursues major moves, including the likely absorption of CNN in its announced purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery.
Rather, who succeeded Walter Cronkite in 1981 and anchored for 25 years, said he was saddened but not surprised. He recalled filing reports frequently during the civil rights era and relaying word of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination for radio while Cronkite announced it on television. “Radio was considered an equal responsibility to television,” the 94-year-old said.
Radio, alongside newspapers, was a dominant news medium from the 1920s through the 1940s. Americans tuned in to President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “Fireside Chats” during the Depression. Murrow’s 1938 broadcast about Germany’s invasion of Austria marked a historic moment for the service. Broadcasters such as Douglas Edwards, Dallas Townsend and Christopher Glenn became familiar voices on CBS News Radio.
The rise of television in the 1950s marked the beginning of radio’s long decline as a primary news source. Today, many listeners seeking audio turn to podcasts. Michael Harrison, publisher of trade publication Talkers, called the shutdown “a shame” and “a loss for the country and for the industry,” saying CBS News Radio’s “heyday spanned decades” and that it was long regarded for quality and trust.
The front page of CBS News’ website did not immediately carry the announcement. Weiss, a founder of the Free Press website and a polarizing figure since her hire by Paramount’s new management, has drawn scrutiny for editorial decisions and for comments invoking Cronkite as a symbol of old thinking. In January, three months into her tenure, she said the network needed to produce journalism that would “surprise and provoke — including inside our own newsroom,” and announced hiring new contributors as part of a broader strategy change.