NEW YORK — CBS News said Friday it will close its long-running radio news service on May 22, ending nearly a century of continuous operation and blaming difficult economics as audiences migrate to digital platforms and podcasts. Longtime CBS anchor Dan Rather lamented, “It’s another piece of America that is gone.”
The service began in September 1927 and played a central role in building William S. Paley’s broadcasting empire. Over the decades familiar voices such as Edward R. Murrow—whose rooftop reports during the Nazi bombing of London became iconic—Douglas Edwards, Dallas Townsend and Christopher Glenn became fixtures for listeners. Radio was the primary national news medium from the 1920s through the 1940s, carrying Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “Fireside Chats” and Murrow’s early coverage of events such as Germany’s 1938 invasion of Austria.
At its height, CBS News Radio was a major force in American journalism. It currently provides content to roughly 700 stations nationwide and is best known for its top-of-the-hour news roundups. But CBS editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, who notified staff of the decision, said the company “did everything we could, including before I joined the company, to try and find a viable solution to sustain the radio operation.” Weiss added that with sweeping changes in the media business, “we just could not find a way to make that possible.”
The network had trimmed some radio offerings late last year—cutting programs such as “Weekend Roundup” and “World News Roundup Late Edition”—in an effort to preserve the service. It was not immediately clear how many jobs the shutdown will eliminate; CBS News announced it was cutting about 6% of its newsroom workforce, roughly more than 60 people, on Friday. The network is also navigating broader upheaval tied to shifts at parent company Paramount Global and industry consolidation.
Rather, who succeeded Walter Cronkite in 1981 and anchored for 25 years, said he was saddened but not surprised, remembering times when he filed reports many times a day during 1960s civil rights coverage and relied on radio to relay major breaking news—like President John F. Kennedy’s assassination—when “radio was considered an equal responsibility to television.”
Observers noted radio’s long decline since television emerged in the 1950s. Michael Harrison, publisher of trade outlet Talkers, called the closure “a shame” and “a loss for the country and for the industry,” saying CBS News Radio once set a standard for trusted, objective coverage.
The announcement did not immediately appear on the front page of CBS News’ website. Weiss, who previously founded the Free Press website and was new to broadcast news when she joined CBS under Paramount’s management, has been a polarizing figure; critics have scrutinized her decisions, including a reported month-long hold on a “60 Minutes” story about the Trump administration’s deportation policy. In January, about three months into her tenure, Weiss invoked Cronkite’s legacy while warning that without change “we’re toast,” and announced new hires intended to produce reporting that would “surprise and provoke — including inside our own newsroom.”