A Sad Day for Radio News is Approaching

Following almost 99 years of operation, CBS News Radio will go dark tomorrow night at 10:30 p.m. CDT. The CBS Radio Network started the news service in September 1927. Rather than attempting to paraphrase its history, read this Wikipedia article.

As a broadcast journalist who spent much of my life reporting, writing and anchoring newscasts, this makes me sad. CBS was the gold standard for radio news and was the source for many Americans getting their news from the second world war. Edward Murrow covered the blitz of London, the numerous battles as the fascist Axis powers plowed through much of Europe and North Africa. That was followed by the D-Day Invasion of France and the eventual liberation of much of Western Europe. Murrow was also the first American radio journalist to break the news of the existence of German POW camps near the end of the war.

CBS Radio News also broke the news that President John Kennedy had died in Dallas on November 22, 1963. They scooped all other outlets with a source in Texas who verified the fact the President was dead, before others had a clue what was happening at Parkland Memorial Hospital. I use the word scoop in this post because that's what a scoop is. Not the baloney tossed about today by cable networks and local newscasts.

In January 1986, CBS News broke the news to its listeners the space shuttle Challenger had exploded shortly after it lifted off from Kennedy Space Center. The CBS Radio News network also told listeners of its affiliates about the attacks on the World Trade Center in Manhattan on September 11, 2001.

CBS News was the only network of which I'm aware that featured a ten minutes newscast at 6 p.m. every weeknight. It was called the "CBS World News Roundup" and gave its listeners every significant story that happened domestically and internationally that day.

I have a personal tie to the CBS News format and style. I studied Journalism at the University of Missouri, in the early 1970s which had a strong relationship to CBS. I was taught how to write a newscast following the CBS style that included re-writing the AP "A" wire, pulling voicers, wrap arounds and actualities from the CBS feed to affiliates. My efforts were graded and my professors must have liked what they heard. That education served me well through my 40+ year broadcast career.

Friday will be a sad day for me both professionally and personally. CBS Radio News you will be gone but the stories you covered will live on in my memory.