\u201cA shift in radio station programming strategies, coupled with challenging economic realities, has made it impossible to continue the service,\u201d the company said.<\/p>\n
Privately, longtime insiders at CBS News say the division has struggled for years to find ways to financially turn around its radio business. <\/p>\n
The unit was operating at a loss with monthly revenues recently falling as low as $67,000, according to a network executive not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. The service held on because it still had value in promoting CBS News and its journalism, reaching 20 million listeners a week.<\/p>\n
Leadership over the years have put off the messy task of winding the radio business down due to its iconic status at the company. CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss<\/a> was reluctant to make the cuts as well, according to people inside the company familiar with her thinking. But with Paramount taking on substantial debt to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, considerations of the division\u2019s legacy are likely to matter less in ongoing efforts to reduce costs.<\/p>\n Kathan had heard rumblings about CBS getting out of radio going all the way back to its first ownership change in the 1980s when Larry Tisch acquired the company. <\/p>\n \u201cEven though I\u2019ve been here 39 years, the thought was someone\u2019s going to decide to do it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n As television dominated the media landscape, CBS News Radio retained its role as what Kathan called \u201cthe background track of American history.\u201d <\/p>\n As a child growing up in Connecticut, Kathan recalls watching Douglas Edwards<\/a>, the \u201cWorld News Roundup\u201d evening anchor for two decades, doing TV news updates in between the soap operas his mother watched on CBS. After Kathan joined the network in 1987 as a writer and producer, he would see Edwards and other famous names from the division walking through the hallways of the broadcast center before doing his afternoon newscasts.<\/p>\n \u201cJust the fact that you were working with them made you think and realize you had to up your game,\u201d Kathan said. \u201cYou wanted the audience to trust you as much as it trusted them.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWorld News Roundup\u201d rose to prominence during World War II, when Murrow and other CBS News correspondents delivered live reports from Europe.<\/p>\n Once TV supplanted radio as a source for scripted entertainment, news and information became the primary mission of CBS\u2019 radio division that began in 1927. In 1967, the company converted its owned AM radio stations \u2014 including its Los Angeles outlet KNX \u2014 to an all-news format. <\/p>\n While the stations focused on local news, traffic, weather and sports, they also prominently featured CBS News Radio reports at the top of the hour and other features throughout the day. <\/p>\n Longtime listeners became familiar with Edwards, Dallas Townsend, Reid Collins, Richard C. Hottelet, Christopher Glenn and other CBS News veterans who brought national and world stories to listeners throughout the day, introduced by a five-note sounder that simulated a telegraph. Dan Rather and Walter Cronkite were heard daily with analysis.<\/p>\n
![\"Charles](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1779525490_389_.jpeg\")
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