It is a singularly unfortunate and sorrowful development--the death of CBS Radio News, which will take place today.
At its height, CBS Radio newscasts were carried by more than 1000 stations; its newscasts, most recently, have been heard on some 700 stations.
I've spent much of my life as a CBS News watcher (via The CBS Evening News, on television), and a CBS Radio News listener (on various stations in cities where I've lived). The newscasts on CBS Radio--sturdy, dependable, and appealing--were conveyed in the routinely straightforward, unadorned vocal styles of its anchors and reporters.
CBS's journalists, during the radio network's history, included, of course, the brilliant and seminal correspondent and commentator Edward R. Murrow.
Mr. Murrow began reporting from Europe in the late 1930s, during the period leading up to the 1939 start of World War Two, and was based in London during the war. CBS did
not at the time have its own dedicated London facility; Murrow broadcast from a sub-basement studio within the BBC Broadcasting House.
In addition to reporting from the studio, Mr. Murrow also reported from London's streets, and from bomb shelters and rooftops, during the aerial Blitz carried out by Germany.
He also reported, notably--and deeply movingly--from Buchenwald, the day after the German concentration camp was liberated in 1945.
His broadcasts from Europe, which I have listened to on
record albums, on tapes, and online, were compelling, eloquent, stirring.
Here is one one of his London rooftop reports--probably from the roof of the BBC building--from September of 1940:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Za2Lus0CkRc
Here, too, is Mr. Murrow, on his television program See it Now, in 1954 (produced with Fred Friendly), discussing Senator Joseph McCarthy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwGQGM9X69o
There were a great many other notable radio voices on CBS, through the years--including the eminent broadcaster Robert Trout. He was one of the most significant CBS News figures during the 1930s, prior to Murrow's ascendance, and remained a prominent voice on the network for decades. He assisted Murrow, it has been written, regarding Murrow's understanding of, and use of, radio. In the book Prime Time: The Life of Edward R. Murrow (Little, Brown, 1969), author Alexander Kendrick (who worked for Murrow as a reporter during World War Two) wrote that Trout "persuaded [Murrow] that the microphone...should not be declaimed to...but used casually as an instrument of communication, like a telephone."
Murrow did not, I would suggest (listening to him today), sound particularly casual, though perhaps his style was regarded as casual during its time. Nonetheless, as reported by Alexander Kendrick, Trout's advice to Murrow--invoking the intimacy of a telephone--evidently had its intended effect. One makes note of Murrow's typically low-key, low-register, restrained--yet distinctly authoritative--vocal manner. His voice had a gravitational quality to it; its force pulled one in, in a striking and, yes, intimate way.
There were many others, who reported for CBS Radio, working for Murrow--such as William L. Shirer, Eric Sevareid, Larry LeSueur, Charles Collingwood, Howard K. Smith, Richard C. Hottelet, Mary Marvin Breckinridge, and Winston Burdett.
The network featured other anchors and correspondents, through the decades--including Douglas Edwards, Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather, and Christopher Glenn.
More recently, the network's correspondents or anchors included Peter King, Dan Raviv, Tom Foty, Jim Krasula, Peter Maer, Cami McCormick, Sam Litzinger, Mark Knoller, Bill Whitney, Allison Keyes, and Jim Chenevey.
When the closing of the radio news division was announced, in March, a New York Times story noted that CBS Radio News "had been whittled down to a handful of correspondents in recent years and is unprofitable, a person familiar with the company said." The story also said this:
In a staff memo on Friday, Bari Weiss, the editor in chief of CBS News, and Tom Cibrowski, the president, observed that the radio network had “served as the foundation for everything we have built since 1927.” But because of “a shift in radio station programming strategies” and “challenging economic realities,” the company concluded that it was “impossible to continue the service.”
The same story quoted Dan Rather, the former anchor of television's CBS Evening News, who during his career was also, as referred to above, heard on CBS Radio. The story noted that after the announcement of the radio network's closure, Mr. Rather had written on Facebook that
“the end of CBS News Radio breaks my heart.” He recalled listening to its broadcasts from his childhood home in Texas and feeling inspired to pursue a career in journalism.
Concluding his elegy, Mr. Rather noted his gratitude that many of the original CBS radio broadcasts, the ones that had mesmerized him as a child, were preserved for future generations to hear.
“They are available on YouTube,” he wrote.
Here is a video, from Facebook, of a CBS Radio newscast from 2016, with anchor Jim Chenevey, whose broadcasts I enjoyed. He left the network in 2020. FYI: when the video appears, it will likely need to be unmuted. You may, therefore, miss the distinctive CBS Radio News musical "sounder," at the start of the newscast--and therefore may wish to re-start the video, to be able to hear it. The notes of the sounder remained the same for decades, but there were different musical arrangements of it, over time.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=10153902659215885
Lastly, while CBS Radio News may have become unprofitable, the shutting of the network was, I think, a misguided and regrettable decision. While I am guessing it is unlikely, perhaps CBS's new management might soon reverse course--and recognize that it has lost more than it has gained, by abandoning such a distinguished and reliable source of news.
