CBS News Radio signs off Friday night after nearly 100 years of broadcasting: "An American institution" [View all]

Source: CBS News

May 22, 2026 / 5:00 AM EDT / CBS News



CBS News Radio, which provides news programming to an estimated 700 stations spanning the United States, will sign off the air Friday night after nearly a century of broadcasting. The storied service, launched in September 1927, was home to broadcast legends Edward R. Murrow, Robert Trout, Douglas Edwards, Charles Osgood, Dan Rather and many other familiar and trusted voices over its decades in operation.

"It's been around for a long time. Really, an American institution is what we're losing here," said Steve Kathan, the longtime anchor of the CBS World News Roundup. "CBS Radio should be remembered for becoming a national institution very important to the development of news other than newspapers," Rather recently told "CBS Sunday Morning." "It, for many, many years, was a part, and I would argue not a small part, of what held the country together."

The decision to shutter the radio news service was announced in March, with the company citing "challenging economic realities." In a statement at the time, CBS News President Tom Cibrowski and Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss paid tribute to the historic role of CBS News Radio in covering major events worldwide since the dawn of the broadcasting era.

"For nearly 100 years, CBS News Radio has delivered original reporting to the nation — from Edward R. Murrow's World War II reports in London to today's daily White House updates," they said. "Our signature broadcast, 'World News Roundup,' remains the longest-running newscast in the country. CBS News Radio served as the foundation for everything we have built since 1927."

Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cbs-news-radio-last-day/

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Wednesday was the last time I heard a "top of the hour" CBS News minute broadcast on my local radio news affiliate (KYW) and yesterday, although there was no top of the hour report, they still had correspondent reports with the regulars, sprinkled through the day. I expect the same will occur with the news reports during the day today (heard some this morning) but expect by tonight, those will be gone too.



And this greedy clueless loser team has made sure to systematically dismantle the whole thing.