CBS News shutters its storied radio news service after nearly a century, ending an era (NBC)

[Munu]

CBS News shutters its storied radio news service after nearly a century, ending an era (NBC)

NEW YORK — CBS News said Friday it is shutting down its storied radio news service after nearly 100 years of operation as part of a round of layoffs, blaming a shift in radio station programming strategies and challenging economic times.

When it went on the air in September 1927, CBS News Radio was the precursor to the entire network, giving a youthful William S. Paley a start in the business. Famed broadcaster Edward R. Murrow delivered reports from London during World War II as part of the service.

Today CBS News Radio provides material to an estimated 700 stations across the country, and is known best for its top-of-the-hour news roundups. The service will end on May 22, the network said Friday.

“While this was a necessary decision, it was not an easy one,” CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss and president Tom Cibrowski said in a memo to staff on Friday.

...

My initial reaction was tempered by the realization I haven't listened to it -- or any radio news -- for years.

[thucythucy]

1. William Shirer was the CBS radio correspondent in Berlin

from 1934 to 1941,

His reports provided an important window into the day to day workings of Nazi Germany. After leaving Germany--getting tipped off that he was about to be arrested by the Gestapo-he published Berlin Diary, an amazing account of his years there.

He would eventually write The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, after being all but blacklisted during the McCarthy era. I guess being anti-Nazi has always been unpopular with certain conservatives.

His book on Gandhi, written after his years in India, was the basis for the movie.

CBS has fallen so far from the years when people like Shirer and Murrow were its top correspondents, which is so very sad to see.

[Munu]

2. I have the first two of those.

I'll have to look up the Gandhi one.

Thanks.

[MineralMan]

3. Too bad.

Even though AM radio is moribund, many people, like me have an AM news/talk station playing in their car or on the radio in the kitchen. At our house it's WCCO 830. The top of the hour news brief is important to me. Even though I'm online all of the time, pretty much, I have relied on that five minutes every hour for a long, long time, and not just here in MN.

WCCO 830 was dumped by CBS a few years ago, but they kept that news brief on the air.

I'll miss it.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

4. Bari Weiss?