Good night and good luck and goodbye CBS News Radio signs off after nearly 100 years
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As a radio professional who grew up aspiring to work at CBS News Radio, anchor Steve Kathan understood the weight of the words he wrote and recorded Friday on the final broadcast of “World News Roundup.”“America’s longest running newscast signs off for the last time,” Kathan said in the small dimly lighted studio in the CBS Broadcast Center on Manhattan’s West Side.“It all began on March 13, 1938,” he said, referring to the iconic news program.Kathan played a recording of Edward R.
Morrow, the legendary CBS News journalist who delivered his first report on the debut of the program, saying “the best in radio reporting is yet to be — good night and good luck.” Hollywood Inc.CBS News Radio will stop offering its service to its 700 affiliate stations on May 22.“And goodbye,” Kathan added, ending the run of around 23,000 editions of the 10-minute signature broadcast, delivered from CBS’ radio network .
A final news update was scheduled to run later Friday night.CBS News Radio and its 26 employees became a victim of budget cuts across parent-company Paramount’s news division announced in March.“A shift in radio station programming strategies, coupled with challenging economic realities, has made it impossible to continue the service,” the company said.Privately, longtime insiders at CBS News say the division has struggled for years to find ways to financially turn around its radio business.
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.Leadership over the years have put off the messy task of winding the radio business down due to its iconic status at the company.
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