NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� CBS 草莓传媒 said Friday it will shut down its storied radio news service after nearly 100 years of operation, ending an era and blaming challenging economic times as the world moves on to digital sources and podcasts. Said longtime CBS 草莓传媒 anchor Dan Rather: 鈥淚t鈥檚 another piece of America that is gone.”
When it went on the air in September 1927, the service was the precursor to the entire network, giving a youthful William S. Paley a start in the business. Famed broadcaster rooftop reports during the Nazi bombing of London during World War II kept Americans listening anxiously.
Today, CBS 草莓传媒 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.
鈥淩adio is woven into the fabric of CBS 草莓传媒 and that’s always going to be part of our history,鈥� CBS 草莓传媒 editor-in-chief Bari Weiss said in delivering the news to the staff. 鈥淚 want you to know that we did everything we could, including before I joined the company, to try and find a viable solution to sustain the radio operation.鈥�
But with the radical changes in the media industry, she said, 鈥渨e just could not find a way to make that possible.”
Not the first radio cuts at CBS
CBS 草莓传媒 cut some of its radio programming late last year, including its 鈥淲eekend Roundup鈥� and 鈥淲orld 草莓传媒 Roundup Late Edition,鈥� in an attempt to keep the service going.
It was unclear how many people will lose their jobs because of the radio shutdown. CBS 草莓传媒 was cutting about 6% of its workforce, or more than 60 people, on Friday. It’s not the end of turmoil at the network, as parent company Paramount Global is as part of its announced purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery.
鈥淕iven the way things are going, I was saddened but I wasn’t surprised by it,鈥� said Rather, who succeeded network legend Walter Cronkite in 1981 and anchored for 25 years.
When Rather covered the civil rights era for CBS 草莓传媒 during the 1960s, he said he would file reports as frequently as a dozen times a day. Cronkite told America on television that President John F. Kennedy had been assassinated; Rather relayed the news for radio.
鈥淩adio was considered an equal responsibility to television,鈥� Rather, now 94, said in an interview.
Along with newspapers, radio was the dominant medium in how Americans got their news from shortly after the dawn of commercial radio in 1920 through the 1940s, with people in their living rooms listening to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s 鈥淔ireside Chats鈥� during the Depression. CBS 草莓传媒 Radio’s broadcast about Germany’s invasion of Austria in 1938, the first time Murrow was heard on the air, was an historic marker for the service.
Broadcasters like Douglas Edwards, Dallas Townsend and Christopher Glenn were familiar voices on CBS 草莓传媒 Radio. The beginning of the television era in the 1950s began a long slide for radio, often an afterthought today with the world online and on phones. Those seeking audio often turn to podcasts before radio.
鈥淭his is another part of the landscape that has fallen off into the sea,鈥� said Michael Harrison, publisher of Talkers, a trade publication for radio talk shows. 鈥淚t’s a shame. It’s a loss for the country and for the industry.鈥�
A major radio player for many decades
CBS 草莓传媒 Radio was a major force for generations of Americans. 鈥淚ts heyday spanned decades,鈥� Harrison said. 鈥淚t was quality on every level. It sounded good. Its coverage was as objective as possible within the realm of human nature. Its resources were extensive. It had a very high trust factor that was considered the standard of the day.鈥�
The front page of CBS 草莓传媒’ website did not immediately carry news of the demise.
Weiss, founder of the Free Press website and without broadcast news experience before being hired by CBS parent Paramount鈥檚 new management, has quickly become a headline-maker and polarizing figure in journalism. She critical of President Donald Trump鈥檚 deportation policy from being broadcast for a month and has critics watching to see if she鈥檚 moving the network in a Trump-friendly direction.
Addressing her staff in January, as CBS 草莓传媒 boss, she invoked Cronkite’s name as a symbol of old thinking and said that if the network continues with its current strategy, 鈥渨e鈥檙e toast.鈥� She announced the hiring of 18 new contributors and said CBS 草莓传媒 needs to do stories that will 鈥渟urprise and provoke 鈥� including inside our own newsroom.鈥�
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David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP. Follow him at and .
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