CBS News Radio to shut down after nearly a century of broadcasting

CBS News announced Friday that CBS News Radio will be shutting down this spring after nearly 100 years of broadcasting. The company cited “challenging economic realities” and a shift in radio programming strategies as reasons behind the decision. 

About 700 affiliated stations nationwide carry CBS News Radio programming, which will end on May 22. All jobs on the radio team will be eliminated, the company said. 

“We understand how difficult this news is for our staff and their colleagues, who have worked side by side with us to cover some of the most significant stories of our time,” CBS News President Tom Cibrowski and Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss said in a statement. 

They also 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.”

Murrow became a household name as millions of Americans tuned in for news of the war, and he later became a mainstay on CBS News television broadcasts. But radio declined in the TV era, and in recent years social media and podcasts further cut into the audience.

“This is another part of the landscape that has fallen off into the sea,” Michael Harrison, publisher of Talkers, a trade publication for radio talk shows, told The Associated Press. “It’s a shame. It’s a loss for the country and for the industry.”

Layoffs also took place across other parts of CBS News on Friday; a total number of job cuts was not announced.

“It’s no secret that the news business is changing radically, and that we need to change along with it,” Cibrowski and Weiss said in an email to staff.

CBS is owned by Paramount Skydance, which took ownership last year.