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CBS News Radio

CBS News Radio
TypeNews radio network
Country
United States
Ownership
OwnerParamount Global
Parent
  • CBS News (producer)
  • Skyview Networks (distributor)
History
Launch date1927; 97 years ago (1927)
Links
Webcast
Websitewww.cbsnews.com/radio/

CBS News Radio, formerly known as CBS Radio News and historically known as the CBS Radio Network, is a radio network that provides news to more than 1,000 radio stations throughout the United States. The network is owned by Paramount Global. It is the last of the three original national U.S. radio networks (CBS, NBC Radio Network and Mutual Broadcasting System) still operating and still owned by its original parent company, even though CBS sold its owned and operated radio stations in 2017. The current NBC Radio Network is owned by iHeartMedia, and licenses use of the NBC name and audio from NBC News.

CBS News Radio is one of the two national news services distributed by Skyview Networks, which transmits national news, talk, music and special event programs, in addition to local news, weather, video news and other information to radio and television stations, as well as traffic reporting services.

Background

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Previous CBS News Radio logo
This article is about the news radio service. For the historical radio service, see CBS. For the sports radio service, see CBS Sports Radio.

The network is the second-oldest unit of Paramount Global after Paramount Pictures. CBS Radio traces its roots to CBS's predecessor, United Independent Broadcasters, founded in 1927 with 47 network affiliates. The next year, Columbia Records invested in the radio network, which was named the Columbia Phonographic Broadcasting System. Eventually, the record company pulled its backing from the struggling web. William S. Paley bought a half-interest in what became the Columbia Broadcasting System in 1928, and became its president. (In 1938, CBS bought its former parent, Columbia Records.) For more about the network's history, see CBS.

On February 2, 2017, CBS Corporation announced that its shareholders had acquired a majority stake in Entercom (now Audacy, Inc.), whose corporate management will continue to oversee the company along with CBS's radio assets.[1] The merger was approved on November 9, 2017, and was consummated on the 17th.[2][3] The CBS News Radio network service will continue to be managed by CBS News.

On August 2, 2017, CBS announced that it had signed a contract with Skyview Networks for distribution of CBS News Radio. This went into effect January 1, 2018.[4]

Programming

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Stations and affiliates

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Today, CBS News Radio is best known for its news and public affairs programming distributed to more than 500 affiliates, including flagship station WCBS in New York (which ended their all-news format in August 2024 and is now known as WHSQ),[5] and several other all-news and news-talk stations. They include KNX and KNX-FM in Los Angeles, WBBM in Chicago, KCBS in San Francisco, KRLD in Dallas, KYW in Philadelphia, WTOP-FM in Washington, WBZ in Boston, WWJ in Detroit, WCCO in Minneapolis, KXNT in Las Vegas, KMOX in St. Louis, and WTIC in Hartford. (WINS and WINS-FM in New York do not carry the newscasts but make use of voicers and actualities from CBS News Radio.)

CBS News Radio offers hourly News-on-the-Hour newscasts (available in three- and six-minute versions) and a one-minute newscast at 31 minutes past the hour. They are sent to member stations 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. In addition to the over-the-air product, reports and actualities are made available to affiliates via the network's Newsfeed service. Many of the aforementioned outlets make heavy use of the CBS network feed material throughout their broadcast day.

The network is home to the morning and evening editions of the CBS World News Roundup, U.S. broadcasting's oldest news series. The Roundup dates back to a special network broadcast on March 13, 1938, featuring live reports from Europe on Germany's annexation of Austria. Since 2010, Steve Kathan has anchored the morning show, which airs at 8 am ET and 7 am PT, while Jennifer Keiper hosts the evening edition at 7 pm ET. Each Friday afternoon, the network also distributes the CBS News Weekend Roundup, an hour-long look at the top stories of the week, hosted by correspondent Allison Keyes.

News reporters and anchors

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CBS News Radio has an impressive list of reporters around the world including Jim Krasula, Peter King, Linda Kenyon, Cami McCormick, Vicki Barker, Elaine Cobbe, Sabina Castelfranco and Robert Berger.

Mark Knoller was the network's long-time White House correspondent. Knoller often made additional appearances on CBS Television, especially if he was the day's pool reporter for the White House Press Corps. Knoller no longer filed radio reports after about 2011, transitioning to report mostly on twitter. He left CBS in 2020.[6]

Features and news programs

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In 2009, CBS launched a long-form late night talk program hosted by Jon Grayson, based at KMOX St. Louis, and a morning talk show hosted by Michael Smerconish, based at WPHT Philadelphia, on some of its owned-and-operated stations. CBS handled the syndication of Grayson's show itself, while syndication for Smerconish's show to non-CBS stations had been outsourced to Dial Global (which at that time was not involved with the CBS Radio Network itself). Grayson's show, Overnight America, also entered national syndication via Dial Global on January 30, 2012.[7] Smerconish discontinued the morning show in 2011 and Grayson's show ended its national distribution a few years later.

Three of CBS's television programs are currently simulcast over CBS News Radio affiliates; those are Face the Nation, 60 Minutes, and the CBS Evening News. Some stations, including WCBS in New York and WBZ in Boston, aired the entire Evening News. In addition, the Late Show with David Letterman Top Ten List was also broadcast by the network in a short-form-feature format until the show's conclusion with David Letterman's retirement in 2015.

Other public-affairs features include CBS Healthwatch with Dr. Emily Senay, Raising Our Kids (formerly suffixed with in the 90s during that decade) with former WCBS morning anchor Pat Carroll, What's in the News, and "Eye on Washington," a daily look at goings on in the nation's capital.

During the overnight hours, the CBS News 24/7 streaming service carries a simulcast of CBS News Radio's top-of-the-hour reports.

In March 2021, CBS News Radio hired John Batchelor to host a nightly newsmagazine, Eye on the World.[8] Batchelor had previously hosted an eponymous show that was syndicated through Westwood One and, before that, through ABC Radio Networks.

CBS News Radio offers several weekly one-hour programs to its affiliates for airing on Saturdays and Sundays. They include The CBS News Weekend Roundup with Allison Keyes, CBS Eye on Travel with Peter Greenberg, Jill on Money with Jill Schlesinger and The Takeout with Major Garrett.[9]

Sports programs

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Historically, the sports coverage now produced by Westwood One was branded as CBS Radio Sports and, like the news features, was associated with the CBS Radio Network. However, after CBS began managing the original Westwood One in the mid-1990s, the sports broadcasts came under the Westwood One banner (with both identities used in the late 1990s. It was a practice that would continue even after CBS stopped managing Westwood One in 2007.

CBS launched a 24/7 sports radio network, "CBS Sports Radio," in fall 2012. It was distributed through Cumulus Media Networks, owned by Cumulus Media. (Cumulus Media Networks was merged into Westwood One in 2013, following Cumulus' acquisition of Westwood One.) In 2017, CBS Sports Radio was sold to Entercom (now Audacy, Inc.) after it acquired CBS Radio. It now uses the title "Infinity Sports Network."

Anchors

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Reporters

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Music and the Spoken Word

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While the network's World News Roundup is the longest-running news show on radio or TV in the U.S., the title of longest-running network radio show of any kind goes to another CBS Radio program—Music and the Spoken Word, a half-hour of music and inspirational thought featuring the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square. It began on July 15, 1929, and currently airs each Sunday morning at 11:30 Eastern Time. (The longest running radio show of any kind is the Grand Ole Opry, broadcast on WSM in Nashville, Tennessee since November 28, 1925.)

All-news affiliates

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These stations were formerly owned-and-operated by CBS Radio before November 17, 2017, and are now under ownership of Audacy, unless otherwise noted.

All-news affiliates of CBS News Radio, listed by market rank:

References

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  1. ^ CBS Radio To Merge With Entercom - Radio Insight (published February 2, 2017)
  2. ^ "Entercom Receives FCC Approval for Merger with CBS Radio". Archived from the original on November 17, 2017. Retrieved November 17, 2017.
  3. ^ Entercom Completes CBS Radio Merger
  4. ^ CBS News Radio and Skyview Networks press release - "Skyview networks" (published August 2, 2017)
  5. ^ Farewell, WCBS 880: One of NYC’s last all-news radio stations signs off after almost 60 years on-air Axelrod, Scott R., 'Staten Island Advance', 25 August 2024.
  6. ^ "Veteran CBS White House correspondent Mark Knoller confirms layoff". June 19, 2020.
  7. ^ "Dial Global offers syndication of KMOX's "Overnight America With Jon Grayson"". Radio-Info.com. January 24, 2012. Archived from the original on January 28, 2012. Retrieved January 24, 2012.
  8. ^ "Wednesday, March 10, 2021". Talkers Magazine. March 10, 2021.
  9. ^ WNAX.com/Program-Schedule
  10. ^ Arbitron Radio Market Rankings - Fall 2012
  11. ^ Farewell, WCBS 880: One of NYC’s last all-news radio stations signs off after almost 60 years on-air Axelrod, Scott R., 'Staten Island Advance', 25 August 2024.
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