CBS News Radio

Last updated

CBS News Radio
CBS News Radio Logo (2021).svg
Type News radio network
Country
United States
Ownership
Owner Paramount Global
Parent
  • CBS News (producer)
  • Skyview Networks (distributor)
History
Launch date1927;97 years ago (1927)
Links
Webcast
Website www.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.

Contents

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

Previous CBS News Radio logo CBS News Radio logo.png
Previous CBS News Radio logo

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

Stations and affiliates

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

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

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

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

Reporters

Music and the Spoken Word

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

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:

Related Research Articles

CBS Radio was a radio broadcasting company and radio network operator owned by CBS Corporation and founded in 1928, with consolidated radio station groups owned by CBS and Westinghouse Broadcasting/Group W since the 1920s, and Infinity Broadcasting since the 1970s. The broadcasting company was sold to Entercom on November 17, 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">KMOX</span> Radio station in St. Louis, Missouri

KMOX is a commercial radio station in St. Louis, Missouri. Owned by Audacy, Inc., it is a 50,000 watt Class A clear-channel station with a non-directional signal. The KMOX studios and offices are on Olive Street at Tucker Boulevard in the Park Pacific Building in St. Louis. KMOX refers to itself as "NewsRadio 1120 - The Voice of St. Louis". It is considered the first U.S. station to program all talk shows around the clock.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">KNX (AM)</span> Clear-channel news radio station in Los Angeles, California

KNX is a commercial AM radio station in Los Angeles, California. It simulcasts an all-news radio format with sister station 97.1 KNX-FM, both owned by Audacy, Inc. KNX is one of the oldest stations in the United States, having received its first broadcasting license, as KGC, in December 1921, in addition to tracing its history to the September 1920 operations of an earlier amateur station. The studios and offices—shared with KNX-FM, KCBS-FM, KROQ-FM, KRTH and KTWV—are located on Wilshire Boulevard, along Los Angeles' Miracle Mile.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">KCBS-FM</span> Adult hits radio station in Los Angeles

KCBS-FM is a commercial radio station in Los Angeles, California, serving Greater Los Angeles. It is owned by Audacy, Inc., and broadcasts an adult hits music format branded "93.1 Jack FM".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WHSQ</span> ESPN Radio station in New York City

WHSQ is a radio station in New York City. Owned by Audacy, Inc. and operated by Good Karma Brands (GKB) under a local marketing agreement (LMA), it broadcasts a sports radio format as the co-flagship of the ESPN Radio network. The station's transmitter is located on High Island in the Bronx; its 50,000-watt clear channel signal can be heard at night throughout much of the eastern United States and Eastern Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WINS (AM)</span> All-news radio station in New York City

WINS (1010 kHz) is a commercial, all-news AM radio station licensed to New York, New York owned by Audacy, Inc. The station brands itself "1010 WINS", with its call sign phonetically pronounced as "wins". WINS's studios are located in the combined Audacy facility in the Hudson Square neighborhood in lower Manhattan, and its transmitter is located in Lyndhurst, New Jersey.

Audacy, Inc. is an American broadcasting company based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1968 as Entercom Communications Corp., it is the second largest radio company in the United States, owning over 220 radio stations across 47 media markets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">KNX-FM</span> Radio station in Los Angeles, California

KNX-FM is a commercial radio station in Los Angeles, California, United States. The station is owned by Audacy, Inc. and airs an all-news radio format in a full-time simulcast with KNX. The station has studios at the intersection of Wilshire and Hauser Boulevards in the Miracle Mile district of Los Angeles, and the transmitter on Mount Wilson.

KCMO is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Kansas City, Missouri. Owned by Cumulus Media, the station airs a talk radio format. The studios and offices are on Indian Creek Parkway in Overland Park, Kansas. KCMO is also heard on KCHZ in Ottawa, Kansas, FM translator K279BI (103.7) in Kansas City, Missouri, and on the second HD Radio channel of co-owned KCFX (101.1) in Harrisonville, Missouri.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WPHT</span> Talk radio station in Philadelphia

WPHT is a commercial radio station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The station broadcasts a talk radio format and is owned by Audacy, Inc. Its studios are in Audacy's corporate headquarters in Center City, and its transmitter and broadcast tower are on North Church Street in Moorestown, New Jersey.

All-news radio is a radio format devoted entirely to the discussion and broadcast of news.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Free FM</span> Short-lived talk radio brand

Free FM was a short-lived, mostly-talk-radio format and brand name for eleven FM CBS Radio stations in the United States, and was created because of Howard Stern's departure to Sirius Satellite Radio in January 2006. Free FM was given its name to highlight that its stations broadcast free-to-air, instead of requiring a subscription fee like satellite radio services. Launched on October 25, 2005, Free FM was phased out over the course of 2007, with the final station using it, KLSX, dropping the brand in November 2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WTEM</span> Sports radio station in Washington, D.C.

WTEM is a commercial sports radio station licensed to serve Washington, D.C. Owned by Audacy, Inc., the station services the Washington metropolitan area as the flagship station of the Washington Wizards and the Washington Mystics. WTEM is also the co-flagship station of the Maryland Terrapins, and is the Washington affiliate of Fox Sports Radio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ABC News Radio</span> Radio service of ABC News in the United States

ABC News Radio is the news radio service of ABC Audio, a division of ABC News in the United States. Formerly known as ABC Radio News, ABC News Radio feeds, through Skyview Networks, five-minute newscasts on the hour and news briefs at half-past the hour, to its network affiliates. ABC News Radio is the largest commercial radio news organization in the US.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">KEZK-FM</span> Adult contemporary radio station in St. Louis

KEZK-FM is a commercial radio station licensed to St. Louis, Missouri. It broadcasts an adult contemporary radio format and is owned by Audacy, Inc. From mid-November through the Christmas holiday, KEZK switches to an all-Christmas music format. The studios and offices are on Olive Street in Downtown St. Louis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WXYT (AM)</span> Radio station in Michigan, United States

WXYT is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Detroit, Michigan. It airs a betting-oriented sports radio format known as "The Bet Detroit". Most programming comes from the BetQL Network and Infinity Sports Network. During College football season, WXYT airs live play-by-play from the Central Michigan University Chippewas football team. Owned by Audacy, Inc., the station serves Metro Detroit and much of Southeast Michigan. The studios and offices are on American Drive off 11 Mile Road in Southfield.

The New York Mets Radio Network, referred to on air as the Mets Radio 880 Network, is a radio network owned by Audacy, Inc. that broadcasts New York Mets baseball games. It consists of 2 AM stations in the states of Florida and New York. A Spanish-language broadcast airs separately from the English-language network.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Infinity Sports Network</span> Sports radio network

Infinity Sports Network is an American sports radio network. It debuted as CBS Sports Radio with hourly sports news updates on September 4, 2012, and with 24/7 programming on January 2, 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WXBK</span> Radio station in New Jersey, United States

WXBK is a classic hip hop-formatted radio station that is licensed to Newark, New Jersey, and serves the New York City area. The station is owned by Audacy, Inc. WXBK's studios are located in the combined Audacy facility in the Hudson Square neighborhood of Manhattan, and its transmitter is located in Rutherford, New Jersey.

References

  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.