CBS News Radio, one of the oldest and most storied broadcast news operations in American history, is shutting down this spring after nearly 100 years on the air. CBS News cited “challenging economic realities” in announcing the closure, which will end an institution that has delivered top-of-the-hour news roundups to approximately 700 radio stations across the country.
A Century of American Radio News
CBS News Radio traces its roots to September 1927, when its precursor operation began — predating the entire CBS television network and representing one of the foundational institutions of American broadcast journalism. For generations of Americans, the CBS radio news bulletin was the sound of breaking news: a familiar, authoritative voice interrupting programming to deliver headlines.
At its peak, the service reached millions of listeners daily through affiliate stations nationwide. Even as the media landscape fractured across cable, the internet, and streaming platforms, CBS News Radio remained a distribution backbone for news content reaching local radio audiences in markets large and small.
The Broader Context
The closure is part of a round of layoffs at CBS News and reflects the accelerating contraction of legacy radio news operations across the industry. Traditional radio advertising revenue has declined sharply as audiences migrate to podcasts, streaming audio, and digital news platforms. For legacy broadcast operations without a clear digital-native revenue model, the economics have become increasingly untenable.
The announcement drew an outpouring of tributes from journalists and media professionals who credited the network with shaping American broadcast news standards. The spring closure will mark the end of an era that began when radio was the nation’s dominant mass medium — and that outlasted nearly everything that came after it.