.svg){kind=logo} | |
| Type | News radio network |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Paramount Skydance Corporation |
| Parent |
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| History | |
| Launch date | 1927; 98 years ago (1927) |
| Links | |
| Webcast |
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| Website | www |
CBS News Radio, formerly known asCBS Radio News and historically known as theCBS Radio Network, is a radio network that providesnews to more than 1,000 radio stations throughout the United States. The network is owned byParamount Skydance Corporation. It is the last of the three original national U.S. radio networks (CBS,NBC Radio Network andMutual Broadcasting System) still operating and still owned by its original parent company, even though CBS sold itsowned and operated radio stations in 2017. The current NBC Radio Network is owned byiHeartMedia, and licenses use of the NBC name and audio fromNBC 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.
The network is the second-oldest unit of Paramount Skydance Corporation afterParamount Pictures. CBS Radio traces its roots to CBS's predecessor, United Independent Broadcasters, founded in 1927 with 47network 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, seeCBS.
On February 2, 2017, CBS Corporation announced that its shareholders had acquired a majority stake in Entercom (nowAudacy, Inc.), whose corporate management would continue to oversee the company along with CBS's radio assets.[1] The merger was approved on November 9, 2017, and was consummated on November 17.[2][3] The CBS News Radio network service continues to be managed by CBS News. The shareholders sold their controlling stake in Audacy toSoros Fund Management in 2024.[4]
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.[5] On October 22, 2025, Audacy-owned Infinity Networks announced that it would take over distribution of CBS News Radio.[6]
Today, CBS News Radio is best known for its news and public affairs programming distributed to more than 500 affiliates, including formerflagship stationWCBS in New York (which ended their all-news format in August 2024 and is now known as WHSQ),[7] and current flagshipWINS (AM) andWINS-FM and several otherall-news andnews-talk stations. They includeKNX andKNX-FM in Los Angeles,WBBM in Chicago,KCBS in San Francisco,KRLD inDallas,KYW inPhiladelphia,WTOP-FM inWashington,WBZ inBoston,WWJ in Detroit,WCCO inMinneapolis,KXNT inLas Vegas,KMOX inSt. Louis, andWTIC inHartford.
CBS News Radio offers hourlyNews-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 theCBS World News Roundup, U.S. broadcasting's oldest news series. TheRoundup dates back to a special network broadcast on March 13, 1938, featuring live reports from Europe on Germany's annexation ofAustria. 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 theCBS News Weekend Roundup, an hour-long look at the top stories of the week, hosted by correspondent Allison Keyes.
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-timeWhite House correspondent. Knoller made occasional appearances onCBS Television News, especially if he was the day'spool reporter for theWhite House press corps. Knoller no longer filed radio reports after about 2011, transitioning to report mostly on twitter. He left CBS in 2020.[8]
In 2009, CBS launched a long-form late night talk program hosted by Jon Grayson, based atKMOXSt. Louis, and a morning talk show hosted byMichael Smerconish, based atWPHTPhiladelphia, 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 toDial 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.[9] 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 areFace the Nation,60 Minutes, and theCBS Evening News. Some stations, including WCBS in New York and WBZ in Boston, aired the entireEvening News. In addition, theLate Show with David LettermanTop 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 includeCBS Healthwatch with Dr. Emily Senay,Raising Our Kids (formerly suffixed within 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, theCBS News 24/7 streaming service carries a simulcast of CBS News Radio's top-of-the-hour reports.
In March 2021, CBS News Radio hiredJohn Batchelor to host a nightly newsmagazine,Eye on the World.[10] Batchelor had previously hosted an eponymous show that was syndicated through Westwood One and, before that, throughABC Radio Networks.
CBS News Radio offers several weekly one-hour programs to its affiliates for airing on Saturdays and Sundays. They includeTheCBS News Weekend Roundup with Allison Keyes,CBS Eye on Travel withPeter Greenberg,Jill on Money with Jill Schlesinger andThe Takeout withMajor Garrett.[11]
Historically, the sports coverage now produced byWestwood One was branded as CBS Radio Sports and, like the news features, was associated with the CBS Radio Network. However, after CBS began managingthe 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 24/7sports radio network, CBS Sports Radio, in fall 2012. It was distributed throughCumulus Media Networks, owned byCumulus Media. (Cumulus Media Networks was merged into Westwood One in 2013, following Cumulus' acquisition of Westwood One.) CBS Sports Radio was included in the 2017 sale of CBS Radio to Entercom (nowAudacy, Inc.); after a license to use the CBS name ended in April 2024, it was renamedInfinity Sports Network.[12]
While the network'sWorld 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 theTabernacle 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 theGrand Ole Opry, broadcast onWSM inNashville, Tennessee since November 28, 1925.)
All-news affiliates of CBS News Radio, listed by market rank:
