CBS Information Radio shuttered on Friday after almost a century of broadcasting, with its ultimate newscast coming to shut with the voice of Edward R. Murrow and his well-known log out, “Good night time, and good luck.”
Then got here the ultimate phrases round 11:31 p.m. ET, “CBS Information particular report. I’m Christopher Cruz.”
The community introduced in March that CBS Information Radio could be shuttering on account of funds cuts below new house owners Paramount Skydance.
Additionally heard on the ultimate newscast had been different present anchors, together with Steve Kathan, the anchor of CBS Information Roundup, who famous that “America’s longest operating newscast indicators off for the final time.”
Earlier within the night, there have been retrospectives of the radio community’s storied historical past, together with Murrow’s well-known broadcasts from London throughout the blitz of World Conflict II. Amongst these providing his recollections was Marvin Kalb, 95, who mentioned, “Each time that I may do a bit for the roundup, I felt honored. It wasn’t only a job. It was a calling.” Dan Fairly, 94, mentioned that “radio was a form of magic carpet. They might take you there. They might take you to the warfare.”
The community had served round 700 radio stations, together with these owned by Audacy, which bought CBS’s radio stations in 2017. A variety of these stations have already switched to ABC Information for his or her common newscasts.
The radio community dates to the start of CBS in 1927. Brooke A. Byers, the granddaughter of CBS founder William S. Paley, wrote in The Guardian on Friday that the closure “represents one other crack within the crown jewel that we as soon as relied upon to be educated residents.”
Earlier within the day, the Writers Guild of America, East issued a press release criticizing the closure as “a single reckless and shortsighted choice” on the a part of Paramount CEO David Ellison and Bari Weiss, the editor in chief of CBS Information.
“This closure erodes an important information supply for listeners of greater than 700-affiliated stations throughout the nation and twenty-six WGAE members with a long time of expertise and dedication to journalism will probably be out of labor,” the union mentioned.
In asserting the closure in March, Weiss and Tom Cibrowski, the president of CBS Information, wrote {that a} shift “in radio station programming methods, coupled with difficult financial realities, has made it unattainable to proceed the service.”
Additionally they famous the lengthy historical past of the community.
“CBS Information Radio served as the muse for all the things now we have constructed since 1927.”
