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CBS News to End Historic Radio Service, Cutting 70 Jobs by May 22

CBS News to End Historic Radio Service, Cutting 70 Jobs by May 22
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CBS News said Friday it would shut down its storied CBS News Radio service on May 22 and lay off roughly 6% of its news staff, ending nearly a century-long presence on the airwaves and cutting about 60 to 70 jobs across the division deadline +1. The move will halt national news feeds to some 700 affiliate stations that have carried CBS reporting for decades deadline +1.

The closure marked a symbolic break with the company’s origins in radio in the 1920s and the end of “World News Roundup,” widely regarded as the longest-running newscast, on a network that once broadcast Edward R. Murrow’s World War II reports from London variety +1. In a memo to staff, editor in chief Bari Weiss and CBS News president Tom Cibrowski called it “a necessary decision” driven by shifting programming strategies at local stations and “challenging economic realities” deadline +1.

Why CBS Is Exiting the Medium That Built Its Brand

Executives argued that the economics of sustaining a national radio news service had become untenable, with one internal figure putting CBS News Radio’s February revenue at about $67,000 variety. Weiss and Cibrowski told employees that changes in how stations program their schedules, combined with audience migration to digital and streaming, made “it impossible to continue the service” and that resources had to be redirected to “new audiences… in new places” such as streaming video, podcasts and social platforms deadline +1.

The cuts followed a broader cost-squeezing drive at Paramount under new owner Skydance Media, which has been restructuring its news and entertainment assets and previously eliminated about 100 CBS News positions in October 2025 sfchronicle. Media analyst Rich Greenfield said on social media that expensive sports rights, including the NFL, were forcing companies like Paramount to shutter “money losing programming,” casting the radio closure as part of a larger reallocation of capital inside the conglomerate latimes.

Staff Backlash and the End of an Era for Radio Journalism

Unions and journalists condemned the decision, arguing that management was sacrificing a foundational public-service platform for short-term savings and an unproven strategy under Weiss, who took over in 2025 with a mandate to revamp CBS News variety +1. The Writers Guild of America called the move “indicative of Bari Weiss and David Ellison’s inept leadership,” while laid‑off reporters posted messages of shock and pride in their work on campaigns and Congress variety +1.

Historians and industry veterans described the shutdown as historically significant, severing one of the last links between modern network news and its early radio era. Media historian Michael Socolow called it “the end of an era,” noting that CBS’s radio division had helped define American broadcast journalism from the 1930s onward mynorthwest. Hundreds of affiliates now must scramble to find replacement national news programming, potentially reshaping the sound of local all-news and talk stations in major markets inquirer +1.

The Bigger Picture

The dismantling of CBS News Radio underscored how rapidly legacy news infrastructure was being dismantled as audiences and advertisers moved online, even at brands built on radio and linear TV. While CBS and its competitors invest heavily in streaming and digital products, the loss of a nearly 100-year-old service highlighted the human and civic costs of that transition: shrinking national reporting staffs, fewer traditional news voices on local airwaves, and a media landscape increasingly dominated by platforms and formats that did not exist when Murrow first signed on from London.