CBS News Pulls the Plug on Its Radio Service After 99 Years of Broadcasting

The End of an Era (and Quite a Long One at That)

If you have ever wondered what it sounds like when nearly a century of broadcasting history gets quietly switched off, CBS News is about to provide the answer. The American network has announced it will shut down its radio service on 22 May 2026, bringing the curtain down on a division that has been running since September 1927.

Yes, 1927. That is before the telly was a thing. Before the internet was even a fever dream. CBS Radio was, in fact, only the second national radio network in the United States, pipping in just behind NBC. It launched with roughly 16 affiliated stations reaching as far west as St. Louis and grew into a service feeding news to approximately 700 stations across the country.

Now, after 99 years, the microphones are going cold.

What Happened?

In a memo to staff, CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss and president Tom Cibrowski confirmed the closure, calling it "necessary" but "not an easy one." The pair wrote: "The news business is changing radically, and we need to change along with it. New audiences are burgeoning in new places."

Translation: people are not listening to traditional radio news the way they used to, and the sums no longer add up. Sources familiar with the decision were rather more blunt, reportedly saying "the financials made it impossible" with barely any revenue coming in. Ouch.

The radio closure is part of a broader 6% staff reduction at CBS News, affecting an estimated 60 to 70 employees out of a total workforce of around 1,100. The restructuring falls under the watch of Paramount Skydance, the parent company now led by CEO David Ellison.

A Genuinely Historic Loss

It is easy to shrug at the demise of yet another legacy media operation, but CBS Radio genuinely earned its place in the history books. This was the network that carried Edward R. Murrow's legendary reports from London during the Second World War, broadcasts that brought the reality of the Blitz into American living rooms. It was the platform that helped build the career of William S. Paley, who became network president in 1928 at the absurdly young age of 26.

Major affiliate stations now left without a CBS news feed include some seriously big names: WINS in New York, KNX in Los Angeles, WBBM in Chicago, KCBS in San Francisco, and WTOP in Washington DC. Those stations will need to look elsewhere, with alternatives like ABC News Radio, Fox News Radio, and SRN News waiting in the wings.

The Bigger Picture

Weiss, who was installed as editor-in-chief in October 2025 with a mandate to restore trust and attract younger, digitally native audiences, reportedly tried to save the radio division before concluding it simply was not viable. She has previously warned that the network risked becoming "toast" if it clung to outdated models, even invoking Walter Cronkite as symbolic of an approach that no longer cuts it.

It is a familiar story across the media landscape, and one that resonates on this side of the Atlantic too. Traditional broadcast infrastructure is expensive to maintain, and when the audience migrates to podcasts, streaming, and social media, the economics become brutal. You cannot run 700 affiliate stations on nostalgia alone.

The Verdict

There is something undeniably sad about watching a 99-year-old institution fall one year short of its centenary. CBS Radio was not just background noise; it was a pillar of American broadcast journalism. But sentimentality does not pay the bills, and in a media world that moves at the speed of a TikTok scroll, a service born in the age of the gramophone was always going to struggle.

One year. They could not hang on for just one more year. That stings.

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