‘Good night and good luck’: CBS News Radio signs off for final time after almost a century on the airwaves

The closure closely follows Thursday night’s final episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, which was abruptly canceled last summer after an 11-year run

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Close popoverStephen Colbert reflects on 33-year The Late Show run in emotional final monologue

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CBS News Radio will cease operations Friday night, marking the end of nearly a century of broadcasting across the United States.

The service, which provided news programming to an estimated 700 stations nationwide, is shutting down due to financial pressures, as reported by CBS News. The closure was announced in March, with parent company executives citing “challenging economic realities” as the reason for the decision.

First hitting the airwaves in September 1927, the network became a cornerstone of American media.

CBS News President Tom Cibrowski and Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss said in a joint statement that the radio service “served as the foundation for everything we have built since 1927.” They stated that its signature broadcast, the World News Roundup, finishes its run as the longest-running newscast in the country.

Over its decades on the air, the network brought major historical moments directly into American homes.

The network gave rise to broadcast pioneers including Edward R. Murrow, whose legendary reporting brought monumental moments — from the liberation of Nazi concentration camps to the JFK assassination — directly into American living rooms

open image in galleryThe network gave rise to broadcast pioneers including Edward R. Murrow, whose legendary reporting brought monumental moments — from the liberation of Nazi concentration camps to the JFK assassination — directly into American living rooms (Getty Images)

In a social media post on X, PBS News reported that the network “gave rise to such icons as Douglas Edwards, Walter Cronkite and Edward R. Murrow,” adding that "they and their colleagues brought history into Americans' homes, from the liberation of Nazi camps in Germany, to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, to the deadliest attack on American soil, 9/11.”

Former CBS News anchor Dan Rather recently told CBS Sunday Morning that the network deserved to be remembered as a national institution that was vital to the development of modern news.

“It, for many, many years, was a part, and I would argue not a small part, of what held the country together,” Rather said.

Steve Kathan, the longtime anchor of the World News Roundup, offered a similar perspective, telling CBS Sunday Morning that the loss of the service represented the departure of an American institution.

In a nod to the final broadcast, PBS News concluded its tribute on X by writing, “To borrow Mr. Murrow's famous phrase, we wish everyone at CBS News Radio one final ‘Good night, and good luck.’”

The shutdown of the radio division follows another high-profile departure at the network.

open image in galleryStephen Colbert gave an emotional farewell to viewers of The Late Show during Thursday's final broadcast (Scott Kowalchyk /CBS)

On Thursday night, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert aired its final episode, concluding an 11-year run. CBS announced the cancellation of the late-night program last summer, similarly describing the decision as purely financial.

Critics and viewers have suggested the cancellation was politically motivated due to Colbert’s frequent criticism of Donald Trump, ahead of an $8.4 billion merger between CBS parent company Paramount Global and Skydance Media.

The media landscape shifts occurred as the official White House account on X amplified Trump’s use of synthetic media Friday night, reposting an AI-generated clip of Trump tossing Colbert into a dumpster with the caption “bye-bye.”