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CBS Radio News Shuts down on May 22, 2026Americans will lose access to the news programs they’ve enjoyed from their living rooms, kitchens and cars for nearly a century.
The idea that the once bipartisan nation’s media exists to serve democracy continues to fade.
As a media historianI don’t think the story of the rise and fall of CBS Radio News can be told without telling another parallel story: the story of how America stopped demanding that the media serve the public interest.
When CBS was born in 1927radio was on the rise, and this new form of mass communication was fueling a lively debate about how the media could better serve democracy.
Americans had already seen how much wealth was concentrated in the Gilded Age skewed the news ecosystem by overemphasizing the concerns of the rich while glossing over inequality, bribery and corruption. World War I further demonstrated the power of the mass media to shape public opinion through advocacy, to strengthen calls for democratic control of broadcasting.
Only how to tune the radio was a matter of discussion. But there was broad consensus across party lines that government could play a role in protecting the public from concentrated media power and thereby from foreign disinformation, malicious special interest messages or false advertising.
Formative years
CBS Radio traces its origins to the United Independent Broadcasters, A network of 16 local stations founded by music manager Arthur L. Judson. When Columbia Records bought a stake, it was renamed the Columbia Phonographic Broadcasting System.
Early broadcasts simply included announcers read short breaking news Distributed by United Press wire service. Within months, Colombia sold its stake to investors William S. Paleywho rationalized Name for CBS.
Paley was no social media crusader. He was a businessman who wanted to make a radio profit. But its management believed that radio could serve two masters: public interest and advertisers.
The journalist caught Paul J. White will manage the news section created a regular news segment calledSomething for everyone.”
Although they disagreed on how best to achieve this, Democrats and Republicans agreed that radio to serve the public interest. In other words, because the airwaves belonged to all Americans, broadcasters had obligations beyond profit. They had to provide reliable information, provide a platform for diverse perspectives, and cover issues of public concern.
In the 1920s, then-Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover was busy shaping federal radio policy. Although a staunch, pro-business conservative, Hoover was also an engineer who believed that the radio system should be “free from monopoly” and that, like any machine, it could be improved incrementally. it serves democracy better.
“The air is a public medium and its use must be for the public good” In November 1925 he said.
Republican Party President Calvin Kulic signed Radio Act 1927 to the law. Widely supported, it required radio stations to demonstrate a commitment to “public interest, convenience and necessity” in order to obtain a license.
Strengthening public confidence
When the Communications Act of 1934 was created Federal Communications Commissionthe regulatory agency tasked with licensing broadcasters and enforcing ownership rules, of radio public service was normalized.
In 1935, Paley did Edward R. Murrow– the most connected person CBS Radio’s public service mission– head of news programs.
With fascism threatening democracy across Europe, Murrow started the World News Roundup in 1938. The longest-running news program in American mediait featured live shortwave reports from around the world. American audiences huddled around their radios nightly to listen to CBS reports showing how live news could unite a nation and foster a richer information ecosystem than the uniform propaganda of Europe’s fascist strongmen.
CBS coverage of World War II It cemented its importance as an American institution. Murrow’s signature tags – “this is London” and later “good night good luck”—helped increase public confidence in CBS’ reliable and informative programming.
The dangers of deception and fun
After the war, television challenged the dominance of radio. Paley realized that Murrow had built deep trust among listeners and put him in charge of CBS News as the network expanded its programming to television.
However, Murrow was concerned about the changes in network coverage, which he believed served the owners’ economic interests more.
Speaking to the Radio Television News Directors Association in 1958Murrow lamented how radio and television had forgotten to “operate in the public interest.” He worried that “we now have a built-in allergy to unpleasant or disturbing information” and saw that the mass media were increasingly “used to distract, deceive, entertain and isolate us”.
Without serious reporting and civic responsibility, radio and television would lose their democratic benefits and become ordinary.wiring and lights in the box.”
Corporations gain an advantage
Many regulations from when CBS Radio News was founded in the 1960s and 1970s, such as ownership restrictions and educational program requirements, remain on the books.
But during this period, media companies started spending huge amounts of money on donations to legislators who can meet their demands— and holding the regulatory bodies that should hold them accountable. The heated debate about how radio can best serve democracy has largely disappeared. Instead, the conversation turned to whether the government should have any role in media regulation.
Principles that once had broad public support—the production of public interest news as a pro quo for licensing, restrictions on foreign ownership and fairness rules requiring stations to give equal time to both sides of an issue – off.
Any social obligation other than profit-making began to be described As a threat to the American way of life. Those who argued that the media should be regulated as a public service in a pluralistic democracy were virtually ignored.
After President Bill Clinton signed it 1996 Telecommunications Actcritics defended it the industrial lobby helped dismantle it Much of the public interest framework that has long governed American broadcasting. The legislation eased ownership restrictions and cross-ownership rules, allowing a small number of large corporations to acquire more stations and weakening the old public interest obligations associated with broadcasting licenses.
Before the act, corporations were limited to owning 40 radio stations. Now conglomerates like iHeartMedia and Audacy can own thousands of companies.
“The pipe vibrates”
Through it all, CBS Radio News’ best bulletins have remained on the air, reminiscent of its original public mission.
But the increasingly unregulated radio ecosystem was unable to fulfill this function.
Back in the 1920s, you would hear editorials claiming that radio was not “really” broadcast.propagandists, religious personalities and unprincipled individuals to grind their axes.” In the early 2000s, divisive shock athletes and hosts fueled by partisan rage dominated the radio dial.
Paley in a 1938 radio address on the ethical obligations of CBS that he claimed “As an instrument of American democracy, broadcasting must always be completely, honestly, and militarily impartial.” CEO Les Moonves until 2016 He defended CBS’s decision To boost ratings surrounding President Donald Trump’s spectacularly divisive politics: “It may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS.” Four years later, Trump honored Rush Limbaugh, one of radio’s most polarizing partisan preachers. Presidential Medal of Freedom.
In his second term, Trump abused his power over the media ecosystem. In 2025, the Trump administration’s FCC approved the merger with Paramount Global’s Skydance Media, the parent company of CBS. But it did so only after Paramount Global settled Trump’s lawsuit against CBS for $16 million.
Bari Weiss, the recently hired editor-in-chief of CBS News, worked to build the network, though many talented journalists and producers remained. It is more friendly to the Trump administration. He suspended a “60 Minutes” segment criticizing Trump’s use of El Salvador’s CECOT prison and friendly town hall with conservative commentator Erica Kirkwidow of murdered political activist Charlie Kirk. Ratings in the network they collapsed.
Although Paramount Skydance used it huge debt load to justify The conglomerate that took CBS Radio News off the air is trying to buy it CNN’s parent companyWarner Bros. Discovery, in a move that will only further increase its monopoly of the news media.
Americans cannot say Murrow didn’t warn them.
“The pipe vibrates” In 1958 he said. If Americans do not reclaim their right to information untainted by profit and special interests, “soon we will see the whole battle lost.”
