CBS Radio News Closure: Effects on KCBS and San Francisco

[rx8driver2]

Excerpt from Los Angeles Times

MSN

In a stunning move, CBS News is shutting down its radio division, getting out of the medium where its storied history began nearly 100 years ago.

CBS News Radio will stop offering its service to its 700 affiliate stations on May 22.

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I think this has been discussed before. The KCBS Radio call letters have nothing to do with this. Will they revert back to CBS at sometime in the future?

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

These cuts are all a part of Paramount merging with WB. Note for Audacy specifically how they respond to the Shut Down of CBS News radio is yet to be seen such as stations like KCBS, KNX, WINS, KYW and WBBM having to either rename their national News service as Audacy News, or Infinity News if in fact Audacy wants to form their own news service.

CBS News shuts down radio unit amid division-wide cuts

CBS News Radio will stop offering its service to its 700 affiliate stations on May 22.

www.latimes.com

CBS News Radio To Shutter Amid News Division Cuts

The closure of CBS News Radio ends nearly 100 years of radio programming from CBS.

deadline.com

 

[michael hagerty]

The KCBS Radio call letters have nothing to do with this. Will they revert back to CBS at sometime in the future?

The original agreement allowed use of the calls until 2037 (20 years after the sale---11 years from now). I don't know if there have been any revisions.

IF KCBS did have to ditch the calls, they've got a couple of fallbacks. They could apply their FM call letters, KFRC, to the AM as well, and change the branding of "All News 106.9 and AM 740 KCBS" to "All News 106.9 and AM 740 KFRC" and I doubt there'd be any real listener heartburn.

 

[cc333]

IF KCBS did have to ditch the calls, they've got a couple of fallbacks. They could apply their FM call letters, KFRC, to the AM as well, and change the branding of "All News 106.9 and AM 740 KCBS" to "All News 106.9 and AM 740 KFRC" and I doubt there'd be any real listener heartburn.

It would be hard for me to adjust, but that's just because I'd always known KFRC as an oldies station (KFRC-FM has always been mostly an afterthought; for me, the AM was where it was at – until it found religion and became KEAR, of course).

The original agreement allowed use of the calls until 2037 (20 years after the sale---11 years from now). I don't know if there have been any revisions.

If there's no more CBS News, it kind of makes "KCBS" irrelevant, and they might as well change it now and get it over with.

Unless, if Audacy wants to create their own service (unlikely, given the expense) and license back the "CBS News" brand from Paramount somehow?

If KCBS were to, say, affiliate with Fox News, I'd probably stop listening. I don't like Fox News, even though their radio division seems less conservative.

c

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

CBS Radio News is shutting down, ending a national news service for nearly 700 radio stations | 830 WCCO

A memo from CBS on Friday announced that they're ending CBS News Radio, ending a service that aired on approximately 700 affiliated stations around the U.S. That includes stations like WCCO Radio, which has been affiliated with CBS for nearly a century. | 830 WCCO

www.audacy.com

Here is Audacy's response when they were first notified on the shutdown of CBS Radio News.

Some memories of when CBS Radio really owned their O&O's like WCBS 880 New York and 740 KCBS San Francisco in the 1990's.

 

[rx8driver2]

It would be hard for me to adjust, but that's just because I'd always known KFRC as an oldies station (KFRC-FM has always been mostly an afterthought; for me, the AM was where it was at – until it found religion and became KEAR, of course).


If there's no more CBS News, it kind of makes "KCBS" irrelevant, and they might as well change it now and get it over with.

Unless, if Audacy wants to create their own service (unlikely, given the expense) and license back the "CBS News" brand from Paramount somehow?

If KCBS were to, say, affiliate with Fox News, I'd probably stop listening. I don't like Fox News, even though their radio division seems less conservative.

c

I would ditch the calls.

When I think of KFRC I think of Dr. Don Rose. I don't think I heard him live and only have heard him through clips on youtube. I remember hearing Frank and Mike on KNBR when I was growing up. My dad always listened to KNBR.

 

[michael hagerty]

It would be hard for me to adjust, but that's just because I'd always known KFRC as an oldies station (KFRC-FM has always been mostly an afterthought; for me, the AM was where it was at – until it found religion and became KEAR, of course).

KFRC has been a lot of things in the 102 years since the call letters were first assigned to 660 AM (the station moved to 610 in 1928).

Among them---from 1930 to 1936---San Francisco's first CBS affiliate. From 1936 to 1959 it was a Don Lee-Mutual network affiliate, carrying a heavy schedule of nationwide programs.

It was MOR (1949-1966) before it was Top 40 (1966-1986). It was adult standards from 1986-1993. The oldies thing, beginning in 1991 on 99.7 FM and then adding the AM simulcast in 1993 was only 15 years (1991-2006) and ended 20 years ago. And then there was the brief attempt at Classic Hits on 106.9 which lasted less than 18 months before it became the KCBS simulcast---18 years ago.

And honestly, the call letters are the smallest and quickest part of that branding: "All News 106.9 and AM 740 (calls)".

If there's no more CBS News, it kind of makes "KCBS" irrelevant, and they might as well change it now and get it over with.

I would have argued that the call letters probably wouldn't matter that much, but I'm already seeing "What does this mean for KCBS?" from San Francisco people on social media. So maybe it does.

There is no WCBS news radio anymore. Maybe this is where they lose the KCBS calls too (though they're still on WCBS-FM in New York and KCBS-FM in Los Angeles).

Unless, if Audacy wants to create their own service (unlikely, given the expense) and license back the "CBS News" brand from Paramount somehow?

Nah.

If KCBS were to, say, affiliate with Fox News, I'd probably stop listening. I don't like Fox News, even though their radio division seems less conservative.

Not gonna happen. FOX News is on KSFO, and the KCBS audience would freak.

The only full-service radio network option would be ABC Radio News.

If I was programming and we did that, I would change calls. The confusion level of ABC on KCBS is just a little extreme. But the easier option is to just handle national and international news on your own...with audio from stations (or even freelance reporters) wherever in the world the news is happening.

 

[JJSPC]

It's been said before on many threads, but why are so many concerned what call letters a station has in 2026? The average listener could care less as they mostly know the frequency or positioner of what they listen to. We radio geeks are the only ones still hung up on call signs.

 

[michael hagerty]

It's been said before on many threads, but why are so many concerned what call letters a station has in 2026? The average listener could care less as they mostly know the frequency or positioner of what they listen to. We radio geeks are the only ones still hung up on call signs.

Literally the post directly above yours:

I would have argued that the call letters probably wouldn't matter that much, but I'm already seeing "What does this mean for KCBS?" from San Francisco people on social media. So maybe it does.

And I think when it comes to a set of call letters that has been on a station that has rarely if ever been out of the top five since 1949, it might matter more.

 

[K.M. Richards]

Could we perhaps concentrate the discussion on the thread which properly exists under National Radio Topics, rather than have a dozen or more duplicative threads?

CBS News Radio Closed

Just announced: https://deadline.com/2026/03/cbs-news-radio-to-shut-down-1236761393/ The company had just signed a distribution agreement with Audacy's Infinity Networks in October.

radiodiscussions.com

 

[michael hagerty]

Could we perhaps concentrate the discussion on the thread which properly exists under National Radio Topics, rather than have a dozen or more duplicative threads?

CBS News Radio Closed

Just announced: https://deadline.com/2026/03/cbs-news-radio-to-shut-down-1236761393/ The company had just signed a distribution agreement with Audacy's Infinity Networks in October.

radiodiscussions.com

I don’t know—-the conversation has been pretty specific about what effect it will have on KCBS. I think this is a local thread that maybe needs a new title.

 

[Cityguy76]

cbs news chief really destroyed the news division...

 

[K.M. Richards]

I don’t know—-the conversation has been pretty specific about what effect it will have on KCBS. I think this is a local thread that maybe needs a new title.

I would agree with that. I just don't want to have to hopscotch all over the board to read all the comments when so much of those are general and not market-specific.

Mods?

 

[K.M. Richards]

a thought but not far fetched if abc news radio appears on 740: ditch call letters KCBS and replace it with KGO?

Can't be done. Not only does Audacy not have the IP rights to the call letters (they were with Cumulus), once a three-letter call is replaced, it is ineligible for reassignment unless it also appears on a co-owned station.

 

[Cityguy76]

Can't be done. Not only does Audacy not have the IP rights to the call letters (they were with Cumulus), once a three-letter call is replaced, it is ineligible for reassignment unless it also appears on a co-owned station.

Ahh ok just a thought that came to mind. Sometimes technicality can get in the way and interfere...

 

[cc333]

a thought but not far fetched if abc news radio appears on 740: ditch call letters KCBS and replace it with KGO?

KABC would be an obvious choice, but those calls are already taken by a station in LA, which is, again, owned by Cumulus.

It seems the only reasonable choice would be KFRC, given that Audacy owns those calls outright as far as I know.

c

 

[davideduardo]

It's been said before on many threads, but why are so many concerned what call letters a station has in 2026? The average listener could care less as they mostly know the frequency or positioner of what they listen to. We radio geeks are the only ones still hung up on call signs.

There is an exception to your excellent point: some stations, mostly heritage ones like WSB, WSM, KFI and the like, use their call letters as their "name". In those cases, the calls are the "positioner" just as "Jack" is the positioner for a bunch of Adult Hits FMs or K-Love is the same for a group of Christian music stations.

 

[K.M. Richards]

There is an exception to your excellent point: some stations, mostly heritage ones like WSB, WSM, KFI and the like, use their call letters as their "name". In those cases, the calls are the "positioner" just as "Jack" is the positioner for a bunch of Adult Hits FMs or K-Love is the same for a group of Christian music stations.

Even when those heritage calls aren't on the original station.

(cough cough) KRKE (cough cough).

 

[davideduardo]

KABC would be an obvious choice, but those calls are already taken by a station in LA, which is, again, owned by Cumulus.

It seems the only reasonable choice would be KFRC, given that Audacy owns those calls outright as far as I know.

c

The "KCBS" brand seems to have value still. It's a TV network, it's tied to the Paramount+ streaming service (all the CBS content has the network brand visual at the start of each show or episode.

Unless there is some still announced legal issue, it makes sense to not further confuse listeners.

 

[Mark Roberts]

Granted, there are still quite a few Bay Area stations known for their call letters: KCBS, KQED, KSFO (diminished as it is), KMEL, KNBR (so much so the brand appears on KTCT, too), even KALW and KPFA. That said, I'm less interested in the call letters and more interested in the effect this has on KCBS. After May 22, there will be at least four more minutes of content per hour (six or seven on weekends) that the station will have to replace. In all-news, if there's a hole in your programming, you damn well better have something informational to fill it. You can't just play a tune. This could knock the KCBS news wheel off its axle, too. One hopes it doesn't get to the place where the anchor has to bring a "trucker's friend" into the studio but that CBS top-of-hour newscast won't be there to give the anchor a break. It also makes the station sound less repetitive.

This is a challenge most stations won't be facing. KCBS...and KNX...will have to figure something out, and quick. As someone who worked in all-news radio once upon a time, I don't envy that challenge.