I wonder how this will affect WBBM
CBS News Radio To Shut Down In May
BREAKING: As part of today's layoffs at CBS News, the company has announced that it will shut down CBS News Radio on May 22.radioinsight.com
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CBS Radio News Closure: Effects on WBBM and Chicago
- Thread starter TheM1ghtyBear
- Start date
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
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?
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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
No, that would just clutter up the national topic.
WBBM has a real problem on its hands. Decades ago, before CBS went 24/7 with top-of-hour news, WBBM used UPI News overnights. UPI is long gone. So is AP on a 24/7 basis. NBCNR, ABC, Fox, all have local affiliates, though not all clear every hourly.
WBBM has a real problem on its hands. Decades ago, before CBS went 24/7 with top-of-hour news, WBBM used UPI News overnights. UPI is long gone. So is AP on a 24/7 basis. NBCNR, ABC, Fox, all have local affiliates, though not all clear every hourly.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
Then I would go with an idea @michael hagerty had on the San Francisco board. Retitle this thread to specify the effect on WBBM as the topic, and have the general discussion in the National Radio Topics thread.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
That worked for KFWB, KDKA, and WINS under Group W ...
And KYW Philadelphia. Network news is a crutch.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
In major markets, it is indeed.
In smaller markets, it was always desirable to management to avoid having the jocks do rip-n-read newscasts. I know that's why the first station I worked for jumped at the chance to get a network affiliation, about a year after I started there. (In fact, AT&T Long Lines didn't get the circuit hooked up until midway through my shift on a Saturday evening, and I was the first person there to do a network join.)
These days, it's more desirable as a music station to do as little news as possible, especially if you are in a market where there's a station with a heritage of news coverage.
Back in the day, networks considered their newscasts to be integral to their O&O stations. That mostly ended a long time ago, and the CBS News shutdown is simply the final nail in that coffin.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
With six minute stopsets, that two minutes isn't worth waiting for.
Maybe not a newscast, but I think you'd have to have a national wire and get some national news audio from somewhere. I suspect that a station without any national and world news material would be awfully boring.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
That's an odd presumption. What news station doesn't have those resources already?
They're AP affiliates. They use AP content on their website. In fact all of the Audacy news stations use AP for national and international web content.
Well, I assumed we were talking about radio stations in general, not just all-news stations, including smaller stations that supplement their network newscasts with occasional broadcasts of purely local news. A station like that does not necessarily need an AP wire. And in these days of diminishing advertising revenue, I am sure there are some smaller local stations that do without.
And yes, it's true that all-news stations generally have AP wires (although I once worked for one that did not, at least for not significant stretches of time). But it's my understanding that in addition to the hourly and half-hourly newscasts, CBS also provided its affiliates with feeds of national audio -- actualities, voicers, donuts -- that could be played during local programming. With CBS closing down, affiliates that used that feed would presumably need to find an alternate source if they want to have any national audio.
Here's a sales pitch from AP that includes all the services they provide.
The Associated Press | Video, Photo, Text, Audio & Data News Agency
Discover a world of unbiased journalism, in-depth analysis, and real-time updates from every corner of the globe.
www.ap.org
My understanding is that AP audio is an additional fee beyond the text service.
Of course, the other possibilities include ABC and Fox.
Of course, the other possibilities include ABC and Fox.
You are correct. But the other side to that it doesn't take inventory, and you can sell it to local sponsors.
ABC and Fox require you to air their commercials. Same with CBS.
Westwood One now distributes AP News on a 24/7 basis. The all news stations could go with that.
I realize the BBC is a slightly different format, but what would stop them from filling with BBC content?