The ''CBS World News Roundup'' is the longest-running network radio newscast in the United States. It airs weekday mornings and evenings on the

CBS Radio Network CBS News Radio, formerly known as CBS Radio News and historically known as the CBS Radio Network, is a radio network that provides news to more than 1,000 radio stations throughout the United States. The network is owned by Paramount Global. It ...

. It first went on-air on March 13, 1938, at 8 p.m. ET as a one-time special in response to growing tensions in Europe—specifically the

Anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, en, Annexation of Austria), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into the German Reich on 13 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a " Greater Germany ...

, during which

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

invaded Austria.

The early years

When the show first went on the air it was hosted by veteran radio personality

Robert Trout Robert Trout (born Robert Albert Blondheim; October 15, 1909 – November 14, 2000) was an American broadcast news reporter who worked on radio before and during World War II for CBS News. He was regarded by some as the "Iron Man of Radio" for h ...

. The first show gave the world the voices of

Edward R. Murrow Edward Roscoe Murrow (born Egbert Roscoe Murrow; April 25, 1908 – April 27, 1965) was an American broadcast journalist and war correspondent. He first gained prominence during World War II with a series of live radio broadcasts from Europe fo ...

and

William L. Shirer William Lawrence Shirer (; February 23, 1904 – December 28, 1993) was an American journalist and war correspondent. He wrote ''The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich'', a history of Nazi Germany that has been read by many and cited in scholarly w ...

. In fact, it was the first time Murrow had ever delivered a news report. During the early years of the war, Murrow's reports from

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

and Shirer's reports from

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

were essential listening to anyone trying to keep informed on events unfolding in Europe. War correspondents, including members of the

Murrow Boys The Murrow Boys, or Murrow's Boys, were the CBS radio broadcast journalists most closely associated with Edward R. Murrow during his time at the network, most notably in the years before and during World War II. Murrow recruited a number of newsm ...

, broadcast from around European throughout the war. The program was a 35-minute special report from multiple locations around the world as the pre-war crisis mounts. It was the first time that on-the-scene European field correspondents were linked with a central anchor in New York for a national broadcast. A recording of the first episode, as well as some others, is available at the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

. Most broadcast references credit either CBS President

William S. Paley William Samuel Paley (September 28, 1901 – October 26, 1990) was an American businessman, primarily involved in the media, and best known as the chief executive who built the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) from a small radio network into o ...

or News Director Paul White as coming up with the idea for the show, as a way to trump

Max Jordan Max Jordan (later Father Placid Jordan - April 21, 1895 in Sanremo, Italy Staatsarchiv Basel-Stadt Signatur: PD-REG 3a 18095 - November 1977) was a pioneering radio journalist for the NBC network in Europe in the 1930s. Later, he became a Benedic ...

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

coverage of the Anschluss. The previous day, Shirer had flown from Vienna to London at the request of Murrow (the CBS European chief) to give the first uncensored eyewitness account of Germany's takeover of Austria. It was White who relayed the order to Murrow and Shirer for the first ''Roundup''. The two, Murrow in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

and Shirer in

, then had the responsibility of linking up reporters and circuits that same day...a Sunday, when many of the key people would be mostly unreachable. The format was so successful that it was repeated the following evening, and then revived later that year during the Sudetenland crisis. Eventually, it evolved into a daily show. As

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

raged in Europe, the ''Roundup'' format spawned a weekend edition, ''The World Today.'' It was just before one 2:30 p.m. Eastern broadcast, on December 7, 1941, that White and ''World Today'' anchor

John Charles Daly John Charles Patrick Croghan Daly (February 20, 1914 – February 24, 1991) was an American journalist, host, radio and television personality, ABC News executive, TV anchor, and game show, game show host, best known for his work on the CBS panel ...

received word in New York that the Japanese had attacked

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Re ...

. Daly's report at the top of the show, among the first on any radio station or network, is the one most often used in audio retrospectives. (For more on that, see

The show today

The ''CBS World News Roundup'' remains an active part of the CBS Radio Network lineup, making it America's longest running network newscast on radio or TV. The 10-minute newscast airs every morning on CBS Radio affiliates nationwide at 8 a.m. Eastern and 7 a.m. Pacific. A late edition airs at 7 p.m. Eastern time and runs for 9 minutes. Skyview Networks handles the distribution. Despite the name of the broadcast, it no longer emphasizes world news and often is devoted to the same national, political and lifestyle stories as the shorter top of the hour news broadcasts. The morning edition of the ''World News Roundup'' is anchored by Steve Kathan, and produced by Paul Farry. The full show runs for 10 minutes, although many stations take only the first eight minutes. There is also a local cut-away at four minutes past the hour for the early edition (like the network's other top of the hour newscasts) and five minutes past the hour for the late edition. The longest tenure of one anchor with the ''Roundup'' was that of

Dallas Townsend Dallas Selwyn Townsend Jr. (January 17, 1919 - June 1, 1995) was an American broadcast journalist who worked for CBS Radio and television for over 40 years. An award jury at Columbia University said of Townsend, "No other newsman of our day has h ...

, who hosted the morning broadcast for 25 years. Townsend was followed by Reid Collins and then Bill Lynch who anchored from March 25, 1985 until his contract was not renewed in 1999. Christopher Glenn's long career at CBS was punctuated with a stint on the ''Roundup'' from 1999 until 2006. After Glenn's retirement, Nick Young had a short tenure on the ''Roundup'' until he retired in 2010. Originally titled ''The World Tonight'', the evening show was anchored by

Douglas Edwards Douglas Edwards (July 14, 1917 – October 13, 1990) was an American radio and television newscaster and correspondent who worked for the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) for more than four decades. After six years on CBS Radio in the 1940s ...

from 1966 until 1988. After Edwards retired, Glenn settled in as nighttime anchor until 1999, when he moved to the ''World News Roundup.'' Around the same time as Glenn's departure to the flagship morning broadcast, ''The World Tonight'' was rebranded as the ''World News Roundup Late Edition.'' The late edition was hosted by Bill Whitney and produced by Greg Armstrong. Whitney anchored the program until his departure from CBS in December 2016, a run of 17 years. From 1966 until 2016, ''The World Tonight / World News Roundup Late Edition'' had only three anchors. Since Bill Whitney's retirement in 2016, turnover has increased. Dave Barrett succeeded Whitney until his sudden death on September 19, 2018. Jim Chenevey, the longtime overnight anchor for CBS, moved to daytime and the ''Late Edition'', but was let go in June 2020. Subsequently, Pam Coulter anchored the broadcast until her departure from CBS in September 2020. Peter King replaced her until April 2021 when Jennifer Keiper became the latest anchor of the ''World News Roundup Late Edition''.

The ''Weekend Roundup''

In 2000, CBS Radio developed a weekly show based on the original ''Roundup'' format. The ''

CBS News Weekend Roundup The ''CBS News Weekend Roundup'' is a weekly news show that airs on CBS News Radio, designed for a one-hour time slot, though it has an actual length without commercials of about forty minutes. It reviews the previous week's news and provides insigh ...

'', designed for an hour-long time slot (40 minutes plus slots for commercials and affiliate cut-ins), is produced each Friday and airs on a number of CBS Radio affiliates on Saturdays and Sundays. It includes interviews with CBS News correspondents and other newsmakers. The network's then-news director, Mike Freedman, was the creator and first executive producer of the show. Bill Lynch, former anchor of the morning ''Roundup,'' was the first host of the weekend show. It is now anchored by CBS News Corrsepondent Allison Keyes. The longest tenured anchor of the program was Former CBS News National Correspondent

Dan Raviv Dan Raviv (born 1954) is an American journalist. Career Raviv is the senior Washington correspondent for i24 News, headquartered in Tel Aviv and New York. Previously he was with CBS News as their national correspondent and was heard regularly o ...

in Washington. Correspondent Howard Arenstein, the Washington radio bureau chief, was also the executive producer. Raviv's last show as host was broadcast on January 20, 2017. After Raviv's departure, the broadcast was anchored by Steve Dorsey until Keyes assumed the role in late 2019.

References

External links

CBS daily podcast feed
(with recent archives)

at the

National Radio Hall of Fame The Radio Hall of Fame, formerly the National Radio Hall of Fame, is an American organization created by the Emerson Radio Corporation in 1988. Three years later, Bruce DuMont, founder, president, and CEO of the Museum of Broadcast Communicatio ...

Westwood One Scheduling

CBS at 75 Timeline

Nick Young's Final World News Roundup Broadcast Before Retiring - 3/25/10
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cbs World News Roundup 1938 radio programme debuts American news radio programs CBS Radio programs Peabody Award-winning radio programs