CBS News Radio shutting down after almost a century of broadcasts
After nearly a century of operations, CBS New Radio, the last remaining tie to the former CBS Radio empire, will be shutting down for good on May 22. The move is part of recently announced layoffs that will result in an overall six percent reduction in positions in the news division.
Affected are roughly 700 affiliates carrying various programming provided by CBS News, including short newscasts (three or six minutes in length) normally run at the start of each hour, one-minute headline newscasts carried at the bottom of each hour, special reports and breaking news feeds as they happen, short features focussing on health, lifestyle, entertainment and finance, and even simulcasts of CBS television programming such as Face the Nation and 60 Minutes.
Most of the programming was carried by stations owned by Audacy — including KNX (1070 AM, 97.1 FM) — as Audacy, then known as Entercom, took over the former CBS Radio station network back in 2017. After that sale, CBS News Radio was the only remaining tie to the CBS Radio division that dated back to 1928.
In fact, the genesis of the CBS News Division pre-dates CBS itself, when the United Independent Broadcasters launched in 1927; Columbia Records started purchasing stations and providing programming to affiliates beginning in 1928, spearheaded by William Paley, who honestly must be rolling over in his grave seeing what has happened to his once sterling empire.
I have to give credit where credit is due, though: CBS held on much longer than competing networks. NBC sold off its radio programming division to Westwood One in 1987, and sold its last remaining station (WNBC/New York) one year later. ABC — once known as the NBC Blue Network and becoming ABC when NBC divested the network of stations in 1943 — sold most assets in 2007, and shut down the division fully with the discontinuation of Radio Disney in 2015.
What will happen to former affiliates like KNX? Not much. The trend for owner Audacy is to centralize the operations, and I assume this will continue, but that is unrelated to the move by CBS News. My hunch is that Audacy or another company will fill any needed void with similar programming concepts, or else competing stations will do so.
TikTok Radio
Social media TikTok has partnered with iHeart to launch iHeart TikTok Radio, available locally on the HD2 stream of KYSR (98.7 FM) — if you have an HD Radio tuner in your car or home — as well as the iHeart Radio app.
Station hosts include Kayla Thomas from KIIS-FM (102.7), Jon Comouche from My FM (KBIG, 104.3 FM), Betty Mits from Star 94.1 (KMYI/San Diego), and Angelina Narvaez from Wild 94.9 (KYLD/San Francisco).
Launched on March 13th, the format is currently available on 13 HD substations across the country, and appears to have replaced the former Pride Radio that disappeared a few weeks ago. Pride Radio can still be found online and on the app.
“Basically if a song, trend or creator is blowing up on TikTok, there’s a good chance you’ll hear it here,” says the information presented ironically on the Pride Radio page (prideradio.iheart.com). “TikTok Radio is designed to feel like a live version of the ‘For You’ feed … the station will highlight everything from viral hits and rising artists to rediscovered throwback songs that suddenly start trending again.”
Special programming and segments include New Music Fridays, spotlighting the week’s biggest new releases; On the Verge, presenting artists about to break into the mainstream; Hot Takes, which are “fun debates and opinions on lifestyle and culture;” Hacks on the :20s, which are described as “life hacks” presented every hour; and Behind the Charts, a top-10 countdown of popular songs and the story behind them.
I actually enjoyed listening as I wrote this, the variety of songs was a bit schizophrenic just as top-40 radio should be. Kendrick Lamar followed Ella Langley, followed by Noah Kahan as but one example. And the life hack involved changing wiper blades — just the rubber part — instead of the entire assembly as pushed by modern marketing. Sure we did that years ago, but many people today don’t know you can do that.
“Where your playlist meets your FYP” is the slogan … FYP meaning For You Page on TikTok. I can see this attracting young people, but iHeart needs to put it on normal stations rather than just HD streams if they want to attract listeners to actual radio.