Broadcasting legend Charles Osgood‘s announcement on the radio Wednesday afternoon: “Although I was very much looking forward to continuing to see you on the radio, unfortunately my health and doctors will now not allow it. So I will retire from ‘The Osgood File’ and radio at the end of the year.”
Osgood has been hosting “The Osgood File” since 1967, a span of 50 years. As we reported here in Puget Sound Radio he recently renewed his contract, after giving up his host duties on TV’s CBS Sunday Morning, but health issues have interfered.
“Best wishes to a giant who’s been an inspiration to generations of storytellers,” WCBS anchor Alex Silverman tweeted.
You need a libretto to follow the convoluted saga of CBS Radio which, I assume, still included the CBS Radio News division when recently sold by parent CBS (led by Les Moonves) to Entercom. I believe Entercom previously had bought some CBS radio stations and acquired many more in this final sale. (One station in Boston must be divested, although the new business-friendly FCC may back off if no buyer has emerged.)
CBS was the last Big-Three network to have an in-house radio arm. After Moonves announced plans to divest radio in 2016, each hourly newscast shamelessly plugged how many millions of listeners tuned in daily. An unsubtle way of telling prospective buyers: Come on down and kick the tires.
There’s been other departures such as Barry Bagnato. But I’m still unclear on whether the on-air staff, anchors and field reporters, are now part of Entercom. Or do they still work for CBS News and have their audio output fed to the new operation? Whatever, I hope to continue hearing stuff from Jim Chenevey, Pam Coulter, Steven Portnoy, Lucy Craft et al in my nighttime dial turning.
My bad. I have removed “CBS” from the header because I KNOW Osgood signed the new contract with Westwood One less than a month ago. The Osgood File will always be associated with CBS Radio in my aging brain and memory.
A true legend and gentleman .