CBS News is 82. CBS News was founded with World News Roundup, which was thrown together with Edward R. Murrow (pictured) in Austria and anchored by Robert Trout in New York.
The World News Roundup is the longest-running network newscast in the United States, including radio and TV. 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, and specifically the Anschluss, during World War II when Adolf Hitler invaded Austria.
In a note to his team, currently relocated in the Washington, D.C. bureau, Craig Swagler, VP & GM of CBS News Radio said, “Today we should all be extremely proud of the work we are doing with our outstanding journalists around the globe. We at CBS News Radio continue the legacy of providing the best in news and information to our affiliated stations, as it is needed now more than ever. Good night and good luck to us all.”
CBS News was created eight years earlier than Radio Ink reported. Years, the longest running news program is the CBS World News Roundup, but, according to this Wikipedia entry, the development of CBS News began in December 1930:
In December 1930 CBS chief William S. Paley hired journalist Paul W. White away from United Press as CBS’s news editor. Paley put the radio network’s news operation at the same level as entertainment, and authorized White to interrupt programming if events warranted. Along with other networks, CBS chafed at the breaking news embargo imposed upon radio by the wire services, which prevented them from using bulletins until they first appeared in print. CBS disregarded an embargo when it broke the story of the Lindbergh kidnapping in 1932, using live on-the-air reporting. Radio networks scooped print outlets with news of the 1932 presidential election.
In March 1933, White was named vice president and general manager in charge of news at CBS. As the first head of CBS News, he began to build an organization that soon established a legendary reputation.
In 1935, White hired Edward R. Murrow, and sent him to London in 1937 to run CBS Radio’s European operation. White led a staff that would come to include Charles Collingwood, William L. Shirer, Eric Sevareid, Bill Downs, John Charles Daly, Joseph C. Harsch, Cecil Brown, Elmer Davis, Quincy Howe, H. V. Kaltenborn, Robert Trout, and Lewis Shollenberger.
“CBS was getting its ducks in a row for the biggest news story in history, World War II”, wrote radio historian John Dunning.
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