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Recent postings: Former WCBS News Director H. Paul Jeffers dead; Osgood, Harrison now b'cast Hall of Famers; Jim McCarthy, WCBS's first Washington reporter, remembers the good old days of riots and tear gas; WCBS's original "Golden Throat" dies; Don Blair posts his Apollo 11 photos; CBS "Board" gathers in Teaneck. |
Standing center: Steve Porter, Charles Osgood -- first Newsradio 88 anchors.
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VOTES TO RETURN CBS TO RADIO ROOTS
Nearly fifty CBSers, colleagues, ex-competitors, friends, broadcast aficionados, and radio historians met in Teaneck, NJ, on December 5, 2009. The Board unanimously voted to return CBS to its original seven owned-and-operated AM radio stations, and to divest itself of all television, cable, satellite, and Internet operations. Former CEO Leslie Moonves agreed to stay on as caretaker of the WCBS transmitter tower at High Island although he will retain his more than 68-million dollar annual compensation (2007 estimate). Before assuming his new position, Moonves said, "I'm delighted CBS is returning to its radio roots because in today's turbulent technology AM's the only way to go." For the luncheon's participants go to Guest List. For additional photos of the December 5, 2009, and previous luncheons go to CBS Board.
disclaimer: some of the above article is satirical
 Ted David's YouTube video of the 6/13/09 luncheon -- click to playJerry Barmash, NY Media Examiner, writes about the June 13, 2009, luncheon here
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FORMER WCBS NEWS DIRECTOR
H. PAUL JEFFERS DEAD details HERE
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 Long suppressed by sinister forces at CBS and its accomplices within the federal government, this tell-all chronicle is posted in full on the Internet for the first time as a pdf file. Previously available only in a limited-print edition, it may now be read by all, despite the threat of physical violence and legal action by CBS.
TO READ CLICK ON IMAGE LEFT OR HEADLINE ABOVE |
CLASSIC PHOTO OF CONFLICT
 Terrified National Guardsman wielding rifle confronted by anti-war demonstrators, Washington, DC, 1971. Newsradio 88's first Washington reporter Jim McCarthy, holding WCBS mic [far left]. For details go here. For Wes Vernon's history of WCBS's Washington Bureau go here.
Go HERE for more about Jean Shepherd on WCBS
RITA SANDS' SCRAPBOOKS
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Former WCBS anchor Rita Sands gives us dozens of candid, behind the scenes Newsradio88 snapshots from her own collection dating back to the 70s and 80s. They're presented here in slideshow form:
 PHOTO ALBUM TWO (1980s)
PHOTO ALBUM ONE (1970s)
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OLD TIMES AT WCBS
WCBS Radio Newsroom, 52nd Street & Madison Avenue, ca 1962. L-R: Jerry Melamed, director; Jim Brooks, writer (later co-creator of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show"; Harvey Hauptman, producer & head-writer; Ken Banghart, anchor; Sis Aurelius, assistant. More details at Hauptman Remembers.
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 STUDIO MAP Fascinating chart [click on head] showing locations of the many CBS studios sprawled across Manhattan before and after the [planned] construction of the CBS headquarters building (Black Rock) in 1966 and the expansion of the CBS Broadcast Center on the West Side. CBS aficionados will love this. _______________________________________
1980s NEWSRADIO88 TV SPOTS
A WCBS staffer unearthed these short back-to-back TV commercials for Newsradio88 from the 1980s on YouTube. The first features Yankees manager Lou Piniella, the second actress Sally Struthers. Announcer's voice is Jim Donnelly. Runs thirty seconds. Click on image to play. | |
NEWSRADIO 88's 40th
ANNIVERSARY BASH
Old-timers and current staff members gathered throughout the day on August 28, 2007, at the WCBS radio studios at the CBS Broadcast Center to celebrate the station's 40th anniversary as Newsradio 88. Click HERE to see the pictures. WCBS has posted an official 40th anniversary site loaded with photos, audio, video, and a guest book. Go to Newsradio88 Anniversary.
THREE BROADCAST LEGENDS
Election night, New York, 11/7/06
Rich Lamb, WCBS; Stan Brooks, WINS; Mitch Lebe, Bloomberg Radio (ex-WCBS)
Combined broadcasting experience: 110 years (rough estimate)
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MORE THAN JUST THE HEADLINES
OH, REALLY?In the 1990s the Dallas Axcess Group jingle mill created musical packages for CBS Radio's O&Os. WCBS Radio's famous "More Than Just the Headlines" jingle was most likely ripped off from the Kander and Ebb Kiss of the Spider Woman score. If you doubt it, listen here. Or go to WCBS Audio Files
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WCBS GALLERY
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A collection of WCBS souvenirs, program schedules, artifacts, pictures, posters, old ads, memorabilia, kitch, and just plain junk. |
 Mitch Lebe, budding announcer
Joke! Joke! |
JACK STERLING...
in the years between Arthur Godfrey and All-News, Sterling was WCBS.
ABOUT ART
Dedicated to the celebrated WCBS reporter Art Athens
William S. Paley, CBS founder-in-chief, 9/19/38
FORMAT CLOCKS
Dual clocks show the formatting differences between then rivals WCBS and WINS. Believed to have been printed in Broadcasting 1991. Click to enlarge.
click images below to enlarge
 CBS Radio Ad 1967
Edwards, Townsend, Wallace,
Cronkite |
 CBS Radio Ad 2006
Osgood
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WCAU: WHAT HAPPENED?
Demise of WCBS's sister-station in Philadelpia.
 
images courtesy Don Bayley
WCBS' JOHN HENRY FAULK
1950s WITCH HUNT VICTIM
Long before Newsradio88, Texas humorist John Henry Faulk, later a fixture on TV's "Hee-Haw," was a star on WCBS Radio -- until he was blacklisted during the right-wing communist witchhunts of the 1950s. After his ordeal at WCBS, which he wrote about in his book Fear on Trial, Faulk recorded a delightful Christmas story for National Public Radio. Click on the headline above to read and hear it. Back in Texas, Faulk failed in a bid for elective office. He died in Austin on April 9, 1990. Hear Faulk discuss how WCBS Radio's former management caved in to the far right. Go to the AUDIO FILES PAGE.
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ONE CLASSY JOINT
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The paper goods at CBS were part of the design unity created by Lou Dorfsman, Creative Director of Advertising and Design for more than forty years. Even the Black Rock cafeteria's (51/20 Club) coffee cups and sugar packets displayed the famous CBS typefont known as Didot, as well as the stationery and interoffice envelopes. | |
Don Swaim's two-part mp3 interview with Lou Dorfsman HERE
WCBS LOBBY
click "88" image below to enlarge
 Longtime staffers will remember the huge decorated plywood "88" (another Lou Dorfsman creation) in the WCBS lobby on Black Rock's 16th floor. For a while there was a receptionist. Later, an in-house phone was installed next to the door, so visitors had to call someone to be allowed in. Because of demonstrations, sit-ins, and bomb threats WCBS became locked as tight as a drum. Each staff member was given a key, later a digital ID card, which served as a key.
BOOK BEAT
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Famed author Norman Mailer appears on WCBS's nationally-syndicated "Book Beat," 1991, one of more than 700 unedited Don Swaim interviews with the greatest writers of the 70s, 80s 90s, and preserved by Ohio University, which organized and posted the archive on the Internet. In addition, all of the broadcast's actual two-minute features, some 3,000 of them, are available as mp3 files at Book Beat: The Podcast. The archive narrowly escaped extinction, but, thanks to Ohio University and Wired for Books, is reaching fans and scholars in a way the original broadcasts could not do. Cited by PC Magazine's "Best of the Internet" in November 2007.
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click image to hear Mailer interview
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KNX-AM QUITS HOLLYWOOD
WCBS's sister station leaves historic network facility at Columbia Square. Go to AUDIO FILES PAGE for a terrific KNX documentary with archival sound.
THROUGH THESE PORTALS...
Original Newsradio88 studios at 51 W. 52nd St.
Pictorial “History”
of WCBS
Philly's WCAU: RIP
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