For more than a dozen years I’ve been privileged to serve as on-air technology analyst for CBS Radio News and one of the programs I love to contribute to and listen to is the World News Roundup, which turns 75 this week.
The first broadcast – on March 13, 1938 — was anchored by Robert Trout and featured a report from legendary broadcaster Edward R. Murrow, who made his “on-air debut in Vienna that night,” according to a CBS News press release.
The World News Roundup is still on the radio but it can now also be heard on the web, on iTunes and on mobile devices via the CBSRadio News Android and iOS apps.
Harvey Nagler Vice President of CBS News, Radio and my boss at CBS News, is justifiably proud of this milestone. “What happened in 1938 revolutionized news coverage,” he said in an interview. “It set the standard and established the basic format of anchors calling on correspondents to report and analyze the news.” CBS News and other outlets continue that tradition today.
Since that first broadcast, the “roundup” has been anchored by CBSjournalists, including Douglas Edwards, Dallas Townsend and Christopher Glenn. The current anchor is Steve Kathan and the producer is Paul Farry. The late edition is anchored by Bill Whitney and produced by Greg Armstrong.
CBS Radio News also airs The Weekend Roundup which is anchored by National Correspondent Dan Raviv and produced by Howard Arenstein.
CBS Radio News has a weekly audience of more than 26 million listeners, and is carried by more than 500 radio stations across the country. I do the daily Tech Talk feature for CBS News and my reports can be heard on the CBS Hourly News and the World News Roundup as coverage dictates as well as a weekday feature for CBS station KCBS in San Francisco plus occasional podcasts for CBS-owned CNET News that are also distributed to CBS Radio News affiliates.