To observe the 90th anniversary of the founding of the CBS Radio Network on September 18, 1927, CBS News Radio presented this historical retrospective. Produced by editorial manager Stephanie Powlaski in collaboration with producer Paul Farry and writers Gail Lee and Dianne E. James, it is hosted by "CBS World News Roundup" anchors Nick Young (retired since 2010) and Steve Kathan. It won the 2018 Writers Guild Award for best radio / audio documentary.
Highlights include
• CBS News Radio correspondent (and WCBS New York news anchor) Deborah Rodriguez interviewing fellow WCBS anchor Wayne Cabot and WINS New York creative services director David Plotkin on radio’s origins and its future
• William S. Paley (1901-1990), the CEO who built CBS, recalling how he believed in radio’s “fantastic” potential
• A compilation of current CBS News Radio correspondents and features
• Clips of Golden Age of Radio entertainment programs that altogether ran on CBS from 1932 to 1962 including “The Jack Benny Program,” “Life Can be Beautiful,” “Lux Radio Theatre,” Nila Mack’s “Let’s Pretend,” “Suspense” (“Sorry, Wrong Number” episode), “Lights Out,” “Gang Busters,” Himan Brown’s “Inner Sanctum Mystery,” Frank and Anne Hummert’s “Ma Perkins,” “The Romance of Helen Trent,” Orson Welles’ “The Mercury Theatre on the Air” (“The War of the Worlds” episode), Norman Corwin’s “On a Note of Triumph” (which marked the end of World War II in Europe), and ”The Burns and Allen Show” as well as Himan Brown’s “CBS Radio Mystery Theater” which ran from 1974 to 1982
• Arthur Godfrey (1903-1983), the host of the “Arthur Godfrey Time” morning radio show from 1945 to 1972, reflecting on his career
• An interview with Charles Casey Murrow, the son of legendary broadcast news pioneer Edward R. Murrow, recalling his father’s experiences with covering World War II and speaking truth to power during the McCarthyism that accompanied the Red Scare era
• The curator of television and radio at the Paley Center for Media, Ron Simon, remarking on the evolution of radio from simply broadcasting orchestras and vaudeville acts into becoming a unique medium of its own making
• Edward R. Murrow (1908-1965) relating how he assembled his remarkable World War II reporting team which is commonly referred to as the “Murrow Boys”
• A compilation of news events from the 1938 Anschluss (annexation) of Austria by Nazi Germany to President Trump's 2017 warning to North Korea to stop its provocative nuclear testing and missile launches
The recurring theme music that opens and closes most of the program segments is "Roll 'em," recorded by Benny Goodman and his Orchestra in 1937.
