‘A legacy brand sunset’: Illinois radio stations reckon with CBS News
Radio’s shutdown
[June 24, 2026]
By Chloe Park and Medill Illinois News Bureau
CHICAGO – When Gary Scott, general manager of WLDS-WEAI, opened the
letter informing him that CBS News Radio would shut down after decades
providing programming for his Jacksonville radio station, he was
stunned.
“My jaw literally hit the desk when I read it,” Scott said. “It was
clearly stated, but I had to read it two or three times before it
finally sank in.”
Scott said he received the letter in the mail two or three months before
officials pulled the plug. He shared the news with his station’s
co-owner, who was equally shocked and confused about where the decision
had come from. WLDS-WEAI has long been a major, trusted source of news,
farm and sports coverage for Morgan, Scott, Greene and Cass counties in
west central Illinois.
“We were very much blindsided by it, and I had this sickening feeling
that we have lost something in this country,” Scott said.
CBS News Radio went silent May 22, citing economic hardships, another in
a string of bumpy and very public business decisions for the broadcast
network. The shutdown ended nearly a century of national and global
radio news that brought historic events into Americans’ living rooms,
from Edward R. Murrow’s London Blitz broadcasts to coverage of Pearl
Harbor and the Cuban Missile Crisis.
As longtime CBS affiliate stations across the state move to other news
services, broadcasters and industry professionals are weighing how the
loss will impact local coverage and what it signals about the future of
radio news.
Stations adopt new partners
In Chicago, WBBM Newsradio was among the Audacy stations left searching
for a replacement after CBS News Radio announced it would end its
services. As late as April, it was unclear what would fill the gap,
until the station switched to ABC News Radio one day before CBS News
Radio went silent, according to the Chicago Tribune.
For some downstate Illinois stations, however, the switch came
seamlessly.
Tammy Sondgeroth, general manager of NRG Media Ottawa, which operates
WCMY, said the station moved to NBC News Radio almost immediately after
learning of the closure.
“It was a very fast decision,” Sondgeroth said. “We wanted to get
everybody acclimated before everybody had to switch, because why wait?”
She added that the adjustment was relatively easy because NRG Media
Ottawa was already paying for NBC News as part of another program the
company uses.
Scott Miller, morning show host at WJBC in the Bloomington-Normal
region, said the station experienced a similarly smooth shift, though it
moved to ABC News Radio instead.
Miller said ABC News Radio was able to replace much of the programming
lost with the end of CBS News Radio, including top-of-the-hour news,
weekend programming and short segments on entertainment and financial
news. He added that WJBC listeners are unlikely to notice much of a
difference.
“There’s just sadness to see a legacy brand sunset like this, but we
looked at our options that were available to get a national news
service, and ABC seemed to be the obvious choice for us,” Miller said.
‘Difficult to sell to our listeners’
But for Scott, the next step for WLDS-WEAI was not as clear.
“CBS has always been at the top of the list,” he said. “It was a network
that I always wanted to be a part of because I think it’s so well
respected and I just thought it was the top of the game. Everything else
was a distant second, so it hasn’t been easy for us to adjust.”
While Scott ultimately settled on NBC News Radio, he said the transition
required him to revamp key aspects of his station’s coverage. NBC did
not offer direct replacements for several CBS News Radio programs
WLDS-WEAI had relied on, including some newscasts and weekend
programming like “Face the Nation” and “Eye on Travel.”
[to top of second column]
|
Gary Scott sits at his desk in the WLDS-WEAI office, with stacks of
papers across his workspace. (Photo provided by Gary Scott)
He said those changes are already apparent to WLDS-WEAI listeners, with
the station receiving a few complaints about adjustments to programming
that listeners had grown accustomed to over the decades.
“It was difficult to sell (the change) to our listeners, but I think
they understand that it was not our decision to drop CBS, it was CBS’s
decision to drop us,” Scott said.
For Scott, the loss has prompted broader questions about how radio news
is valued by today’s audiences. He warned that the continued decline of
traditional news could contribute to the spread of bias and
misinformation through other media sources, from digital and cable
outlets to social media platforms.
“It’s a step away from what really should be news: newspapers, TV and
radio, whether it’s local or national,” he said, “We’re getting much
less of that these days, and it can’t do anything but hurt us in the
long run. I fear for this country because of this loss.”
For Scott’s station and other local radio stations in rural or less
populous areas, the local radio station is often a community institution
and may be one of the last remaining sources of local news as the
industry continues to contract nationally. Its value proposition is
rooted in common interests, shared connections with its audiences and a
history that spans generations of listeners.
“WLDS has been on the air since a few days after the attack on Pearl
Harbor in 1941. It became an affiliate of the Chicago Cubs in 2018 and
Chicago Bears in 2019,” a message on its website states. “WEAI became an
affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1960s.”
Familiar pressure for the industry
Illinois Broadcasters Association Chair and Morgan County Media General
Manager Sarah Shellhammer said the shutdown of CBS News Radio reflects
broader pressures facing the broadcast industry, as news organizations
compete with newer ways of reaching consumers.
She said listeners are tuning in to different sources for news, a shift
that broadcasters have had to take into consideration.
“Radio has had to adjust to streaming and the internet and a lot of the
other options people have to gain news and information,” Shellhammer
said. “People are consuming news and media differently than they did 100
years ago, or 50 years ago or even 20 years ago.”
Shellhammer added that the end of CBS News Radio did not have as great
an impact as it would have 50 years ago, as other news sources have
emerged over the decades and fewer stations have relied on its content.
But not everyone sees those shifts as a sign that traditional radio is
nearing its end.
Miller said radio has faced predictions of decline before, from concerns
that car radios would distract drivers to worries that satellite radio
would mean the death of traditional radio. Each time, he said, the
industry found ways to adapt.
“Satellite radio is still here, and traditional radio is still here,”
Miller said. “Has it changed? Has it evolved? Yes, but so has the
microwave, and so has the lawnmower. If you’re not evolving, then what
are you doing? The radio is evolving and keeping up with the other media
that’s out there.”
Chloe Park is an undergraduate student in journalism
with Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media
and Integrated Marketing Communications, and is a fellow in its
Medill Illinois News Bureau working in partnership with Capitol News
Illinois.
Capitol News Illinois is
a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state
government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is
funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R.
McCormick Foundation. |
