CBS News Radio, which provides news programming to an estimated 700 stations spanning the United States, will sign off the air Friday night after nearly a century of broadcasting. 

The storied service, launched in September 1927, was home to broadcast legends Edward R. Murrow, Robert Trout, Douglas Edwards, Charles Osgood, Dan Rather and many other familiar and trusted voices over its decades in operation. 

“It’s been around for a long time. Really, an American institution is what we’re losing here,” said Steve Kathan, the longtime anchor of the CBS World News Roundup.

“CBS Radio should be remembered for becoming a national institution very important to the development of news other than newspapers,” Rather recently told “CBS Sunday Morning.” “It, for many, many years, was a part, and I would argue not a small part, of what held the country together.” 

The decision to shutter the radio news service was announced in March, with the company citing “challenging economic realities.” 

In a statement at the time, CBS News President Tom Cibrowski and Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss paid tribute to the historic role of CBS News Radio in covering major events worldwide since the dawn of the broadcasting era.

“For nearly 100 years, CBS News Radio has delivered original reporting to the nation — from Edward R. Murrow’s World War II reports in London to today’s daily White House updates,” they said. “Our signature broadcast, ‘World News Roundup,’ remains the longest-running newscast in the country. CBS News Radio served as the foundation for everything we have built since 1927.” 

CBS News Radio first hit the airwaves just seven years after what’s been widely recognized as the first commercial radio broadcast.

The first broadcast of baseball’s World Series could be heard on CBS News Radio in 1938, and in 1939 it aired an interview with Babe Ruth.

CBS News Radio brought millions of Americans coverage of major events including the attack on Pearl Harbor and the D-Day invasion, Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation, the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, the New York City blackout of 1977, the Gulf War, the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and the 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.

Murrow’s voice was first heard on air in 1938. As “CBS Sunday Morning” recently recounted, he was in Europe to recruit voices for radio, but after observing how dangerous Hitler was, he sent back a broadcast.

“This is Edward Murrow speaking from Vienna. It’s now nearly 2:30 in the morning, and Herr Hitler has not yet arrived. No one seems to know just when he will get here. But most people expect him sometime after 10 o’clock tomorrow morning,” Murrow said in that report. 

He later provided rooftop reports in London during the Blitz and from the Buchenwald concentration camp after the Germans had fled.

“I’m not searching for adjectives to make this sound dramatic,” he said in one wartime report. “I’m just telling you what I’ve seen.”

The legendary broadcaster was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1988.

CBS program host and correspondent Allison Keyes covered the news from Lower Manhattan on 9/11. 

“People needed to know what was going on that day,” Keyes said, “in real time, no filter, no politics. Here’s what’s happening.”

As the final days of CBS News Radio approached, she and her coleagues reflected on its legacy. 

“It leaves a huge gap in the field of news,” Keys said. “I want the listeners to know how proud and honored I am to have worked for this amazing place, with these amazing people.”

Stephen Colbert said goodbye to “The Late Show” Thursday night in the franchise’s finale following a 33-year run, saying he was “lucky enough to be here for the last 11 years” and never took the experience for granted.

“There is so much history here in the Ed Sullivan Theater, and we’ve been honored to have been just a small part of it,” Colbert said in his opening monologue. 

In the opening of the show, Colbert emphasized the “joy” the show brought him and cast members throughout the 11 years and over 1,800 episodes.

“We call it the joy machine, because to do this many shows, it has to be a machine. But the thing is, if you choose to do it with joy, it doesn’t hurt as much when your fingers get caught in the gears,” Colbert said. “And I cannot adequately explain to you what the people who work here have done for each other and how much we mean to each other.”

The final show, which ran 17 minutes longer than its usual hour, was packed with surprise cameos from celebrities such as “The Daily Show” host Jon Stewart, comedian Tig Notaro, actors Ryan Reynolds, Paul Rudd, Bryan Cranston and Don Cheadle and astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson.

“I didn’t think my show would end like this, but still grateful,” Colbert told Stewart.

Fellow late-night hosts Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers and John Oliver also joined Colbert on Thursday. 

“We came to say we’re gonna miss you. Late night is not gonna be the same without you,” Kimmel said.

In recognition of Colbert’s final show, Kimmel and Fallon both aired reruns on Thursday.

Before the show, it was speculated that Pope Leo XIV might be Colbert’s final guest, but Colbert jokingly tried to introduce him before a cast member said Leo refused to come out of his dressing room.

The show’s actual final guest was none other than Paul McCartney.  

He performed at the Ed Sullivan Theater with The Beatles during their American television debut on Feb. 9, 1964. McCartney was a guest on the show in 2019 and in 2009, when David Letterman was still the host. 

Singers Elvis Costello and Jon Batiste performed Costello’s “Jump Up” as the shows musical performance. Batiste’s return to the Ed Sullivan Theater as a musical guest comes after he was the bandleader and musical director for “The Late Show” from 2015 until 2022.

In the final moments of Thursday’s finale, McCartney closed out the show with a performance of “Hello, Goodbye,” as Colbert joined in and audience members flooded the stage.  

In the lead-up to the franchise finale, a stream of star guests had appeared on the show, such as actors Tom Hanks and Billy Crystal, director Steven Spielberg, Letterman, the show’s host when it debuted in 1993, Bruce Springsteen and Martha Stewart

CBS announced back in July that it would end “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” and retire “The Late Show” franchise at the end of this season. The company said it was “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night.”

That explanation was met with skepticism from some viewers and media critics, who questioned whether political motives were involved, given Colbert’s outspoken criticism of President Trump.

It didn’t take him long to weigh in. Shortly before 2 a.m. Eastern Time, Mr. Trump said on his Truth Social platform, “Colbert is finally finished at CBS. Amazing that he lasted so long! No talent, no ratings, no life. He was like a dead person. You could take any person off of the street and they would be better than this total jerk. Thank goodness he’s finally gone!”

Colbert took a jab at the network Thursday when his band played “Linus and Lucy,” the theme song from the “Peanuts” television special as part of a bit about a copyright infringement lawsuit.

“Is the band right now playing the same music I said people are being sued for, for using without permission?…Oh no, I hope this doesn’t cost CBS any money,” Colbert said.

Colbert, 62, took over as host of “The Late Show” in September 2015 after Letterman retired from the role he’d held for 22 years.

The entire set of “The Late Show” is being donated to the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago, a city where Colbert has deep roots. Colbert attended Northwestern University and performed in Chicago with the famous Second City improv troupe at the beginning of his comedy career. 

“The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” had been the No. 1 late-night program for nine consecutive seasons, CBS said last year. In September, it won the Emmy for outstanding talk series and received a standing ovation from the Emmys crowd.

CBS announced last month that Byron Allen’s “Comics Unleashed” will replace Colbert’s show in the 11:35 p.m. ET time slot.

The Late Show aired for one last time on Thursday, May 21, 2026, with Stephen Colbert surprising the first night lineups.

The Late Show ended its 11-year run on CBS with Stephen Colbert, who took the show from his predecessor comedy great David Letterman in 2015.

The star-studded guest lineup showed up for Colbert to bid farewell to The Late Show.

As the taping goes on roll, late-night comedy host plays host to a galaxy of stars, including Paul McCartney, Ryan Reynolds, and Paul Rudd.

Colbert’s final monologue was surprisingly interrupted by several guests.

Bryan Cranston was the first surprise appearance, who interrupted Colbert during his final monologue and threw his Late Show hat down onto the stage in annoyance.

Then came Rudd, who interrupted Colbert from the audience.

“I’m just curious my interview starts,” Rudd said, who was shocked to find out he was not Coolbert’s last guest appearance tonight.

The monologue drama didn’t end here.

Tim Meadows was seated in front of Rudd among the audience and assumed he was also Colbert’s last guest face.

Ryan Reynolds, in the audience, was also surprised he had been unable to secure the last guest spot. “Ouchie,” surprised Reynolds said.

Tig Notaro also made a cameo in the theater crowd, saying. I just like to be at historic events,” the comedian remarked.

The monologue that centered on the theme of finding out who the final guest was reached its climax when McCartney made a cameo.

McCartney sat on Colbert’s couch one last time.

The two before had a lengthy interview.

“I was just in the area, doing some errands,” said McCartney while appearing on stage.

He continued, “I just remember the girls in the balcony,” McCartney recalled his time when he last appeared at the Ed Sullivan Theater.

To wrap things up, Colbert appeared in an acoustic segment, playing with Elvis Costello, Jon Batiste and Louis Cato.

After the song, McCartney came on stage to wrap things up in a stunning way, making a performance of The Beatles’ hitmaker track Hello, Goodbye as Colbert, Batiste, Costello and Cato joined in on vocals.