• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Out At CBS Radio News

K

KMan

In the company wide cutbacks, both Cami McCormick and Mark Knoller (who hasn't reported on the air in over a decade) were rumored to be out.

Both are safe ... but Jim Chenevey exits after 32 years at CBS. The long time overnight anchor, he moved into daylight hours replacing the late Dave Barrett on the World News Roundup Late Edition during summer 2018.

https://www.allaccess.com/net-news/...ews-radio-anchor-correspondent-jim-chenevey-e

Weekend morning anchor Budd Mishkin is also out, per his Linkedin.

Tech Reporter Larry Magid exits as well.

Veteran fill in anchor and reporter Gary Nunn's bio is gone from the website. He hasn't been anchoring due to the closure of the broadcast center in New York, but has filed reporters here and there.
 
Bill Rehkopf to overnights...

https://twitter.com/BillRehkopf/status/1274812075043323905

Seems like Pam Coulter is on the Round Up Late Edition replacing Jim Chenevey and Matt Pieper moves from overnights to afternoons.

Have to hope this is just a stop gap for Rehkopf; he's a tremendous reporter and anchor and I can't see him being the long term on overnights.

Perhaps they're hoping for advertising revenues to recover and they can hire someone for that role. This feels like a stopgap.
 
TheBigA said:
Seems to me this is the second retirement for Sam. The first was from full time. Now he's retiring completely. He's a great guy, as was the late Dave Barrett.
Click to expand...

Yeah, in the mid 2000s, he took a couple of years away from CBS. I believe that Harley Carnes was his replacement.

He came back after Christopher Glenn retired, working Saturday evenings and some limited weekday fill in work.

Losing him, Gary Nunn, and Jim Chenevey from CBS all at once is a big blow.

They were classic radio news anchors, that knew how to use the inflection in their voice and the cadence of their speech to draw the listener in. It's a lost art ... listening to the three of them was like a "museum on the radio" of a skill set that the under 50 crowd generally does not posses.


Meanwhile, short on radio staff and with Steve Kathan on vacation this week, Cami McCormick sat in at the anchor desk for AM drive today. This is, to my knowledge, the first time she's worked an anchor shift since her injury in Afghanistan 11 years ago. Previously she was a NY based correspondent and was a regular fill-in anchor throughout the 2000s.
 
Sad hearing that Sam Litzinger is leaving. I hear him all the time on CBS Radio News... a familiar voice, alongside the other names mentioned in this thread.
 
Lisa Mateo, a CBS Newspath correspondent, anchored Sunday middays over the weekend.

Her LinkedIn indicates she's been a Radio anchor since February, but this is the first I've heard her. Perhaps the closure of the CBS Broadcast Center delayed her debut.

Wendy Gillette also anchored on Sunday. She's been off her radio shifts since the Broadcast Center closed.
 
KMan said:
Bill Rehkopf to overnights...

https://twitter.com/BillRehkopf/status/1274812075043323905

Seems like Pam Coulter is on the Round Up Late Edition replacing Jim Chenevey and Matt Pieper moves from overnights to afternoons.

Have to hope this is just a stop gap for Rehkopf; he's a tremendous reporter and anchor and I can't see him being the long term on overnights.

Perhaps they're hoping for advertising revenues to recover and they can hire someone for that role. This feels like a stopgap.
Click to expand...

Rehkopf announced today he has exited CBS - he hasn't been on overnights the last two weeks.

https://twitter.com/BillRehkopf/status/1303897991179202562?s=20

Steve Futterman has been filling in on overnights from Los Angeles - in addition to a Sunday evening anchor shift he's settled into the last three months.

We'll see where they go with this. From the tone of Rehkopf's tweets, he was not happy about the overnight anchoring assignment. It definitely felt like a stopgap ... with many news anchors cut in layoffs it seemed like "well, who do we have that works here full time" and he got the short straw.

Where do they go now? Futterman is a do everything reporter ... I can't imagine he's the permanent solution. But perhaps someone can be found to anchor this shift from the West Coast, where the hours are much more reasonable than doing it back east. Brad Wheelis anchored this slot for ABC from Los Angeles for years...

Not only do they need a new full time weeknight overnight anchor, but they still haven't managed to permanently replace septuagenerian Tom Foty on weekend overnights despite two attempts in the last couple of years (Matt Pieper and Budd Mishkin - both of whom moved up to fill other slots and Foty quickly returned).
 
KMan said:
I can't imagine he's the permanent solution. But perhaps someone can be found to anchor this shift from the West Coast, where the hours are much more reasonable than doing it back east.
Click to expand...

You can't say he doesn't have enough experience.
 
TheBigA said:
You can't say he doesn't have enough experience.
Click to expand...

No doubt he has the experience to do it.

But he's also been CBS's do anything, go anywhere correspondent, covering sports, breaking news for the entire US west of the Mississippi, politics, and entertainment news. He's the most versatile voice in network radio today. Do you tie him down at the anchor desk, or do you take Rehkopf's salary and find someone else to anchor overnights?
 
KMan said:
He's the most versatile voice in network radio today. Do you tie him down at the anchor desk, or do you take Rehkopf's salary and find someone else to anchor overnights?
Click to expand...

It's obviously temporary. The only real story now is fire coverage. No press coverage of any regular LA events right now. That will change as we get closer to the election.
 
It's impressive that Futterman can anchor the overnight shift and leave well-produced pieces for the morning. He is so versatile. I would say Peter King is also in that category.

Also, what is going in the mornings? Deborah Rodriguez hasn't been anchoring. I think she's been doing afternoons. It's been a cast of different anchors from Cami McCormick to Vicki Barker in London.
 
CTRadioListener said:
It's impressive that Futterman can anchor the overnight shift and leave well-produced pieces for the morning. He is so versatile. I would say Peter King is also in that category.

Also, what is going in the mornings? Deborah Rodriguez hasn't been anchoring. I think she's been doing afternoons. It's been a cast of different anchors from Cami McCormick to Vicki Barker in London.
Click to expand...

Debbie has been in afternoons last week and this week.

I don't know what's up but Pam Coulter's bio has been deleted and she hasn't anchored since Friday Sep 4th.

Her Twitter bio still identifies her as a CBS News Correspondent and she's actively retweeting CBS News stuff, so I don't know what's going on.

Newspath correspondent and radio anchor Lisa Mateo has been all over the clock the last two weeks. She's done daytime shifts on the weekends, AM drive at least one day last week, and overnights the rest of the time. She's had maybe one day off - and Wendy Gillette covered the overnight shift "from Las Vegas."

It is nice to hear Cami McCormick anchoring for the first time in over a decade. She's a tremendous writer and her newscasts are works of art.

Also, Peter King is outstanding and has really developed into a great anchor over the last decade. I only think Futterman is more versatile because of the breadth of beats he covers ... not just a national correspondent, but sports and entertainment too. He'll cover the Super Bowl and turn around and do an awards show the next weekend, seamlessly.

They're so short handed its crazy. If someone had to take unscheduled timeoff, they'll be begging for someone to come in out of retirement - though I think the Broadcast Center in New York is still closed. I hope once the COVID impacts stabilize they can get a couple more staff members back on board.

They did pick up quite a few new affiliates recently after WW1 News closed down. That should help the revenue situation.
https://radioinsight.com/headlines/197040/cbs-news-radio-adds-148-new-affiliates/
 
Last edited:
I don't know anything about the deal CBS News Radio signed with SkyView. But I'm starting to wonder if the terms of the deal, specifically the amount of money they get paid, might adjust to the price of advertising. In other words, are they getting paid a percentage, or are they getting paid a set fee? Because if it's the former, we can bet they're getting paid less now than they were at the start of the year. That would explain the budget crunch. Just a thought.
 
Robert Feder is reporting that Jennifer Keiper, who was tremendous as a Chicago based reporter for Fox News Radio, and has spent the last six years in Chicago at WLS & WBBM, is joining CBS Radio News as an anchor.

https://www.robertfeder.com/2020/10/21/dream-realized-jennifer-keiper-moves-cbs-news-radio-anchor


I would assume she's moving into the afternoon / early evening slot that has been open. I also suspect they still need to fill the overnight anchor position.



As for Pam Coulter, no official word, but her social media indicates she had a birthday a couple of days before her last newscast on Labor Day. Based on when she graduated from college ... it could have been #65 and she quietly retired after a long career.
 
As for other departures from earlier this year ... Budd Mishkin picked up a weekend afternoon shift at 1010 WINS last weekend and sounded great in that format. We'll see if he can get some regular work there.

Jon Belmont typically covers absences on the weekends ... that station is just loaded with news talent (both their full time anchors and the folks who fill in here and there).
 
Jennifer Keiper has settled in to the overnight shift M-F, however, she will fill in during the day when someone is out. Perhaps the intent is for her to be an afternoon/evening anchor (rather than Peter King), but she's doing overnights until they can hire someone for that slot.

Meanwhile, they continue to be so short on anchors and correspondents (no sign of Lisa Mateo or Wendy Gillette this weekend) that New York based producer Mara Rubin, who rarely reports on air (usually New Years in Times Square), is anchoring this Sunday afternoon.

 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.
Back
Top Bottom