“Good night, and good luck”: CBS Radio set to sign-off for the last time

For nearly the last 100 years, CBS Radio News has been the medium through which many have learned of history-making events and special feature pieces, all carried down by that iconic tone—but on May 22, CBS Radio News will sign off for the last time.

This comes about as CBS, which is owned by Paramount, executives have said they must face “challenging economic realities”, and the fact they say a lot of folks are changing the way they get their news, often turning to social media instead of the radio. But for WHOP Radio and CBS Radio, the relationship goes back a long time, as WHOP is the second-oldest CBS affiliate in the country.

WHOP first came on the air in 1940 and two years later would become a CBS affiliate, and we have stayed so ever since.

That means, if you were listening to WHOP at any time over the last 86 years, then you got your national news from CBS, and several WHOP voices worked hand-in-hand with CBS during that time. One of those was longtime WHOP News Director Jim Love, who reported on the December 12, 1985 crash in Gander, Newfoundland that claimed the life of 248 soldiers and eight fly crew members. You can hear that entire story below.

WHOP has had plenty of journalists and news anchors feature on CBS News Radio since the 40’s, including former News Director and longtime Kentucky New Era columnist Mary D. Ferguson. Ferguson actually wrote and produced stories for CBS Radio before women were allowed to read on that program in the 1950’s.

She detailed that experience with former WHOP General Manager Mike Chadwell and one time reporter and anchor Hal King, saying she would write the stories and then King would have to read them.

Hal King was present for a lot of that history between WHOP and CBS, between reading the news and reporting on it. During a WHOP anniversary program, King reflected on when President John F. Kennedy was shot and the news came across the news bulletin machine in the newsroom.

He says he hesitated on whether he should read it on the air at that time, though he chose to do it anyway—and when he heard the tone from CBS, he knew it was real.

It was through CBS Radio that WHOP listeners learned that World War II had officially come to an end in 1945, marking the end of a time of anxiety, danger and grief in world history.

Not all of WHOP’s and CBS’ partnership was years ago either. As recently as April of 2023, former News Director Adam May reported for CBS about when a severe storm tore through downtown Hopkinsville, trapping people in their homes and ripping the roof off of The Mixer, which has since reopened.

In 2017, CBS and WHOP worked together to bring worldwide coverage of the Total Solar Eclipse, when the point of greatest eclipse was in a field in northern Christian County, just shy of Hopkinsville proper. There’s been plenty of other stories, voices and experiences shared between WHOP and CBS Radio News, and to think that a lot of those voices will soon go quiet is a somber one.

From Walter Cronkite, “the most trusted man in America”, to Dan Rather, from Robert Trout to Edward R. Murrow, Steve Kathan, Debra Rodriguez and more reporters and journalists than can be listed, CBS Radio News has long been a pioneer for news coverage.

While CBS News Radio is signing off for the last time on Friday, NBC Radio will take over their spot on Lite 98.7 FM, Fox News will cover 99.3 FM and 1230 AM, and ABC News will air on 95.3 FM.

The crew at WHOP Radio, current and past, will dearly miss our longstanding partner, CBS Radio News, and wish every one of them happiness, as there are yet more stories to tell and news to be reported.

As said Edward Murrow in his famous sign-off, to CBS, “Good night, and good luck.”

Hal King

Hal King at Fort Campbell

Little Theater Off Trading Alley on the Coffee Time show on WHOP in 1952