Farewell CBS Radio

The CBS Radio legacy ends Friday

CBS Radio is one of the oldest units within CBS Corporation, and has been around since 1928.

William S. Paley

However, the actual CBS Radio Network (now CBS Radio News) was launched in 1927, when CBS itself was known as United Independent Broadcasters. Columbia Records later joined in and that company was renamed the Columbia Phonographic Broadcasting System. In September 1927, Columbia Records sold the company to William S. Paley and in 1928, Paley streamlined the corporate name to Columbia Broadcasting System.

The company that would become CBS Radio was founded in 1972 as Infinity Broadcasting Corporation by Michael A. Wiener and Gerald Carrus, with the acquisition of KOME, an FM radio station that served the San Francisco Bay Area. It became a publicly traded company twice, in 1986, and again in 1992.

Westinghouse Electric Corporation, which acquired CBS, Inc. in 1995, acquired Infinity Broadcasting in July 1997. Westinghouse, which established modern broadcasting on November 2, 1920, with KDKA in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, would later change its name to CBS Corporation, and reorganize all of its radio properties (including its own Group W stations), as well as its outdoor advertising business, under the Infinity Broadcasting Corporation name. Westinghouse acquired American Radio Systems in September 1997. In 1999, CBS Corporation was merged into Viacom. On December 14, 2005, Viacom spun out its motion picture and cable television assets, with the remainder maintained as CBS Corporation In anticipation of this, Infinity Broadcasting was reorganized as CBS Radio.

In August 2006, CBS Radio announced the sale of its 15 radio stations in Cincinnati, Ohio; Memphis, Tennessee; Austin, Texas; and Rochester, New York to Entercom Communications. This group deal was granted FCC approval in mid-November 2007 after it faced regulatory review and numerous challenges for over a year, and officially closed on November 30. Several other stations, most in smaller markets, have also been sold to companies like Border Media Partners and Peak Media Corporation.

On April 30, 2008, CBS Radio and AOL entered a partnership. The AOL Radio player powered by CBS Radio features over 200 CBS Radio stations, along with over 200 AOL Radio stations, combining two of the largest online radio networks and giving millions of listeners unlimited and free access to a diverse array of music and programming including news, sports and talk.

In 2008, CBS started the process of paring down its station holdings, with a particular focus on ridding itself of stations in mid-sized markets, and markets where there are no television stations for synergistic advantages. On July 31, 2008, CBS Radio announced that it would sell 50 more radio stations in 12 mid-size markets., however some companies like RBC Capital Markets said CBS Radio is a "melting icecube" and that CBS Corporation would be better off selling the entire radio unit rather than "waiting a couple of years and selling the rest for less."

On December 15, 2008, CBS Radio and Clear Channel Communications reached an agreement to swap seven stations. In this deal, Clear Channel acquired WQSR in Baltimore, Maryland, KBKS in Seattle, Washington, KLTH and KXJM in Portland, Oregon, and KQJK in Sacramento, California; and CBS Radio would get KHMX and KLOL in Houston, Texas. The deal closed on April 1, 2009. On December 20, 2008, CBS Radio announced that it would sell the entire Denver cluster (this includes three radio stations) to Wilks Broadcasting for $19.5 Million, including KIMN, KWOF, and KXKL.

CBS Remote 1937

On August 10, 2009, CBS Radio announced that it would sell the entire Portland cluster (this includes four radio stations) to Alpha Broadcasting for $40 Million. The stations included in the sale are KCMD, KINK, KUFO, and KUPL.

On February 4, 2010, all CBS Radio stations, as well as AOL Radio and Yahoo! Music Radio have restricted all non U.S. listeners from streaming online content. CBS Radio redirects to sister property Last.fm.

2011 saw the biggest AC format removal of the company dropping AC for hot adult contemporary on Washington, D.C.'s WIAD in March, followed by New York City's WWFS on October 12. On August 1, WCFS-FM Chicago removed its AC format for all-news to simulcast WBBM (AM). By November 2011, WLTE in Minneapolis/St. Paul removed the AC format for Christmas music, only to transition to country music as KMNB on December 26.

On April 9, 2012, CBS Radio announced that it was selling its West Palm Beach cluster of stations to Palm Beach Broadcasting for $50 Million.

On December 1, 2014, CBS Radio traded 14 stations—its Charlotte, North Carolina and Tampa Bay clusters as well as WIP-AM (now WTEL (AM)) in Philadelphia—to Beasley Broadcast Group in exchange for WRDW-FM (now WTDY-FM) and WXTU in Philadelphia and WKIS, WPOW, and WQAM in Miami.

CBS aired 'War of the Worlds" in 1938

On March 15, 2016, CBS Corporation CEO Leslie Moonves stated that the company was exploring strategic alternatives that could result in the sale or spin-out of CBS Radio. Cumulus Media had been named as one of the potential buyers.

In July 2016, CBS Radio filed for a planned IPO, which would have spun out the subsidiary as a separate, publicly-traded company. On February 2, 2017, CBS Radio announced that it had agreed to be acquired by Entercom, currently the fourth-largest radio broadcaster in the United States; the sale will be conducted using a Reverse Morris Trust so that it will be tax-free. Following the purchase, Entercom will be the second-largest owner of radio stations in the United States in terms of revenue.  The transaction is expected to be completed on November 17, 2017. Entercom plans to divest 14 stations to comply with federal ownership limits.

The CBS News Radio and CBS Sports Radio networks would not be included in the sale.