“Although I was very much looking forward to continuing to see you on the radio, unfortunately my health and doctors will now not allow it. So I will retire from ‘The Osgood File’ and radio at the end of the year.”Osgood has been hosting “The Osgood File” since 1967, a span of 50 years. It was just two weeks ago that Osgood renewed his contract, after giving up his host duties on TV’s CBS Sunday Morning, last year.
“Best wishes to a giant who’s been an inspiration to generations of storytellers,” WCBS 880 AM anchor Alex Silverman tweeted.
Where have you gone, Charles Osgood? The nation loses a gentle voice of civility when we need it most. His "Osgood File" signs off next week. #Mentor pic.twitter.com/wUFZkJVwHc— Wayne Cabot (@WayneCabot) December 21, 2017
Radio Legend Charles Osgood announces his retirement effective the end of next week. A lifelong @wcbs880 talent, cherished friend and colleague. A storyteller without equal. We honor you Charlie!!! pic.twitter.com/vqqlnk8gwb— Tim Scheld (@TimScheld) December 21, 2017
While stationed adjacent to Arlington National Cemetery at Fort Myer during his service with the U.S. Army Band, he used stage names working as an announcer for radio stations in the Washington area to supplement his income and experience.
He hosted the morning show on WEAM (WZHF today) as "Charlie Woods." At WGMS, he called himself “Carl Walden.” At WPGC-AM (WJFK-AM) today), a Top40 station, he referred to himself as “Chuck Forest.”
In 1963, Osgood became one of the writers and hosts of Flair Reports which related human interest stories on the ABC Radio Network.
He began using the name "Charles Osgood" at ABC because the network already had an announcer named "Charles Woods." In a 2005 interview with InsideRadio, Osgood related the story:
"They didn't want to have a Charles Woods and a Charles Wood. When they told me to pick a name, I used my middle name as my last name. It’s worked out well and is a little more distinctive and professional."
Osgood moved over to CBS Radio in 1967 when it became clear, in his words, that he "wasn't going anywhere" at ABC.Osgood worked as a reporter and anchor for WCBS. In August 1967, he anchored the first morning drive shift for WCBS after its conversion to an all-news format. The first day of all-news programming aired on WCBS-FM after an airplane crashed into the AM station's antenna tower on New York's High Island, keeping WCBS off air until a temporary tower could be erected.
Each three-minute syndicated Osgood File focused on a single story, ranging from a breaking development of national importance to a whimsical human-interest vignette. Some of these he did in rhyme, which is why he is known as CBS's "Poet in Residence."
On television, Osgood joined CBS news in 1971. He was a reporter, and anchored the CBS Sunday Night News from 1981 to 1987, the weekday CBS Morning News from 1987 to 1992, as well as the CBS Afternoon News and the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather. In one of his best known roles, he hosted CBS News Sunday Morning from April 10, 1994, to September 25, 2016, succeeding the original host Charles Kuralt. Osgood's tenure of twenty-two years as host exceeded Kuralt's fifteen years.
Among his personal trademarks were his bow-tie, his weekly TV signoff "Until then, I'll see you on the radio," and his propensity for delivering his commentaries in whimsical verse. Example: When the Census Bureau invented a designation for cohabitant(s) as "Person(s) of Opposite Sex Sharing Living Quarters", or "POSSLQ", Osgood turned it into a pronounceable three-syllable word and composed a prospective love poem that included these lines, which he later used as the title of one of his books:
"There's nothing that I wouldn't do""If you would be my POSSLQ."Osgood is also known for being the voice of the narrator of Horton Hears a Who!, an animated film released in 2008, based on the book of the same name by Dr. Seuss. He published a memoir of his boyhood in 2004.
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