R.I.P.: Charle Osgood, Extraordinary Radio/TV News Broadcaster

Charles Osgood (1932-2024)

Award-winning journalist Charles Osgood, who anchored "CBS Sunday Morning" for 22 years and was host of the long-running radio program "The Osgood File," died Tuesday at home in New Jersey.  He was 91. 

CBS News reports the cause of death was dementia.

Osgood, a gifted news writer, poet and author, spent 45 years at CBS News before retiring in September 2016. Osgood began anchoring "CBS Sunday Morning" in 1994. During his run on the show it reached its highest ratings levels in three decades, and three times earned the Daytime Emmy as Outstanding Morning Program.

"For years now people — even friends and family — have been asking me why I keep doing this considering my age," Osgood said when he retired in 2016 at 84. "It's just that it's been such a joy doing it! Who wouldn't want to be the one who gets to introduce these terrific storytellers and the producers and writers and others who put this wonderful show together."

'See You On The Radio'

Osgood said then it has "been a great run."

"Charles Osgood is one of the legendary journalists who made CBS News what it is today," said Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews, president of CBS News. "His commitment to the craft, especially to the art of writing, left an indelible impression on the field. He was a mentor and friend to many. His impact will be felt on CBS News for decades to come."

"I'll see you on the radio"

During a career that spanned nearly 50 years, Osgood worked on virtually every broadcast within CBS News, including the "CBS Morning News," the "CBS Evening News with Dan Rather" and the "CBS Sunday Night News."

And for almost 46 years, he wrote and hosted "The Osgood File," written radio commentaries on the day's news, broadcast up to four times a day, five days a week, that were occasionally rhymed. For each edition, which aired on stations around the country, he signed off with the familiar "I'll see you on the radio" – a phrase he carried over to his TV duties hosting "CBS Sunday Morning."

He started as a classical music DJ at WGMS in Washington, D.C. When he learned that the position of band announcer in the U.S. Army would soon open, and being 1A in the draft, Osgood decided to join the Army and its Washington-D.C.-based band. He became its announcer and met band arranger John Cacavas, with whom he collaborated for years afterward, eventually writing the lyrics for "Gallant Men," which was a Top 40 hit in December 1966.  

He left the Army in 1958 and returned to WGMS before being tapped as general manager to help start up the nation's first pay cable channel, WHCT, in Hartford, Conn. The experiment failed, and in 1963 Osgood took a college friend's offer for an on-air position at ABC Radio in New York.  He spent four years as a general assignment reporter, and contributed to the "Flair Report," where he began rhyming pieces and reading them on air.

Beginning in 1967, Osgood was an anchor-reporter for WCBS NewsRadio 88 in New York, where he anchored the first morning drive shift when the station became an all-news outlet.

His distinctive style landed him a job at the CBS Network, where he launched one of the longest-running features in radio history: What came to be known as "The Osgood File."