“ Those of us who worked in radio news have a strange relationship with sound. The right music cue does something to your nervous system. The KNX sounder made me feel the weight of the job every time it ran. The CBS sting made me feel connected to something bigger — to a tradition, to standards, to the idea that there were other journalists in other cities doing the same work at the same moment, all of us feeding the same public.”
This is exactly how I felt, even though I was working on the TV side of CBS News in New York through the decade of the 1990s. But I started in local radio news and was back in radio news at the network level when I retired two years ago. I even anchored a few overnight CBS Radio News hourlies during the first Gulf War while my full-time job was in TV news.
Those who weren’t a part of it will never truly understand. Colleagues I worked with elsewhere didn’t believe me when I told them how that connection to tradition and standards always came to mind when making journalistic decisions on a daily basis.
Modern content strategy and crushing corporate debt have largely destroyed radio (with television not far behind) and, with it, the communal experience that Americans have enjoyed since the birth of electronic media a century ago. It can’t be good for us as a nation when everyone is getting their news and information from tailored podcasts and social media feeds programmed by algorithms. I can go on… but I’ll spare you. Great piece, Rob.
I used to look forward to the top of the hour, when the chime would sound, and the really important news was about to be shared.
I listened to Melinda Lee faithfully and was endlessly entertained. My children, now all adults, have fond memories of road trips with KNX keeping us company.
I have what may be seen as an unhealthy relationship with our dearly departed Vin Scully. He is the only man I loved without having actually met personally. Although not on KNX, he was emblematic of the magnificence of radio.
And something you failed to mention which bears stating here, radio was for the masses. I first started listening on a transistor AM radio that probably cost less than $5 in 1973 or so. Everyone could afford a radio - no huge flat screen TV required, neither a blistering fast internet connection. Just a 9-volt and a simple radio.
You think FDR’s fireside chats would have had the same impact if they were a podcast? Nope, not even close.
WhenI was about 10 years old, I met KNX reporter, Ed Pile, in the parking lot of the Santa Monica Court House. He carried a box with an attached microphone, so being curious, I went up and spoke with him. He was generous with his time and I felt like I had met a real celebrity - hell, I did. Decades later I met Dick Helton and his partner (I don’t recall her name, but she was a beautiful, very intelligent redhead.) They were doing a promotional broadcast from Brent’s Deli in Westlake Village.
May 22, 2026 will be a sad day for many, maybe especially to my fellow lifelong Angelenos.
I used to look forward to the top of the hour, when the chime would sound, and the really important news was about to be shared.
I listened to Melinda Lee faithfully and was endlessly entertained. My children, now all adults, have fond memories of road trips with KNX keeping us company.
I have what may be seen as an unhealthy relationship with our dearly departed Vin Scully. He is the only man I loved without having actually met personally. Although not on KNX, he was emblematic of the magnificence of radio.
And something you failed to mention which bears stating here, radio was for the masses. I first started listening on a transistor AM radio that probably cost less than $5 in 1973 or so. Everyone could afford a radio - no huge flat screen TV required, neither a blistering fast internet connection. Just a 9-volt and a simple radio.
You think FDR’s fireside chats would have had the same impact if they were a podcast? Nope, not even close.
WhenI was about 10 years old, I met KNX reporter, Ed Pile, in the parking lot of the Santa Monica Court House. He carried a box with an attached microphone, so being curious, I went up and spoke with him. He was generous with his time and I felt like I had met a real celebrity - hell, I did. Decades later I met Dick Helton and his partner (I don’t recall her name, but she was a beautiful, very intelligent redhead.) They were doing a promotional broadcast from Brent’s Deli in Westlake Village.
May 22, 2026 will be a sad day for many, maybe especially to my fellow lifelong Angelenos.
Yep, truly the days of "mass media." Maybe that whole idea of mass media is gone now, with tailored social media newsfeeds and podcasts that keep people in their ideological silos.
Rob, I feel your pain. I was working as an editor at KCBS Radio in 1990-91 when the George HW Bush began the run up to the first Gulf War. CBS Radio began doing CBS News Updates at :31 past the hour. We now had “world news” at the top and. bottom of each hour so we could just focus on local news.
“ Those of us who worked in radio news have a strange relationship with sound. The right music cue does something to your nervous system. The KNX sounder made me feel the weight of the job every time it ran. The CBS sting made me feel connected to something bigger — to a tradition, to standards, to the idea that there were other journalists in other cities doing the same work at the same moment, all of us feeding the same public.”
This is exactly how I felt, even though I was working on the TV side of CBS News in New York through the decade of the 1990s. But I started in local radio news and was back in radio news at the network level when I retired two years ago. I even anchored a few overnight CBS Radio News hourlies during the first Gulf War while my full-time job was in TV news.
Those who weren’t a part of it will never truly understand. Colleagues I worked with elsewhere didn’t believe me when I told them how that connection to tradition and standards always came to mind when making journalistic decisions on a daily basis.
Modern content strategy and crushing corporate debt have largely destroyed radio (with television not far behind) and, with it, the communal experience that Americans have enjoyed since the birth of electronic media a century ago. It can’t be good for us as a nation when everyone is getting their news and information from tailored podcasts and social media feeds programmed by algorithms. I can go on… but I’ll spare you. Great piece, Rob.
Thank you!
Well said!
Thanks!
I used to look forward to the top of the hour, when the chime would sound, and the really important news was about to be shared.
I listened to Melinda Lee faithfully and was endlessly entertained. My children, now all adults, have fond memories of road trips with KNX keeping us company.
I have what may be seen as an unhealthy relationship with our dearly departed Vin Scully. He is the only man I loved without having actually met personally. Although not on KNX, he was emblematic of the magnificence of radio.
And something you failed to mention which bears stating here, radio was for the masses. I first started listening on a transistor AM radio that probably cost less than $5 in 1973 or so. Everyone could afford a radio - no huge flat screen TV required, neither a blistering fast internet connection. Just a 9-volt and a simple radio.
You think FDR’s fireside chats would have had the same impact if they were a podcast? Nope, not even close.
WhenI was about 10 years old, I met KNX reporter, Ed Pile, in the parking lot of the Santa Monica Court House. He carried a box with an attached microphone, so being curious, I went up and spoke with him. He was generous with his time and I felt like I had met a real celebrity - hell, I did. Decades later I met Dick Helton and his partner (I don’t recall her name, but she was a beautiful, very intelligent redhead.) They were doing a promotional broadcast from Brent’s Deli in Westlake Village.
May 22, 2026 will be a sad day for many, maybe especially to my fellow lifelong Angelenos.
Damn.
Charlie Bloomquist
Venice
I used to look forward to the top of the hour, when the chime would sound, and the really important news was about to be shared.
I listened to Melinda Lee faithfully and was endlessly entertained. My children, now all adults, have fond memories of road trips with KNX keeping us company.
I have what may be seen as an unhealthy relationship with our dearly departed Vin Scully. He is the only man I loved without having actually met personally. Although not on KNX, he was emblematic of the magnificence of radio.
And something you failed to mention which bears stating here, radio was for the masses. I first started listening on a transistor AM radio that probably cost less than $5 in 1973 or so. Everyone could afford a radio - no huge flat screen TV required, neither a blistering fast internet connection. Just a 9-volt and a simple radio.
You think FDR’s fireside chats would have had the same impact if they were a podcast? Nope, not even close.
WhenI was about 10 years old, I met KNX reporter, Ed Pile, in the parking lot of the Santa Monica Court House. He carried a box with an attached microphone, so being curious, I went up and spoke with him. He was generous with his time and I felt like I had met a real celebrity - hell, I did. Decades later I met Dick Helton and his partner (I don’t recall her name, but she was a beautiful, very intelligent redhead.) They were doing a promotional broadcast from Brent’s Deli in Westlake Village.
May 22, 2026 will be a sad day for many, maybe especially to my fellow lifelong Angelenos.
Damn.
Charlie Bloomquist
Venice
Yep, truly the days of "mass media." Maybe that whole idea of mass media is gone now, with tailored social media newsfeeds and podcasts that keep people in their ideological silos.
Rob, I feel your pain. I was working as an editor at KCBS Radio in 1990-91 when the George HW Bush began the run up to the first Gulf War. CBS Radio began doing CBS News Updates at :31 past the hour. We now had “world news” at the top and. bottom of each hour so we could just focus on local news.
One of the last ways in which tradition meant something in radio.
One person is responsible for all this--Donald Effing Trump.