Despite signing a contract extension with Westwood One earlier this month to continue anchoring his daily morning commentary “The Osgood File“, Charles Osgood will step down from the segment at the end of this year.
Only “health reasons” were given as to why the 84 year old would be stepping down. The three minute segment is currently fed four times per morning to over 400 stations across the country.
Osgood began the segment when he was an anchor/reporter for 880 WCBS New York soon after its flip to All-News in 1967 and has been distributed nationally since 1971 when he joined CBS News. He is best known as the host of CBS News Sunday Morning which he anchored from 1994 until 2016.
A huge loss: Charles Osgood, with us for fifty years on @WCBS880, has announced (via Westwood One) that for health reasons, he'll no longer see us on the radio as of the new year. Best wishes to a giant who's been an inspiration to generations of storytellers.
— Alex Silverman (@AlexSilverman) December 20, 2017
An official quote is now at https://twitter.com/TomKaminskiWCBS/status/943632569870028800.
It’ll be sad that we won’t be able to “see Charles Osgood on the radio” for much longer.
Hopefully, his health can improve and he can enjoy a long and happy retirement.
I wasn’t following the story much after the initial announcement, but Newsday had an interview on Friday that added a lot of details: First, Mr. Osgood has been undergoing treatment for “two different kinds of cancer”. Also, it looks like–with CBS and Westwood One parting ways–he wouldn’t have been able to use CBS-based resources any longer.
https://www.newsday.com/entertainment/celebrities/charles-osgood-cbs-1.15558572