Charles Osgood

Osgood began his broadcasting career in radio, working as a program director at WGMS in Washington, DC, and general manager of WHCT in Hartford, CT. In 1963, he was lured away by ABC News, for which he was a general assignment reporter for four years until joining CBS in 1967 as morning anchor and reporter for WCBS NewsRadio 88 in NYC. In 1971, he left full-time radio work and became part of the CBS News team, doing commentary and reporting and writing copy for other CBS personalities. Osgood became known as the network's "Poet-in-Residence" because of the verse he occasionally contributed to news programs. From 1980-82, he wrote much of "Walter Cronkite's Universe" and for much of the decade he did double duty, as the anchor of CBS' Sunday Night Newscast and host of the award-winning weekly radio show "Newsmark." By 1988, "The Osgood File" had become a four-times daily staple of the radio network, offering commentary on headlines from the news or on little-known news stories. Often these commentaries were delivered in verse. When Charles Kuralt retired as host and anchor of the "CBS News Sunday Morning" in 1994, he handed the reins over to Osgood. On occasion, the genial newsman has hosted occasional specials like 1981's "Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Monsters...But Were Afraid!" (CBS) and "The Century That Made America Great" (The Disney Channel, 1995). Osgood was voice of the narrator for "Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who! " (2008). Charles Osgood died on January 23, 2024 in NJ at the age of 91.