Actual 1940’s WDOD Radio Playhouse performance via CBS. If you look in the bottom right corner you will see Archie Campbell’s signature.
Friday, May 22, 2026, was a historic day in the history of radio. The CBS Radio Network (later CBS News Radio) aired its final broadcast at 11 p.m.
WDOD AM was a CBS affiliate from the late 1920s until its contract ended in 1967.
WDOD AM has been part of the network for over 35 years. This retired broadcaster recalls the WDOD Radio Playhouse of the 1940s through conversations with people who were there.
The late Gaylord McPherson came to Chattanooga from WHO Radio in Des Moines, Iowa, to work at WDOD and Radio Playhouse. He said the show was broadcast live on CBS Radio during the lunch hour Monday through Friday. The Radio Playhouse is home to the Capitol Theater building in the 600 block of Market Street, which is now a parking lot. Grand Ole Opry star Archie Campbell was one of the top entertainers. The daily broadcast lasted about two years, McPherson said.
Merrill Parker was a control room operator at WDOD for nearly 30 years. Mr. Parker was working Sunday night when Orson Welles’ famous “War of the Worlds” aired on CBS and WDOD. “The station received a record number of calls that night. Listeners thought the world was ending,” Parker said.
For decades, Chattanoogans listened to CBS on WDOD. The station aired “The Arthur Godfrey Hour” every morning at 9 o’clock, followed by “Art Linkletter’s House Party.”
The CBS World News Roundup was a listener favorite every morning at 8 a.m. with veteran newsman Dallas Townsend. Chattanoogans heard Lowell Thomas on the news every night at 6:45 p.m. “Music and Spoken Word” was a weekly CBS program from Salt Lake City, Utah, performed by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
During the day, the voices of popular newsmen Douglas Edwards, Walter Cronkite, Dan Rathers, Charles Kuralt, and Reed Collins were heard on the network’s Dimensions feature.
Melodrama was a daily favorite of WDOD listeners in the 1940s and ’50s. These included “Oxidols – Ma Perkins,” “The Bright Day,” and “The Romance of Helen Trent.” Listeners looked forward to the weekly radio version of “Gunsmoke” starring William Conrad. A radio western broadcast on network radio in the 1950s.
Television news anchor David Carroll summed it up: “It’s heartbreaking. CBS Radio News has been the gold standard for a long time.”
Jim Reynolds of the Chattanooga station said Alan Jackson, a newscaster at the station for more than 30 years, gave him one of his early jobs. Reynolds said a 1963 report on the Kennedy assassination was filed by a CBS News correspondent. Mr. Jackson ran a small radio station in central Illinois and hired the young Reynolds to handle the news.
This writer told the world about the June 12, 1967, fire that caused millions of dollars in damage at the Peerless Woolen Mill in Rossville. This was the only time I reported for the network, and I was introduced to it by veteran journalist Richard C. Hotlett.
Boots White, executive assistant to longtime WDEF Radio general manager Ken Flenniken, said CBS Radio saved the WDEF TV deal when it partnered with WDEF Radio in the late 1960s. White said Channel 12 is losing its affiliation with CBS. However, the station agreed to leave NBC Radio and sign with CBS.
Chattanooga broadcaster Ernie Feagans worked for two years at CBS Radio in the 1940s. The late Mr. Feagans said he was able to meet great singers such as Bing Crosby, Doris Day and Perry Como.
Network owners said changes in the industry and the way Americans get their news led to the decision to hang up news mics after nearly a century of broadcast service.
The chime of the hour bell, heard for decades, meant it was news time. The bell is now silent, and the last thing you hear are the words of famed CBS newscaster Edward R. Murrow: “Good night and good luck.”
Dallas Townsend appears on CBS World News
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