September 29, 2014

On September 29, 1930, broadcaster Lowell Thomas hosted the first CBS radio daily news program. He worked for both CBS and NBC during his long broadcast career. His radio program, “Lowell Thomas and the News,” usually ended with the words “…and so long until tomorrow.”

This was not the first daily radio network news program. NBC radio’s Red Network broadcast the first program on February 24, 1930. Floyd Gibbons, one of the best known newspaper correspondents at the beginning of the 20th century, was the announcer.

The last regular edition of “Lowell Thomas and the News” aired at 7 p.m. on Friday, May 14, 1976.

Before Thomas became a radio commentator, he was a travel adventure writer best known for his stories about Lawrence of Arabia. Beginning in the mid-1930s he also worked as a narrator for Fox Movietone newsreels. In this newsreel, Thomas reports on World War II’s Battle of Britain.

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