Charles Osgood, CBS host and network’s poet-in-residence, dies at 91

The Associated Press

Updated: Jan 23, 2024 / 01:55 PM CST

NEW YORK (AP) — Charles Osgood, who anchored “CBS Sunday Morning” for more than two decades, was host of the long-running radio program “The Osgood File” and was referred to as CBS News’ poet-in-residence, has died. He was 91.

CBS reported that Osgood died Tuesday at his home in New Jersey and that the cause was dementia, according to his family.

Charles Osgood, anchor of CBS's "Sunday Morning," poses for a portrait on the set in New York on March 28, 1999. Osgood, who anchored the popular news magazine's for more than two decades, was host of the long-running radio program “The Osgood File” and was referred to as CBS News’ poet-in-residence, has died. He was 91. (AP Photo/Suzanne Plunkett, File) — Charles Osgood, anchor of CBS’s “Sunday Morning,” poses for a portrait on the set in New York on March 28, 1999. Osgood, who anchored the popular news magazine’s for more than two decades, was host of the long-running radio program “The Osgood File” and was referred to as CBS News’ poet-in-residence, has died. He was 91. (AP Photo/Suzanne Plunkett, File)

Osgood was a broadcaster who could write essays and light verse as well as report hard news, and he worked radio and television with equal facility. He often signed off by telling listeners: “I’ll see you on the radio.”

Osgood took over “Sunday Morning” after the beloved Charles Kuralt retired in 1994. Osgood seemingly had an impossible act to follow, but with his folksy erudition and his slightly bookish, bow-tied style, he immediately clicked with viewers who continued to embrace the program as an unhurried TV magazine.

In 1967, he took a job as reporter on the CBS-owned New York news radio station. Then, one fateful weekend, he was summoned to fill in at the anchor desk for the TV network’s Saturday newscast. In 1971, he joined the CBS network.