This one hit hard. Last week when the news came out that CBS Radio News would be no more, radio people took to their social media pages to lament the passing of a 99 year-old tradition. It was almost as if there’s an expectation when certain pieces of our industry lose their luster and go away. But there are institutions in broadcasting some think will go on forever.
Last week, if nothing else, proved that nothing is safe in this environment. In past years, we’ve sadly become accustomed to layoffs, RIFs, and budget cutbacks. Last year introduced us to the terminations of entire entities, organizations, and platforms. It started in March with President Trump’s executive order to shut down the Voice of America. (Oddly enough, a judge ruled on Tuesday this order was against the law, paving the way for the possible return of VOA. Stay tuned.)
Then last spring, the turrets turned to public media. The passage of the Rescission Law knee-capped public media. And part of the collateral damage was the eventual shutdown of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the industry’s funding arm. It’s nearly one year later, and public radio is still reeling,
And these were just the beginning. Over the past few weeks, the shutdowns have been fast and furious, taking out divisions, innovations, and entire companies—even after many millions and billions of dollars were spent trying to make them successful.
Here’s just a partial list of the “epic fails” from the recent past:
The metaverse – One of of the most glaring was Mark Zuckerberg opting to finally cut his losses on his failed metaverse project. Five years ago, the Facebook team was so gung ho on this technology, they actually changed the name of the company to Meta to ensure they owned a hill that now no one wants.
A couple weeks back, the New York Times wrote the Facebook metaverse project’s obituary. Its main app, Horizon Worlds, has been limited, soon to be inaccessible on the company’s VR headsets. This move essentially puts an end to the company’s metaverse vision. In all, it is estimated Meta sunk $80 billion into this division before pulling the plug, and turning its attention and its investments into artificial intelligence.
Sora – Just because an innovation is AI-driven and developed by OpenAI, the folks who brought us ChatGPT isn’t immune to terminations and shutdowns. Earlier this week, OpenAI announced the end of its Sora AI video app just months after its debut.
But Sora wasn’t deep-sixed because it didn’t work. The project was killed because the technology worked too well. As CNN reported, Sora created serious issues with copyright holders. Even after announcing a content deal with Disney in December, OpenAI is walking away from its AI video project. Concerns abide about adding to the “AI slop” and deepfakes problem.
The video below, Ships in Coffee, was the first openly released piece when OpenAI thought they had something special with Sora. The project will be a footnote in the AI story.
Afeela 1 – If you’ve followed our CES exploits the last few years, you might remember hearing about this bold collaboration between two brands with expertise in automotive and electronics—Honda and Sony.
The mashup was a futuristic auto dubbed Afeela 1 (OK, the name should have been the first warning). The idea was that each company brought incredible expertise to the project, creating an innovative EV with audio and video features unlike any other auto.
The initial rollout of Afeela 1 occurred at CES 2024. It showed up again the next year, promising to be on showroom display floors “soon.” And when Afeela showed up this past January at CES 2026, we started to wonder whether this ambitious project would ever get off the ground.
Spoiler Alert: It won’t.
On Wednesday, Sony and Honda issued a joint release announcing the cancellation of Afeela 1.
Part of the reason for the project’s termination is due to the industry-wide cutback on EVs in the United States. The joint company—Sony Honda Mobility—will return reservation down payments to excited consumers made to ensure they’d be one of the first to own an Afeela 1.
According to TechCrunch, Honda pointed the finger at President Trump’s tariffs along with EV competition from China. All told, Afeela 1 added up to nearly $16 billion in writedowns.
The Bachelorette – This current wave of shutdowns isn’t just about tech fails. This week, these high-profile fails took their toll on network television, ABC-TV’s long-running franchise reality show, The Bachelorette.
The story of this debacle is frankly weird. It revolved around the would-be star of this 22nd season of the show, Taylor Frankie Paul. The fallout began when TMZ released a video graphically showing Paul attacking her ex-boyfriend. The video is ugly and frankly hard to watch, but apparently Disney/ABC knew about the incident.
After shooting the season which was set to premiere last Sunday, ABC announced none of its episodes will be televised. IMDB and other sources pegged the financial damage at $30 million—and it could run higher. Bachelorette fans are also upset the entire season will be shelved.
Here was the statement from Disney Entertainment Television:
“In light of the newly released video just surfaced today, we have made the decision to not move forward with the new season of The Bachelorette at this time, and our focus is on supporting the family.”
@taylorfrankiepaulSorry kinda busy♬ sorry i can’t hear you i’m kinda busy – life illustrated
This recent torrent of shutdowns might reflect a new way companies and brands come face-to-face with their various debacles. Are innovators simply adopting an “It is what it is” vibe in the realization that not every “next big thing” won’t be a home run, while some never get off the launch pad?
And in some of these cases, opportunism has a chance to win out. Even as OpenAI walks away from Sora and the more visual aspects of AI, other developers are no doubt in deep efforts to make this technology work.
The Afeela 1 may never be spotted on the 405 in L.A., but it could pave the way for EV models to include more sophisticated video applications, as well as the gaming experience.
The Bachelorette will have more seasons, even as it walks away from an entire package of episodes featuring Taylor Frankie Paul. And who knows? A different Disney executive years from now may dust off the “unseen” Season 22 (“The Lost Episodes?”) which would likely build considerable anticipation. It could eventually be bigger than ever.
And then there’s the demise of CBS Radio News. All told, 700 affiliates depend on this content, covering markets across the spectrum. And there are the juggernaut stations in markets that include Detroit (WWJ), LA (KCBS), Chicago (WBBM), all owned by Audacy. Their Chief Business Officer, Chris Oliviero, revealed the company’s thinking earlier this week to the L.A. Times:
“The vast majority of our news and talk programming remains original and locally produced, and we are beginning conversations with other national news providers to ensure our listeners continue to have access to world-class programming they value and trust.”
Some speculate ABC News Audio (they dropped the “R-word” a few years ago) is a candidate. There’s also Fox News Media.
But perhaps there are dark horse candidates that could step into the breach. Think NPR. They already produce a top-of-the-hour newscast for hundreds of their affiliates. Rebranding a more forefront hourly news report featuring more commercial radio-compatible news anchors wouldn’t be that hard.
And then there’s the BBC. They already supply programming to hundreds of American public radio stations. And they obviously have the infrastructure, the journalistic chops, and the capacity to step up with a viable product.
Ironically perhaps, they just named former Google executive, Matt Brittin, as their new director-general. As AP reported, Brittin joins the venerable new monolith as it’s dealing with a $10 billion lawsuit from President Trump.
Boldly providing a viable alternative to CBS’s radio franchise could be an innovative way for Brittin to quickly make his mark.
One company’s fail is another’s victory.
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Fred, this one hits, and I think you’re right about the pattern, but I’d frame it a little differently.
I don’t know if 2026 is the “year of the shutdown.”
I think it might be the year of exposure.
There’s a line that change happens gradually, then suddenly.
That’s what this moment feels like.
Because when you look at the examples you listed, they’re not random failures. They’re systems getting tested in public.
The metaverse didn’t fail overnight. It just couldn’t justify the gap between promise and actual use.
Sora didn’t fail because it was weak. It failed because it exposed problems the industry isn’t ready to solve yet.
Afeela didn’t fail because it was a bad idea. It failed because the market shifted underneath it.
And radio… this is the uncomfortable one.
The CBS Radio News shutdown doesn’t feel like a one off. It feels like a signal.
For years, radio has operated on the assumption that certain pillars, network news, legacy brands, institutional trust, were untouchable. But what we’re seeing now is that nothing is protected if it doesn’t align with how people actually consume content today.
And that’s the part that matters.
Because while we talk about shutdowns, what’s really happening is a reallocation.
Attention is shifting.
Trust is shifting.
Distribution is shifting.
The danger for radio isn’t the shutdowns themselves. It’s misreading them as isolated events instead of symptoms of a deeper change in behavior.
There’s also an opportunity here.
When something like CBS Radio News disappears, it creates a vacuum, and radio used to be great at filling those moments with something distinctive, local, and human.
The question is:
Do we still have the flexibility and the permission to build something new in that space?
Or are we just going to replace one network feed with another and call it continuity?
Because if 2026 is remembered for anything, it might not be what shut down.
It might be who actually stepped up and built something better.
Thank you for this comment. I appreciate your thoughtfulness and your perspective.
Major HERITAGE CBS News branded stations in their local broad signal-reaching major markets are a testament to the reliability of providing timely, consistent, concise, trusted reporting over the long term. And now the demise of CBS Radio News comes with an explanation that the network’s ‘drop-in-the-bucket’ operating costs (relative to other Paramount/Skydance concerns) is too dismal to continue, since it can no longer pay it’s own way. So, I’d ask, don’t they need a write-off in the case of a loss leader, until the brand was able to reinvigorate itself, by staff and any forward-thinking means necessary to continue its heritage operation? CBS Radio will be slienced by those who seem to have a very limited knowledge of ten decades of the “Tiffany” radio network and those that wrote the book regarding radio broadcast news. Radio coming late to the digital audio revolution continues to see its hens come home to roost, to the detriment of all concerned. And further narrowing of network news offerings to replace CBS comes with its own consolidation of remaining voice issues. (i.e., the addition of Fox News was a detriment to the image of the Triple A station I programmed in FLA during the first decade of the new century. Much blowback from listeners. An NPR-like approach would have been more desirable. But at the time, Clear Channel shifted the bulk of their stations to FOX affilliation, as well as acquiring the Florida News Network and down-sizing it, which did provide us with a customized 5-minute local/state news cast in AM Drive, M-F, by their veteran experinced anchors. Just the thoughts of a now retired radio warrior.
Cancelation of the radio news service is likely to redound against the whole enterprise. As one of my colleagues noted in a succinct graphic not insertable here, “CBS News–the C is silent.”
Thanks for this. The write-off question is a good one, leading you to wonder how much of this decision was predicated on cost versus ideology.
For CBS replacements, ABC and Fox are definitely the most obvious. However, I think the AP still produces newscasts as part of its radio offerings, while Nexstar’s NewsNation should still have radio-focused services–even though its branded newscasts might still be for just WGN. Also, I wouldn’t be surprised if iHeart starts positioning its 24/7 News offerings more broadly–although I’m not certain that it still utilizes the NBC name (under license) for anything.
There could be room for other TV folks to enter the field–albeit perhaps as just providers, partners, or co-owners–largely due to the aforementioned NewsNation’s efforts. The best matches here might be Gray, Scripps, or even Spectrum News. Likewise, since Audacy is the radio group that’s harmed the most by the CBS shutdown, it might want to launch something itself–whether it’d be internal or not.
However, I do think there’s too much of a focus on TOH/BOH newscasts, neglecting the fact that full-service networks have traditionally provided plenty of other offerings–from actuality feeds to feature segments. Also, nobody should neglect folks like Remote News Service and Virtual News Center, who produce newscasts for local client stations.
What’s also interesting, though, is that I’ve only seen one provider so far specifically running CBS-focused trade ads–Salem. When there’ve been other shutdowns over the past several years (like the original CNN Radio and the recent Westwood One-branded effort from Cumulus), I think there might’ve been more public jockeying.
It will be interesting to see how this shakes out, especially as entire companies as well as small, indepdendent broadcasters try to fill this hole. Thanks, Eric.
You can add to the list, Nielsen’s March announcement that it is shutting form its SIGMA radio ad tracking service (it one was called the Broadcast Data Service) and is shutting down 1300 TV stations tracked by its SIGMA TV service after it shutdown another 3000 TV stations in May. Yes, it is indeed a year of shutdowns.
Ouch. I’ve heard about other shutdowns, Steve, just within the last couple weeks. It’s obviously in the air.
Feature Story News based in Washington DC is a viable replacement for CBS Radio News. Its founder and several of its newscasters, however, are Brits so FSN may sound unfamiliar to domestic audiences.
That’s the issue with BBC, of course.