Journalist Charles Osgood, who anchored "CBS Sunday Morning" for 22 years and was host of the long-running radio program "The Osgood File," died Tuesday at home in New Jersey. He was 91.
The cause of death was dementia his family tells CBS News. Osgood spent 45 years with CBS retiring in 2016.
For almost 46 years, Osgood wrote and hosted "The Osgood File," written radio commentaries on the day's news, broadcast up to four times a day, five days a week, that were occasionally rhymed. For each edition, which aired on stations around the country, he signed off with the familiar "I'll see you on the radio" – a phrase he carried over to his TV duties hosting "CBS Sunday Morning."
"The Osgood File" ran on WCCO Radio and many of the CBS News stations for its entirety.
Former WCCO News Managing Editor Steve Murphy says Osgood would on occasion come to WCCO and explained that he was very much a fun-loving person.
"He was a great guy," explained Murphy. "He worked out of our newsroom, writing and broadcasting 'The Osgood File', on several occasions. Coming to the Twin Cities allowed him to spend time with one of his five children, attending college here."
Murphy also shared pictures taken in the WCCO newsroom in October of 1990, "confirming what a fun-loving guy he was." The picture of him being "strangled" by his producer Phil Chin was taken at 4:30 in the morning.
Osgood began anchoring "CBS Sunday Morning" in 1994 after succeeding longtime host Charles Kuralt, who called Osgood "one of the last great broadcast writers."
During his run on the show it reached its highest ratings levels in three decades, and three times earned the Daytime Emmy as Outstanding Morning Program.
Charles Osgood Wood III was born on January 8, 1933, in New York City, adopting the surname of Osgood on the air to avoid being confused with another broadcaster of the time. He grew up in Baltimore, Philadelphia and New Jersey, and spent his youth taking piano lessons, delivering newspapers, and beginning a lifelong relationship with radio at the time.
Osgood graduated from Fordham University in New York City in 1954, with a B.S. degree in economics. But he said he spent more time at the campus radio station, WFUV, than in classrooms.
Beginning in 1967, Osgood was an anchor-reporter for WCBS NewsRadio 88 in New York, where he anchored the first morning drive shift when the station became an all-news outlet.
Osgood came to Minnesota in 1984 to help WCCO Radio celebrate it's 60 years on the air, and give tribute to the station.
The "Osgood style" brought him to the CBS Network, where he launched one of the longest-running features in radio history.
In a statement the Osgood family said:
"Charlie absolutely loved being part of the 'Sunday Morning' community. We'll miss him terribly, but there is comfort in knowing his life was charmed, in large part thanks to you. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for welcoming him into your homes on Sundays to share stories, and to highlight the better parts of humanity. He'll see you on the radio."