Charles Osgood, often referred to as CBS News'
poet-in-residence, has been anchor of
CBS News Sunday Morning since
1994. He also anchors and writes "The Osgood File," his daily news
commentary broadcast on the CBS Radio Network. Osgood's commentaries draw one
of the largest audiences of any network radio feature. He was called "one
of the last great broadcast writers" by his predecessor on
Sunday
Morning, Charles Kuralt.
Osgood is the recipient of the 2005 Paul White
Award, presented by the Radio-Television News Directors Association for
lifetime contribution to electronic journalism. Also in 2005, Osgood received
the Walter Cronkite Excellence in Journalism Award from Arizona State University. He was inducted into the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame in 2000
and joined the ranks of the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame
in 1990. He has received some of the highest accolades in broadcast journalism,
including a 1999 International Radio and Television Society Foundation (IRTS) Award
for significant achievement.
Osgood received a 1997 George Foster Peabody
Award for Sunday Morning and two additional Peabody Awards in 1985 and
1986 for Newsmark, a weekly CBS Radio public affairs broadcast. He
received his third Emmy Award in 1997, for his interview with American realist
painter Andrew Wyeth for Sunday Morning.
The Osgood File has earned its author
five coveted Washington Journalism Review “Best in the Business Awards.”
Osgood received a 1999 Radio Mercury Award, a 1996 President's Award from the
American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers for outstanding coverage
and support of music creators and a 1993 Marconi Radio Award.
He has been an anchor and reporter for many CBS
News broadcasts, including the CBS Morning News, the CBS Evening
News With Dan Rather and the CBS Sunday Night News. Before joining CBS
News in September 1971, Osgood was an anchor/reporter for WCBS News Radio
88 in New York (1967-71). Prior to that, he worked for ABC News, was the
general manager of WHCT-TV Hartford, Conn., and the program director and
manager of WGMS Radio Washington, D.C.
Osgood, who recently edited Funny Letters
From Famous People (Broadway Books, 2003) and Kilroy Was Here
(Hyperion, 2001), a book on American humor from the World War II era, is the
author of six books. They are Nothing Could Be Finer Than a Crisis That Is
Minor in the Morning (Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1979), There's
Nothing I Wouldn't Do if You Would Be My POSSLQ (Holt, Rinehart &
Winston, 1981), Osgood on Speaking: How to Think on Your Feet without
Falling on Your Face (William Morrow and Company, 1988), The Osgood
Files (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1991), See You on the Radio (G.P.
Putnam's Sons, 1999) and his latest, Defending Baltimore Against Enemy
Attack (Hyperion, 2004.)
Osgood was born in New York. He was graduated
from Fordham University in 1954 with a B.S. degree in economics and holds
honorary doctorates from 11 institutions of higher learning. He has served as a
trustee for Fordham University and St. Bonaventure, is an overseer at Colby College and a trustee at the School of Strings in Manhattan. Osgood has performed with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and played the piano and banjo with the New York
Pops and Boston Pops Orchestras.
He lives in New York City with his wife, Jean.
They have five children.