Charles Osgood Wood III (January 8, 1933 – January 23, 2024), known professionally as Charles Osgood, was an American radio and television commentator, writer, and musician. Osgood was best known both for being the host of CBS News Sunday Morning, a role he held for over 22 years from April 10, 1994, until September 25, 2016, as well as The Osgood File, a series of daily radio commentaries he hosted from 1971 until December 29, 2017.
Osgood was also known for being the voice of the narrator of Horton Hears a Who!, an animated film released in 2008, based on the book of the same name by Dr. Seuss. He published a memoir of his boyhood in 2004.
Early life and education
Osgood was born in Manhattan, New York City on January 8, 1933. As a child, he moved with his family to the Liberty Heights neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland. He attended St. Cecilia High School in Englewood, New Jersey.
His memoir about growing up in Baltimore during World War II is called Defending Baltimore Against Enemy Attack (2004) and in it he recounts his perspective from age nine.
Osgood graduated from Fordham University in 1954 with a Bachelor of Science degree in economics.
Early career
WFUV Radio
While attending Fordham, Osgood volunteered at the university’s FM campus radio station, WFUV. He often played piano between records on his shows and frequently collaborated with other students including future actor Alan Alda and future producer and director Jack Haley, Jr.
United States Army Band
Immediately after graduating from Fordham University, Osgood was hired as an announcer by WGMS (AM) and WGMS-FM, the classical music stations in Washington, D.C. (today WWRC and WTOP-FM respectively). Shortly afterward, however, he enlisted in the military to be the announcer for the United States Army Band. In 1991, he explained this turn of events in an interview with the Los Angeles Times.
[After college graduation] I went right to work for a classical musical [sic] station in Washington called WGMS. I was an announcer. I learned a lot doing that.
I was about to be drafted in the Army, this was 1954, and I ran into a guy while I was having dinner with a friend of mine and he was dressed in a white uniform, the most fancy uniform this side of the Ritz Hotel. It turned out he was the announcer for the United States Army Band. I asked him when he was getting out and he said within the next few weeks, so the next morning I was parked out at the commanding officer’s office. He was impressed with the fact I could pronounce Rimsky-Korsakov. That’s how I got the job. I spent three years with the United States Army Band. It was a great experience.
Besides acting as the band’s master of ceremonies, he performed as a pianist with the band and sang with the United States Army Chorus.
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Becoming “Charles Osgood”
While he was at ABC, he began using the name “Charles Osgood” because the network already had an announcer named “Charles Woods.” In a 2005 interview with Inside Radio, Osgood related the story:
They didn’t want to have a Charles Woods and a Charles Wood. When they told me to pick a name, I used my middle name as my last name. It’s worked out well and is a little more distinctive and professional.
Later career at CBS
Osgood moved over to CBS Radio in 1967 when it became clear, in his words, that he “wasn’t going anywhere” at ABC. He ended up working in both radio and television at CBS.
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Television
On television, Osgood joined CBS News in 1971. He was a reporter, and served as anchor of the CBS Sunday Night News from 1981 to 1987, co-anchor of the weekday CBS Morning News and frequent news reader on CBS This Morning from 1987 to 1992, as well as occasional anchor of the CBS Afternoon News and the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather.
Osgood hosted CBS News Sunday Morning from April 10, 1994 to September 25, 2016, succeeding the original host Charles Kuralt. Osgood’s tenure of twenty-two years as host exceeded Kuralt’s fifteen years.
Among Osgood’s personal trademarks were his bow-tie, his weekly TV signoff “Until then, I’ll see you on the radio”, and his propensity for delivering his commentaries in whimsical verse. Example: When the Census Bureau invented a designation for cohabitant(s) as “Person(s) of Opposite Sex Sharing Living Quarters”, or “POSSLQ”, Osgood turned it into a pronounceable three-syllable word and composed a prospective love poem that included these lines, which he later used as the title of one of his books:
“There’s nothing that I wouldn’t do
If you would be my POSSLQ.”
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End of broadcasting career
On December 21, 2017, it was announced Osgood would retire from the radio show due to health concerns ending his broadcast career. His final broadcasts were on December 29, 2017.
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Personal life
Osgood’s first marriage to Theresa Audette ended in divorce after 16 years. He and his second wife, Jeanne Crafton, had five children, who were raised in Englewood, New Jersey. When they became empty nesters, Osgood and his wife moved to a 12-room duplex on West 57th Street at 7th Avenue in New York City.
A road in Altoona, Pennsylvania, Osgood Drive, that’s mostly used for the Logantown Centre, is named after Charles Osgood.
Osgood died from complications of dementia at his home in Saddle River, New Jersey, on January 23, 2024, at the age of 91.
Read the rest of this bio here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Osgood
Photo: Charles Osgood (center) with Charles Fiori & Jacquie | From CBS’s Facebook page
Charles Osgood – Star of CBS Sunday Morning Arts Show – Dies at the age of 91
