More than decade before the first color television broadcast, 23 years before Americans were able to watch a man walk on the moon and 68 years before Google paid $1.65 billion for YouTube, CBS News Radio's "The World News Roundup" forged broadcasting history when it launched on March 13, 1938. This was the first broadcast to bring the voices of correspondents stationed around the world together for a live news broadcast. 

 "The World News Roundup," the longest-running news broadcast in history, marks its 70th anniversary on Thursday, March 13. 

The program began amid the growing tensions in Europe leading up to World War II. In an unprecedented event, the first broadcast linked multiple locations around the world, pioneering the anchor-and-field correspondent format that is standard in today's newscasts.  That broadcast was anchored by veteran CBS News Correspondent Robert Trout in New York, and included reports from Edward R. Murrow in Vienna, William L. Shirer in London and other reporters in Paris, Rome and Berlin.  It was Murrow's debut as a reporter.

"Seventy years ago the producers of 'The World News Roundup' invented a new kind of journalism that was riveting and compelling as well as groundbreaking," says Harvey Nagler, Vice President, CBS News Radio.

In an interview with Douglas Edwards years later, Trout said, "As radio news was being developed at that time, we all had a sense that we were developing things and that we were pioneers." 

Murrow said during a 1958 broadcast, "In those days before and during most of the war, we were not permitted to use recordings.  Everything was live and moved directly from the reporter's microphone into your home."

Murrow also said in that broadcast 50 years ago, "One of the advantages in reporting through a medium as fast as radio is that you don't have the time or the inclination to look back."  

Over the decades, "The World News Roundup," has aired the work of dozens of prestigious journalists, including Edwards, Winston Burdett, Ned Calmer, Reid Collins, Dallas Townsend, Richard C. Hottelet, Bill Lynch and Christopher Glenn.   Eric Sevareid, Charles Collingwood and Howard K. Smith are among the prominent journalists who have reported for the program.

Today the program continues to set the standard for radio news programming, winning the Radio Television News Directors Association "Best Newscast" Award in four of the last eight years. The program uses the latest production techniques such as reporting live, wirelessly from a street corner with a piece of equipment no larger than your hand.

"The World News Roundup" can currently be heard by millions of listeners each day on CBS Radio affiliates nationwide at 8:00A.M. EST and 7:00 A.M. PST daily. The newscast is anchored by Nick Young.  A late edition airs at 7:00 P.M. EST and is anchored by Bill Whitney. A podcast of the broadcast is also available at CBSNews.com.

Editor's Note:  Related materials available include photos, audio recordings and written retrospectives from Edward R. Murrow, Robert Trout and Dallas Townsend.