Having been an admirer of Charles Osgood since college, and having heard him speak and having met him only once, and of course having heard him on the radio every day for years doing his Osgood Files, it was sad to report the news this week that he had died.
He was 91 and his family said the cause was dementia which is somewhat ironic that with the brain and the creativity, Charles Osgood was as good as they come when it comes to being a journalist.
Though he hosted CBS Sunday Mornings on TV for more than 20 years, he was different from other journalists, very different and positively different. And he was a master story teller. But he did it in a uniquely clever and positive way.
Many years ago, he started using rhyme to tell his stories and it made you compelled to listen to what he said. And what he did on radio is what works best on radio, creating a personal connection in a one to one conversation.
Here is how he once put it in one of his rhyming pieces.
“See you on the radio” … I say that every week,
A peculiar phrase, some people think, for anyone to speak.
I’ve got a piece of mail or two, up on my office shelf,
Complaining that the sentence seems to contradict itself.
“Dear Mr. Osgood,” someone wrote, “that signoff is absurd,
Radio is for the ear … the song or spoken word.”
So right he was. Charlie Osgood, we will forever remember seeing you on the radio.
(Photo RTDNA)