Pioneering Radio News Anchor Dies

N E W   Y O R K, Nov. 14 -- Robert Trout, the pioneering radio news anchorwhose crisp baritone, stamina and genius at ad-libbing informedlisteners for seven decades, died today. He was 91.

Trout, who, in 1938, became the first anchor of CBS Radio’s World News Tonight, died of congestive heart failure at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York.

Among the events he covered were John Philip Sousa’s last public performance, campaign speeches by Franklin D. Roosevelt, and the repeal of Prohibition.

During Roosevelt’s presidency, Trout was the broadcaster whofirst used the term “fireside chat” to describe the radioaddresses Roosevelt gave to the nation.

Trout worked in radio and television, mostly for CBS, with briefstints at NBC and ABC, covering events as varied as DouglasMacArthur’s return to Washington in 1949, Alan Shepherd’s space flight in1961, political conventions and the running of the bulls in Pamplona. In1980 he won a Peabody Award.

Trout, who covered Franklin Roosevelt’s presidency, was stilloffering commentary and analysis on NPR this fall.

“He was the last remaining link to the beginning of broadcastjournalism,” said said John McDonough, a producer for the NationalPublic Radio program All Things Considered. McDonough last worked with Trout three weeks ago on the NPR program.

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Radio, TV Legend

CBS anchorman Dan Rather called Trout “a gentle, intelligentand marvelously experienced journalist and broadcaster — afirst-vote hall of famer who accomplished the rare feat of becominga legend first in radio and then in television news.”

Trout began his career in 1931 as a news announcer forindependent radio station WJSV in Virginia.

The next year, CBS bought WJSV and retained Trout. He was knownas one of “Murrow’s boys,” the crack team of reporters led by thenetwork’s chief European correspondent, Edward R. Murrow.

On March 13, 1938, Trout went on the air to anchor CBS’half-hour World News Roundup, two days after the German army marched into Austria, a key event in the buildup to World War II.