CBS Evening News greeting "Good evening everyone, coast to coast" to begin each broadcast. On November 30, 1956, the program became the first to use the new technology of videotape to time delay the broadcast (which originated in New York City) for the western United States. Walter Cronkite became anchor of the program titled "Walter Cronkite with the News" on April 16, 1962. On September 2, 1963, the program, retitled "CBS Evening News", became the first half-hour weeknight news broadcast of network television and was moved to 6:30 p.m. Eastern time (the "Huntley-Brinkley Report" on NBC expanded to 30 minutes exactly one week
Walter Cronkite he ended the newscast with opinion or commentary. Beginning with January 16, 1980, Day 50 of the Iran hostage crisis, Cronkite added the length of the hostages' captivity to the show's closing in order to remind the audience of the unresolved situation, ending only on Day 444, January 20, 1981. Cronkite is vividly remembered for breaking the news of the Assassination of John F. Kennedy on Friday, November 22, 1963. Cronkite had been standing at the United Press International wire machine in the CBS newsroom as the bulletin of the President's shooting broke and he clamored to get on the