William Randall "Bill" Downs (August 17, 1914 – May 3, 1978) was a Kansas City-born American broadcast journalist for CBS Radio

CBS Radio

CBS Radio, Inc., formerly known as Infinity Broadcasting Corporation, is one of the largest owners and operators of radio stations in the United States, third behind main rival Clear Channel Communications and Cumulus Media. CBS Radio owns around 130 radio stations across the country...

 from 1942 to 1962.

During the War

Downs was hired on at CBS

CBS

CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

 by Edward R. Murrow

Edward R. Murrow

Edward Roscoe Murrow, KBE was an American broadcast journalist. He first came to prominence with a series of radio news broadcasts during World War II, which were followed by millions of listeners in the United States and Canada.Fellow journalists Eric Sevareid, Ed Bliss, and Alexander Kendrick...

 and was one of Murrow's Boys

Murrow's Boys

Murrow’s Boys, or “The Murrow Boys,” were the CBS broadcast journalists most closely associated with Edward R. Murrow during his years at the network, most notably the years before and during World War II....

, a team of correspondents who covered the war for CBS Radio. Before signing on with Murrow and CBS Downs worked for United Press, the same outfit that Murrow cohort Richard C. Hottelet

Richard C. Hottelet

Richard C. Hottelet was a Brooklyn-born American broadcast journalist for the latter half of the twentieth century. He continues to write and lecture....

 worked at before joining CBS. He had no relation to the later television broadcaster Hugh Downs

Hugh Downs

Hugh Malcolm Downs is a long time American broadcaster, television host, news anchor, TV producer, author, game show host, and music composer; and is perhaps best known for his role as co-host the NBC News program Today from 1962 to 1971, host of the Concentration game show from 1958 to 1969, and...

.

In part, he covered paratroopers during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 for CBS. According to Walter Cronkite

Walter Cronkite

Walter Leland Cronkite, Jr. was an American broadcast journalist, best known as anchorman for the CBS Evening News for 19 years . During the heyday of CBS News in the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the most trusted man in America" after being so named in an opinion poll...

's autobiography "A Reporter's Life", Cronkite and Downs once found themselves accidentally behind enemy lines during the war. They were separated in a dense forest, but did eventually find each other and make it back to Allied lines. Walter asked Downs why he didn't call out for him, and Downs replied: "Because I didn't want to be walking around behind German lines shouting "Cronkite!" ("Krankheit!" is German for "Sickness!").

After the war

In 1946, Downs covered the nuclear tests at Bikini Atoll

Bikini Atoll

Bikini Atoll is an atoll, listed as a World Heritage Site, in the Micronesian Islands of the Pacific Ocean, part of Republic of the Marshall Islands....

for CBS, some of his reporting was carried across all networks.
In November, 1952, Downs covered the Hydrogen bomb explosion for CBS.