ABC Radio aired the first broadcast report of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963.

On January 1, 1968, the singular ABC radio network was split into four separate and distinct programming services.

The American FM Network, carried on major-market FM stations such as WPLJ New York, aired news geared toward young adult listeners at 15 minutes past the hour, while the American Entertainment Network had news at the bottom of the hour, often carried by AM country music stations, such as WBAP in Dallas-Fort Worth.

Though each of the four new "networks" were distributed to all member radio stations nationally over the same broadcast-quality telephone line, the move allowed ABC to have as many as four affiliates in one city – a major competitive advantage and a dramatic turning point in the history of network radio.

Of the six networks, only Information, Entertainment and ABC FM News remain as separate newscast services today, with their programming delivered via satellite.

Individual soundbites and reporter packages are fed to stations via satellite and an affiliate website.

In addition to the top-of-the-hour newscasts, ABC News also provides its radio affiliates with headlines, briefs and "status reports" that air every ten minutes, as well as special reports, special event coverage and longform programming.

A five-minute long spin-off voiced by Harvey, The Rest of the Story, began in May 1976 and was offered to affiliates in the late afternoons, as well as on Saturday mornings.

After Paul Harvey's death on February 28, 2009, San Francisco-based broadcaster Gil Gross was appointed as the new host of News and Comment, while the Rest of the Story time slot was held by Doug Limerick.

In the afternoon, hourly newscasts preceded some of ABC Radio's top talk show talent, like Sean Hannity, KABC's Larry Elder and WBAP's Mark Davis.