Cronkite Says His CBS Status Still Uncertain

Walter Cronkite, who has a special on CBS Saturday night called “Walter Cronkite at Large,” could be at large by November if negotiations to keep him at CBS News are fruitless. But he suggests that he might stay put.

“We’re still talking,” said the man who anchored the “CBS Evening News” for 19 years, “and I guess I could say that progress is being made. But there’s nothing to (publicly) talk about yet.”

He declined to disclose any details, but added that “I’d like to think we can do it”--finish the negotiations--”long before” his current contract ends this fall.

A CBS employee since 1950, Cronkite, 71, spoke in a telephone interview before leaving last week for a vacation in England, France and Turkey, where he plans to go sailing for several weeks.

His broadcast Saturday at 10 p.m., which preempts “West 57th,” is a three-part program on environmental problems, the fate of Macau when mainland China takes it back from Portugal in 11 years, and ballooning as done with billionaire Malcom Forbes and an Iowa farmer.

It’s his third such “At Large” since he turned over the “Evening News” to Dan Rather in 1981. But he has no other programs, either “At Large” or single-subject documentary, on his schedule now, he said.

Currently a $1 million-a-year consultant and special correspondent for CBS, Cronkite has said that the 10-year pact that begins in November provides that he’ll continue with CBS as a consultant.

But he has said he doesn’t think the new agreement, which pays him $150,000 annually, requires him to continue with CBS. He says he would be free to work elsewhere.

There have been reports--Cronkite won’t comment on them--that various offers have been made to him, including one from the syndicated “USA Today” program that premieres in September.

Cronkite won’t say why he is thinking of working elsewhere. He reportedly was miffed in 1984 over a diminished role in CBS’ convention coverage and lack of any air time during CBS’ election-night coverage.

In his brief interview last week, he declined to say whether current negotiations concerning his new contract involve his participation as a correspondent at the coming national political conventions and on election night.

Last month, CBS President Laurence A. Tisch said he was confident that Cronkite would remain at CBS News.