Bill Kurtis

Television news icon Bill Kurtis has signed to host “Through the Decades,” the signature daily information and entertainment series on a new digital network being launched this spring by Chicago-based Weigel Broadcasting Co. and CBS Television Stations.

Set to debut this May, the Decades network will air on a digital subchannel of WBBM-Channel 2 and 15 other CBS-owned stations nationwide, featuring programming culled from CBS archives and organized around theme and dates.

The one-hour daily program Kurtis will host will tap the resources of CBS News and “Entertainment Tonight,” according to an announcement Thursday, allowing viewers to “experience a different year or day, trend or event through the unique lens of Decades."

Kurtis, 74, a nationally acclaimed documentary host and producer, has a 48-year association with CBS, including four separate runs as news anchor at CBS 2 and two as a CBS News network correspondent. He signed off from his last anchor gig at CBS 2 alongside longtime partner Walter Jacobson in February 2013.

“I’m excited about the possibilities ahead and am delighted to participate in this fantastic opportunity to define the digital ‘age’ with new and innovative programming,” Kurtis said of his new role.

The announcement added: "From moon shots to galvanizing events to pop culture snapshots in time, ‘Through the Decades’ will unlock our shared history, exploring the decades of the 1950’s through the 1990’s, reimagined and relived each day.”

Billed as "the ultimate TV time capsule," entertainment programming on Decades will be drawn from among more than 100 classic series going as far back as “I Love Lucy,” which debuted in 1951.