(CNN) -- Throughout his career as a television anchorman, Walter Cronkite had a few memorable run-ins with other powerful figures at CBS News, one of his producers told CNN. 

Walter Cronkite occasionally butted heads with executives at CBS News, his former producer says. 

Sanford "Sandy" Socolow, who worked at CBS News for 32 years, more than four of them as Cronkite's producer, said Cronkite ran into trouble soon after he took over for Douglas Edwards in the "CBS Evening News" anchor chair. 

"The first night up, he ended the show by saying, I'm paraphrasing, 'That's the news. Be sure to check your local newspapers tomorrow to get all the details on the headlines we are delivering to you.'" 

That didn't fly. 

"The suits -- as we used to call them -- went crazy," Socolow told CNN, referring to CBS executives. "From their perspective, Cronkite was sending people to read newspapers instead of watching the news. There was a storm." 

CBS News President Richard Salant met with Cronkite, who initially resisted, then agreed to change his sign-off, Socolow said. Watch friends and admirers weigh in on the death of a giant » 

"In the absence of anything else, he came up with 'That's the way it is.'" 

But that too ruffled feathers, Socolow said. 

"Salant's attitude was, 'We're not telling them that's the way it is. We can't do that in 15 minutes,' which was the length of the show in those days. 'That's not the way it is.'" 

Still, Cronkite persisted and that's the way it was from then on. Watch what happened the one time Cronkite failed to say it » 
So how did he agree to end the news?
he came up with 'That's the way it is.'