Thanks for the reply.
I figured out what works for carriage return (chr(13) is apparently the code representation of CR); this formula is apparently finding the CRs:
REPLACE({custbody_field},chr(13),'')
However, when I export to Excel, they are still there. I know the formula is finding them as I modified it to REPLACE({custbody_field},chr(13),'aaa') at one point and the 'aaa' was showing up in the correct places in the results. I tried REPLACE({custbody_field},chr(13),' ') , REPLACE({custbody_field},chr(13),'') , REPLACE({custbody_field},chr(13),null) and REPLACE({custbody_field},chr(13)).
Results of all those test still send CRs to Excel. It's like the NS results are overriding the formula. Any other thoughts?