Douglas Edwards

Douglas Edwards (July 14, 1917 — October 13, 1990) was America's first network news television anchor, anchoring CBS's first nightly news broadcast from 1948-1962, which was later to be titled CBS Evening News.

Biography

Early life and career

Edwards joined CBS Radio in 1942, eventually becoming anchor for the regular evening newscast The World Today as well as World News Today on Sunday afternoons. Edwards came to CBS after stints as a newscaster and announcer at WSB in Atlanta, Georgia and WXYZ in Detroit, Michigan.

As anchorman of Douglas Edwards with the News (The CBS Evening News)

In 1948, as CBS's top correspondents and commentators shunned the fledgling medium of television, Edwards was chosen to present regular CBS television news programs and to host CBS's television coverage of the 1948 Democratic and Republican conventions. The term "anchor" would not be used until 1952, when CBS News chief Sig Mikelson would use it to describe Walter Cronkite's role in the network's political convention coverage.

By the mid-1950s, the name of the nightly 15 minute newscast [7:30-7:45pm ET until September 1955; 6:45-7:00pm ET (although most affiliates scheduled a 7:15-7:30pm ET edition) through September 1963] became Douglas Edwards with the News and was watched by nearly 30 million viewers. At first, Edwards would be eclipsed by John Cameron Swayze of NBC News's Camel News Caravan, but he would eventually regain his ratings lead.

Among the events Edwards covered as a reporter in those years were the Miss America Pageant (five times), the attempted assassination of Harry S. Truman in November 1950, and the coronation of Elizabeth II in June 1953. He also received wide praise for his coverage, on both camera and radio, of the sinking of the SS Andrea Doria in July 1956. But by the end of the decade, viewership levels for the Edwards broadcast weakened severely as the Huntley-Brinkley Report began to attract a larger audience.^[1]

By 1962, Edwards was replaced by Walter Cronkite, and the newscast's name was eventually changed to CBS Evening News.

Return to the CBS Radio Network

Edwards subsequently moved back to CBS Radio, where he delivered the network's flagship evening newscasts for many years. Until his retirement on April 1, 1988, he maintained at least a small role within CBS television news, anchoring a mid-day five-minute newsbreak titled The CBS Midday News with Douglas Edwards at 11:55am Eastern time until April 23, 1979, when the newscast moved to 10:55am Eastern and was retitled The CBS Mid-Morning News with Douglas Edwards. The last five minute newscast was presented on May 30, 1980.

Beginning June 2, 1980, Douglas Edwards anchored a daily one minute fourteen second edition of Newsbreak at 11:57am Eastern time. CBS News historian Gary Paul Gates, in Air Time: The Inside Story of CBS News, recorded a conversation between veteran CBS and NBC news executives musing over the shift from Edwards and Swayze to the Huntley-Brinkley and Cronkite newscasts, and Edwards's continuation at CBS compared to Swayze's later familiarity as a pitchman for Timex, after both men had fallen from their formerly lofty television perches. "Goddammit," Gates quoted the unnamed NBC executive, "at least your guy had the grace to stay in the business. I mean, he didn't become a (bleeping) watch salesman."^{[citation needed]}

Death

Edwards died of cancer at the age of 73. Many of his early CBS radio newscasts, including his memorable broadcasts on D-Day and his Andrea Doria coverage, remain favorites of old-time radio collectors. Edwards was posthumously elected to the Radio Hall of Fame in 2006.

References

External links

• MetaCafe: "Flight of Sputnik I," CBS News (Douglas Edwards reporting), 2 October 1957
• YouTube: Douglas Edwards' farewell CBS newscast on April 1, 1988
• Douglas Edwards at Find a Grave
• [1] Douglas Edwards Archives at St. Bonaventure University