Longtime NPR Morning Edition anchor Bob Edwards died on Saturday at the age of 76.
After starting his career at WHEL New Albany IN, Edwards served in the US Army at American Forces Korea Network in Seoul during the Vietnam war. He would then spend time at WTOP Washington and Mutual Broadcasting Network before joining NPR in 1974 as co-anchor of All Things Considered. When Morning Edition was launching in the Fall of 1979, Edwards was tabbed as its anchor, a position he would hold until April 2004. Later that year he would join XM as host of The Bob Edwards Show and then companion program Bob Edwards Weekend, the latter of which was offered by Public Radio International to terrestrial stations until the show’s cancellation by SiriusXM in 2014. He would later host a podcast for the AARP.
Edwards was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2004.
NPR CEO John Lansing stated, “We are saddened to hear that Bob Edwards has passed away. Edwards joined NPR as a newscaster in 1974, during the Nixon impeachment and Watergate hearings, and later that year became co-host of All Things Considered alongside Susan Stamberg. In 1979, in what would become a career-defining moment, he helped NPR launch the morning newsmagazine, Morning Edition. He continued to be the voice that NPR listeners started their day with for another 24 and a half years as host of Morning Edition. Bob Edwards understood the intimate and distinctly personal connection with audiences that distinguishes audio journalism from other mediums, and for decades he was a trusted voice in the lives of millions of public radio listeners. Staff at NPR and all across the Network, along with those millions of listeners, will remember Bob Edwards with gratitude.”
The Kentucky Colonel Bob Edwards, passed away on Saturday evening. It’s sad that those dulcet tones have been silenced. His wife, Windsor Johnston posted a remembrance. H/t @howardberkes pic.twitter.com/BogkkKPs9e
— Patrick Murray (@NPRPatrick) February 12, 2024
In my 20s I worked the overnight at NPR and wrote intros for Bob Edwards. He had a very specific wry way of delivering a funny line. Masterful. So fun to write, imagining it in his voice and then he’d nail it every time. Raising a bourbon to you today,Bob. https://t.co/xVySb6eGVq
— Ira Glass (@iraglass) February 12, 2024
This story first appeared on radioinsight.com