Douglas Edwards
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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.
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. In 1948, as CBS' top correspondents and commentators shunned the fledgling medium of television, Edwards was chosen to present regular CBS television news program and to "host" CBS' 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 newscast 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. Edwards' sober on-air style was considered by many to be more appropriate to news anchoring than Swayze's more informal style. (The NBC anchor was famous for introducing quick international items with, "Now, let's go hopscotching around the world for headlines!" and for signing off with, "That's the story, folks--glad we could get together.")
Among the events Edwards himself covered as a reporter in these years were the Miss America Pageant (five times), the attempted assassination of Harry S. Truman in 1950, and the coronation of Elizabeth II in 1952. He also received wide praise for his coverage---on camera and on radio alike---of the sinking of the SS Andrea Doria. 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.
By 1962, Edwards was replaced by Walter Cronkite, and the newscast's name was changed to CBS Evening News.
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 clung to a small role within CBS television news, anchoring a mid-day five-minute newsbreak. It can be considered a kind of left-handed compliment, but 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."
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 favourites of old-time radio collectors. And perhaps Edwards' true metier was radio, after all---he was posthumously elected to the Radio Hall of Fame in 2006.
Mr. Edwards was a gentleman to the end. Though his role at CBS News was small in later years, he was in his office every day and always had kind words for those around him. He was always especially encouraging to younger people.
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| Preceded by Originator |
CBS Evening News anchor August 15, 1948 - April 16, 1962 |
Succeeded by Walter Cronkite |
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