Bob Edwards

48
Bob Edwards bigraphy, stories - Journalists

Bob Edwards : biography

May 16, 1947 –

Robert Alan Edwards (born May 16, 1947 in Louisville, Kentucky) is a Peabody Award-winning member of the National Radio Hall of Fame. He was the first broadcaster with a large national following to join the field of satellite radio. Edwards is the host of The Bob Edwards Show on Sirius XM Radio and Bob Edwards Weekend distributed by Public Radio International to more than 150 public radio stations. He gained fame as the first host of National Public Radio’s flagship program, Morning Edition.

Professional life

In November 2004, Edwards was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame. He continues to offer verbal support for National Public Radio and helps local public radio stations with their fundraisers.

Edwards serves on the board of trustees of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress and is a board member of the Albert Shanker Institute, SAG-AFTRA and the Homeless Children’s Playtime Project.

He holds honorary degrees from the University of Louisville, Spalding University, Bellarmine University, Willamette University, Grinnell College, DePaul University, the University of St. Francis and Albertson College (now the College of Idaho).

Host of Morning Edition

Edwards hosted NPR’s flagship program, Morning Edition, from the show’s inception in 1979 until 2004. After 24-plus years with Edwards as host, Arbitron ratings showed that, with 13 million listeners, it was the second highest-rated radio broadcast in the country, behind only Rush Limbaugh’s AM show. Prior to his departure, he was very popular among both listeners and critics.

When Morning Edition and its host won a George Foster Peabody Award in 1999, the Peabody committee lauded Edwards as

Edwards’ skills as an interviewer have been widely praised. NPR’s ombudsman Jeffery Dvorkin said, "If I were his producer, I would think of Edwards as NPR’s version of Charlie Rose." The New York Daily News called him "an institution among Morning Edition listeners for his interviewing skills and his calm, articulate style." It is estimated that Edwards conducted over 20,000 interviews for NPR. His subjects ranged from major politicians to authors and celebrities. His weekly call-in chats with retired sportscaster Red Barber are fondly remembered. The chats were supposedly about sports, but often digressed into topics like the Gulf War, what kind of flowers were blooming at Barber’s Tallahassee, Florida home, or other non-sport subjects. Barber would call Edwards "Colonel Bob," referring to Edwards’ Kentucky Colonel honor from his native state. Barber died in 1992, and the following year Edwards based his first book, Fridays with Red: A Radio Friendship (ISBN 0-671-87013-0), on the weekly interviews.

In 2003, Edwards was inducted into the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame.

Sirius XM Satellite Radio career

"They want to give me a program, so I can continue to host and be heard every day instead of occasionally, as I would have been at NPR," Edwards told the Washington Post. He said the format would be "loose": "It’ll be long interviews, short interviews, and then maybe departments… You’ve got to have the news… it’s not going to be all features, yet it’s not going to be the Financial Times, either." The Bob Edwards Show’s first broadcast was on October 4, 2004. Washington Post columnist David Broder and former CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite were Edwards’ first guests.

While continuing his daily show on XM, Edwards returned to public radio stations in January 2006 with his show Bob Edwards Weekend, produced by XM Satellite Radio and distributed by Public Radio International to affiliate stations around the country. A September 22, 2005 press release from PRI states, "Bob Edwards Weekend will provide PRI listeners with an opportunity to sample some of the astute commentary and intriguing interviews offered to XM subscribers each weekday on The Bob Edwards Show." This was the first time that a satellite radio company provided programming to over-the-air terrestrial radio.