Background
Edwards, Douglas was born on July 14, 1917 in Ada, Oklahoma, United States. Son of Tony and Alice (Donaldson) Edwards.
radio television news reporter
Edwards, Douglas was born on July 14, 1917 in Ada, Oklahoma, United States. Son of Tony and Alice (Donaldson) Edwards.
Student, University Alabama, 1934—1935. Student, Emory University, 1936. Student, University Georgia, 1937—1938.
Edwards joined Columbia Broadcasting System 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 Columbia Broadcasting System, after stints as a newscaster and announcer at WSB in Atlanta, Georgia and WXYZ in Detroit, Michigan. In the mid-1940s, Edwards was host of the radio program Behind the Scenes at Columbia Broadcasting System.
In 1948, as Columbia Broadcasting System"s top correspondents and commentators shunned the fledgling medium of television, Edwards was chosen to present regular Columbia Broadcasting System television news programs and to host Columbia Broadcasting System"s television coverage of the 1948 Democratic and Republican conventions.
At first, Edwards would be eclipsed by John Cameron Swayze of National Broadcasting Company News"s Camel News Caravan, but he would eventually regain his ratings lead.
He also received wide praise for his coverage, on both camera and radio, of the sinking of the Steamship 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.
By 1962, Edwards was replaced by Walter Cronkite, and the newscast"s name was changed to Columbia Broadcasting System Evening News. Foreign several years after leaving the Columbia Broadcasting System anchor chair, Edwards headed the local evening news team on WCBS-television, channel 2, the networks flagship television station in New York City.
Edwards subsequently moved back to Columbia Broadcasting System Radio, where he delivered the network"s flagship evening newscasts The World Tonight for many years.
Until his retirement on April 1, 1988, he maintained a daily midday role within Columbia Broadcasting System television news, anchoring a five-minute newsbreak known successively as Columbia Broadcasting System Afternoon News with Douglas Edwards (April 1962-February 1968), The Columbia Broadcasting System Midday News with Douglas Edwards (February 1968-April 20, 1979) at 11:55am Eastern time and The Columbia Broadcasting System Mid-Morning News with Douglas Edwards (April 23, 1979 – May 30, 1980) at 10:55am Eastern. He also served, for a time, as a co-anchor of the Columbia Broadcasting System Morning News. His last radio newscast included a report of the death of singer Andy Gibb.
Beginning June 2, 1980, Douglas Edwards anchored a daily one-minute-fourteen-second edition of Newsbreak at 11:57 a.m.
Eastern Time.
Edwards died of cancer at 73. Many of his early Columbia Broadcasting System radio newscasts, including his World World War II anchoring of World News Today, memorable broadcasts on Doctorate-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. In a 41⁄2 hour interview for the Archive of American Television, Walter Cronkite described Edwards as "a true gentleman.. one of the gentlest men I"ve ever known."
1988: Paul White Award, Radio Television Digital News Association.
The term "anchor" would not be used until 1952, when Columbia Broadcasting System 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 nightly 15-minute newscast Douglas Edwards with the News was watched by nearly 30 million viewers.
Member of Washington Association Radio and television Analysts, Radio-television Corrs. Association, Overseas Press Club (New York City), Field Club (New Canaan, Connecticut), Sigma Delta Chi.
Married Sara Byrd, August 29, 1939. Children: Lynn Alice, Robert Anthony, Donna Claire. Married May H. Dunbar, May 10, 1966.