Broadcast Pioneers

Douglas Edwards (1917-1990) was an American radio and television newscaster and correspondent and is regarded as the first "anchorman" of a nationally televised, regularly scheduled newscast by an American network. His four-decade career was contracted to the CBS network.

Born in Oklahoma, he and his widowed mother moved to Alabama in 1932. There the teenage Edwards was paid $2.50 a week to be a "junior announcer", a disc jockey, and to fill any lapses during broadcasts by reading poetry and even singing (after a fashion) occasionally. After college, he remained intent on working in radio, and between 1935 and 1940, he found employment at a small station at WSB in Atlanta and at WXYZ in Detroit where he served as a newscaster and announcer. His big break was an offer from CBS Radio in 1942 to move to New York as an assistant announcer and understudy to journalist John Charles Daly.

In the fledgling days of television of 1947, Edwards was chosen by CBS to host the 1948 Democratic and Republican national conventions. Edwards presented news on CBS television every weeknight for fifteen years, from 1947 until 1962. Initially aired as a 15-minute program under the title CBS Television News, the broadcast evolved into the CBS Evening News and expanded to a 30-minute format in 1963 under Walter Cronkite, who succeeded Edwards as anchor of the newscast. Edwards retired from CBS in 1988.