23 Facts About Douglas Edwards

Douglas Edwards was an American radio and television newscaster and correspondent who worked for the Columbia Broadcasting System for more than four decades.

Douglas Edwards is generally recognized as the first presenter or "anchor" of a nationally televised, regularly scheduled newscast by an American network.

Douglas Edwards presented news on CBS television every weeknight for 15 years, from March 20,1947 until April 16,1962.

Douglas Edwards's mother had been married previously, but her first husband died in 1906 from typhoid fever.

When Douglas Edwards was an infant, his father died of smallpox.

Douglas Edwards lived in Silver City for only two years, but during that time he developed a keen interest in radio technology and programming.

In 1932, Douglas Edwards moved with his mother to southeastern Alabama, where she had accepted a job as a school principal in the town of Troy.

Douglas Edwards spent his teenage years in Troy and continued his radio hobby, which he still regarded as a "new world", still "mesmerizing".

Martin Weil, a staff writer for The Washington Post who compiled a biography on Douglas Edwards and wrote the newscaster's 1990 obituary for the newspaper, described the teenager's ongoing fascination with the medium:.

Douglas Edwards spent hours listening and by the age of 12 was reading newspaper stories into a telephone mouthpiece.

At Troy's small, makeshift radio station in 1932, the teenage Douglas 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 occasionally.

Douglas Edwards nevertheless remained intent on working in radio, and between 1935 and 1940, he found employment, first at a small station in Dothan, Alabama; then at WSB in Atlanta; and next, much farther north in Michigan, at WXYZ in Detroit, where he served as a newscaster and announcer.

When Daly was reassigned by CBS as a war correspondent and sent overseas the following year, Douglas Edwards was promoted as his replacement on The World Today, as well as host of the Sunday afternoon program World News Today and of the Sunday night program Report to the Nation.

Two years later, Edwards was dispatched overseas, to London, to cover the final weeks of World War II with CBS foreign correspondent Edward R Murrow.

Douglas Edwards returned to the United States from his overseas radio assignments in May 1946.

In viewership ratings, Douglas Edwards' newscasts were soon eclipsed by NBC News with its Camel News Caravan presented by John Cameron Swayze.

Douglas Edwards reported on cultural events such as the Miss America Pageant.

In July 1956, while stationed on a helicopter hovering over the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Massachusetts, Douglas Edwards reported the sinking of the SS Andrea Doria, on-site coverage that received widespread public attention and critical praise.

Douglas Edwards' last televised evening newscast aired on April 13,1962 The following Monday, on April 16, Walter Cronkite officially replaced him as anchor of the telecast.

Douglas Edwards continued until his retirement in April 1988 to anchor Newsbreak, a televised 74-second weekday segment that highlighted the day's top news stories.

In 1990, at age 73, Douglas Edwards died of bladder cancer at his home in Sarasota, Florida.

Douglas Edwards anchored the live five-minute segment The CBS Afternoon News five afternoons a week between 1962 and 1966.

Douglas Edwards began the segment immediately after the broadcast of the Goodson-Todman game show To Tell the Truth.