Radio host who built NPR’s ‘Morning Edition’
Bob Edwards, the host of NPR’s“Morning Edition” for nearly a quarter-century, whose rich baritone and cool demeanor imbued his radio broadcasts with authority in reaching millions of listeners, died Feb. 10 in Arlington, Va. He was 76.
His death, at a rehabilitation facility, was from heart failure and complications of bladder cancer, his wife, Windsor Johnston, said.
Mr. Edwards, a Kentucky native who knew from an early age that he wanted to be in radio, joined NPR in 1974, during the Watergate hearings. That year, he became a co-host of “All Things Considered,’’ the public broadcaster’s signature evening news magazine of interviews, analysis and features. Its success led to the spinoff “Morning Edition” in 1979.
Mr. Edwards began as a 30-day temporary host of that program before going on to serve as its anchor for 24½ years.
“Bob Edwards understood the intimate and distinctly personal connection with audiences that distinguishes audio journalism from other mediums,” John Lansing, chief executive of NPR, said in a statement, “and for decades he was a trusted voice in the daily lives of millions of NPR listeners.”
Susan Stamberg, his cohost on “All Things Considered,” in an interview with NPR for its obituary about Mr. Edwards, described their oil-and-vinegar chemistry.
“We had five good — if rocky — years together, until we sort of got one another’s rhythm, because he was Mr. Cool, he was Mr. Authoritative and straight ahead,” she said. “I was the New Yorker with a million ideas and a big laugh. But we really adjusted rather well.”
She called him “the voice we woke up to” for a quarter century.
On “Morning Edition,” Mr. Edwards interviewed thousands of prominent figures in the news, but also included features on the singer Dolly Parton and the renowned baseball announcer Red Barber, with whom he conducted a popular weekly segment of commentary.
After his final “Morning Edition” broadcast, on April 30, 2004, he was assigned to be an NPR correspondent, but he left soon after when he was approached to host a program on SiriusXM Radio. “The Bob Edwards Show,” as it was called, ran through 2014. He also appeared on “Bob Edwards Weekend” on public radio stations.
“He was a stickler for even the tiniest of details and lived by the philosophy that ‘less is more,’ ” Ms. Johnston wrote on Facebook. “He helped pave the way for the younger generation of journalists who continue to make NPR what it is today.”