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Veteran broadcaster Bob Edwards, a National Public Radio host who helped create the news program “Morning Edition,” has died at the age of 76, NPR announced Monday.
An NPR institution, Edwards joined the station as a news anchor in 1974 and became the voice with which NPR listeners started their day for 24 1/2 years as host of “Morning Edition,” the director said. NPR executive John Lansing said in a statement Monday morning.
Edwards passed away “peacefully” Saturday night with his daughters and his wife, NPR anchor Windsor Johnston, at his side, his wife shared in a statement with NBC News.
“He smiled as we played the well wishes, loving memories and healing messages that you all so kindly took the time to record for him,” Johnston wrote. “A tear slid down his face as he listened to those familiar voices from under the bed of the old ‘Morning Edition’ theme.”
No cause of death was shared.
“We are saddened to learn that Bob Edwards has passed away,” Lansing said in a statement. “Bob Edwards understood the intimate and clearly personal connection with audiences that distinguishes audio journalism from other media, and for decades he was a trusted voice in the lives of millions of public radio listeners.”
“The staff at NPR and across the network, along with those millions of listeners, will remember Bob Edwards with gratitude,” Lansing added.
Born in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1947, Edwards began his career as a news anchor for a local Indiana station and worked in Korea with Armed Forces Radio and Television, according to his radYoo Hall of Fame biography.
After joining NPR in 1974, she was asked to join Susan Stamberg as co-anchor of NPR’s new news program “All Things Considered.” In 1979, she launched “Morning Edition”, a brand with which she soon became synonymous.
During his work for “Morning Edition,” he won two Gabriel Awards from the National Catholic Association of Broadcasters, the Alfred I. du Pont-Columbia University Award and a Peabody Award. He was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2004.
Edwards was ousted as host of “Morning Edition” in 2004 after his decades-long stint, a move that sparked much protest from longtime listeners, prompted outraged newspaper editorials and drew condemnation from Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. , on the Senate floor. .
“It turns out that members of Congress on both sides of the aisle feel the same way I do: that this decision by National Public Radio is the wrong decision; that Bob Edwards, who has not only been host of this program but also the most popular morning voice successful in the United States, he is being removed from this task in a situation and under circumstances that are almost impossible to understand,” Durbin said on April 1, 2004.
At the time, NPR said Edwards would become a senior correspondent with reports heard on several network broadcasts, a change made to “refresh” the network’s broadcasts, The Associated Press reported.
Instead, Edwards left NPR and moved to XM Satellite Radio to launch “The Bob Edwards Show,” which ran until 2014. He then hosted the podcast. “Face today” by AARP.
He also wrote three books: “Edward R. Murrow and the Birth of Broadcast,” “Fridays with Red: A Radio Friendship” and “A Voice in the Box: My Life in Radio.”
Johnston remembered her husband of 12 years as a “giant” in the broadcasting world.
“He was very particular about even the smallest details and lived by the philosophy that ‘less is more.’ “He helped pave the way for the younger generation of journalists who continue to make NPR what it is today,” she wrote. “On a personal level, Bob was the absolute love of my life. He was an extremely loving and understanding partner, not to mention my biggest fan.”
“It’s unbearable to think of a life without him, but until we meet again I will continue to hear that beautiful voice in my ear, wishing me luck and telling me ‘break a lip,'” she added. “Rest in peace, my love.”