Douglas Edwards' Final CBS Broadcast

[@MrJoeybabe25]

Doug Edwards answered a fan letter from me in 1972. I was then a teenager looking at radio as a career. He could not be more of a class act and a great broadcaster.

[@lorencosby]

What a class act. I used to call Douglas at CBS Radio after he would finish "The World Tonight" (I think it was called). I was a teenager and finagled the CBS radio newsroom number right next to the on-air booth. Even though I was probably 16 or 17, I could pass for 25 on the phone. In the 4-5 times I called about 90 seconds after the broadcast ended, Mr. Edwards picked up the phone and we'd have conversations that could last 10-20 minutes. This had to be '83 to '85. He was always engaging, very open and knew I was a fellow Okie. Who would have thought in the elite media today that one of the, if not the, most sophisticated, classy and intelligent television and radio journalists of all time was from Oklahoma. Oh yeah, there is also Paul Harvey, Frank McGee, Jim Hartz and Bob Brown. All pretty sharp dudes. Here's to Doug Edwards and the days when we really could believe "that was the way it is."

[@MrJoeybabe25]

Great story! Douglas Edwards was a class act!

[@David-cz4xm]

People forget the before Walter Cronkite, there was Douglas Edwards. 😊 Today's so called journalists, for the exception of a few can not come close to Doug Edwards. ❤

[@rjmcallister1888]

One of the best ever. Solid and never flashy. He outlasted most of CBS' awesome lineup of journalists back in a time when it was an honor to be on 'the Tiffany Network'.

[@thebestisyettocome4114]

Seen March 2019 Douglas Edwards, was at the top of the game in news. A true friend and colleague. I'm long retired at 97, but go every day and enjoy this format of history. For the NBC television network, Benjamin Hahn, from Los Angeles, - "Goodnight and may you have a better tomorrow".

[@ab348]

I find the career of Douglas Edwards to be remarkable and likely the type which we would not see today. Being the CBS network's main news face and voice on television for almost 15 years before being replaced, he nevertheless did not jump ship in dismay, but instead carried on by anchoring the late local news in New York, along with these Newsbreaks on network TV and a regular network radio newscast, right up to his retirement at age 70. His delivery and presence was totally professional and very polished through it all. I remember first hearing him on radio in the 1970s when Armed Forces Radio would air his radio newscast. Just a wonderful broadcaster from the days when CBS News was the gold standard.

[@maxshenkwrites]

Keep in mind he joined CBS in 1942 and was a news anchor on CBS radio ("The World Today") during the war and into the late 40s before television was a thing! I listened to some WW2 news airchecks recently and he was all over those, including the studio coverage of D Day as it happened.

[@LordofDublin4]

No,Doug, "thank you" for your beautiful voice bringing into our living rooms the evening news. No one has ever done it better since.

[@russelljohnson2008]

RIP Doug, you are missed and sorely needed today.

[@jlrva3864]

Something about Douglas Edwards gravely voice resonated with me. Walter Cronkite had his style which worked for the evening news but Edwards' voice somehow got my attention when ever I heard him radio or on daytime TV.

[@jimmypatterson3998]

I remember these Newsbreak segments with Douglas Edwards well. These were a big part of my younger days, a great memory.

[@nakamichiguy]

He was a true pro. One of the many superb voices and faces of the glory days of network news. An era sadly that has passed us forever.

[@AMFMDX]

Fortunately some things on radio have not changed (yet): there are still plenty of top-of-the-hour news updates across America on AM radio stations from the big networks like CBS, ABC, Fox. NBC got out of the radio news side about 10 years ago. It's not the Cronkite era, but there are some longtime terrific veterans like ABC News' Daria Albinger who's been doing news there since 1999. Although sadly, I'm more worried that radio itself won't be around much longer. Other than in cars, AM radio is already a thing of the past in Tesla's and pretty soon all new cars will get rid of Amplitude Modulation. It's just time.

[@riobravo9305]

On right after The Price is Right. I'd watch his CBS Newsbreak when I was home sick from school, maybe on a snow day or in the summer time.

[@10TVMan]

"THIS IS CBS" ... there it is.

[@AarHan3]

A classy way to go out for The Man Who Came First. No April Fool's prank, here... Godspeed, Doug. 😐

[@mca1218]

This is lovely....I'd heard of Mr. Edwards for years, mainly in conjunction with the first ever videotaped news broadcast (1956), but assumed he'd retired years ago, and therefore never saw him- until this clip. (I didn't even know what he looked like.) Thank you so much for another time capsule- video of the news anchor who preceded Walter Cronkite.

[@tbr225]

I sent him a note on his retirement and got a very nice personally written / personally signed reply back in March 1988--still have it

[@mac231208]

Walter Cronkite died tonight. He will be mourned and missed, but let no one forget Douglas Edwards and the others at CBS in the 1950s who helped pave the way for and bolster Cronkite's credibility. What a voice Edwards had! Really miss these great journalists.

[@myboylollipop09]

How great it was for us of a certain age to have such great, honest and true journalists to deliver the news to us. I can think of nothing I trusted more than watching Newsbreak in the afternoons at 3:00 and hearing Douglas Edwards say "Good Afternoon I'm Douglas Edwards and this is Newsbreak". When I see these hacks and comediens, Olberman, Mathews, Hannity, and Beck its enough to make you sick..RIP Mr Edwards and Well Done..

[@ericstuart2538]

Hannity isnt a newsman.

[@ericstuart2538]

Hannity isn't a newsman, and doesn't claim to be

[@fromthesidelines]

When Edwards began his nightly 15 minute newscast in 1948, it was known as "CBS TELEVISION NEWS". By the early '50s, it was "DOUGLAS EDWARDS WITH THE NEWS", and it remained that way until Crokite succeeded ihim in April 1962. That evening [4/1/88] was also Doug's final CBS radio broadcast on "THE WORLD TONIGHT"....

[@goyadressunofficial]

He both predated and outlasted Uncle Walter at the anchor desk. That's some achievement given the behind-the-scenes drama at the Tiffany Network.

[@ericstuart7748]

What a voice and what class this man had. More than Cronkite.

[@AarHan3]

To borrow a famous quote, "Old anchors never die; they just fade to black..."

[@billymatthews7346]

Pure professionalism, grew up with CBS radio news

[@Lafayette320]

If I'm not mistaken, I think Douglas Edwards continued to anchor CBS radio news. It was the CBS News Break's which ended, something missing from contemporary television. Edwards had been Walter Cronkite's predecessor anchor of the CBS Evening News,

[@joerouse7908]

No, he left both at the same time. You can find his last newscast on CBS Radio from that evening, The World Tonight, on KZbin.

[@ericstuart2538]

A class act all the way and one of the best voices in the business!

[@Juliaflo]

Douglas Edwards, the pride of Ada, Oklahoma.

[@JT-mt5jp]

I remember I was only 4 yrs old watching his broadcast. Truly admired him & wish I grew up much earlier watching him.

[@bryanmarshall1267]

Douglas edwards was a great newsman and I was one of his biggest fans and he was a big part of the cbs news family

[@captainkeyboard1007]

I remember Douglas Edwards on the news shown on black and white television when I was much younger, attending elementary school. There is nothing in this world like it used to be.

[@CadillacL]

A true legend.

[@johnorydupont]

He was one of the very best. No slur to any of today's crop, but men like him and Cronkite truly set the benchmark.

[@brandonbowles1713]

Douglass Edwards Walter Cronkite Eric Sevareid Dan Rather Edward R. Murrow Ike Pappas Roger Mudd Bob Schieffer CBS LEGENDS

[@Juliaflo]

Don't forget Hughes Rudd, Richard C. Hottelet, and Mike Wallace.

[@MrJoeybabe25]

I sure would like to see at least one "Douglas Edwards And The News". I'm sure the network 'wiped" any videotapes, and before tape, I guess Edwards did a second broadcast for the west coast. That would have kept him at work until very late in the evening, so I wonder what the story on that is?

[@10TVMan]

Great insight ... thanks. And he was great on "The World Tonight." That's still an excellent radio newscast (though I believe it is now "World News Roundup."

[@fromthesidelines]

Yes, "DOUGLAS EDWARDS WITH THE NEWS" (for Oldsmobile, at the time) was the first nightly network newscast to be videotaped on a regular basis, beginning in November 1956. This eventually became an advantage for those CBS affiliates who didn't want to carry the live 6:45pm(et) "feed", preferring to take the 7:15pm edition [including New York's WCBS-TV], because they wanted to expand their own local newscasts between 6:30 and 7pm. Doug's newscast was just 15 minutes...

[@IowaRocker1]

I met Douglas Edwards in 1987 at WMT's 65th Party. First class gentlemen. Miss you Doug.

[@kxx46]

Yes. Douglas Edwards was the original anchor of CBS Evening News before Walter Cronkite.

[@Juliaflo]

I remember that, and don't figure out my age. LOLOLOLOLOL.

[@awtribute]

According to an airing in September 2009 (after the Guiding Light finale) of CBS Newsbreak, Katie Couric said that one was the last one. I don't know if NBC does them anymore and if so, when they stopped. NBC only has Days left during the day to air a newsbreak afterward so I would guess they stopped long before they whittled their daytime down to 1 show. [[ :- ( AW, loved and still missed :-( ]]

[@myboylollipop09]

A real gentlemen! something we do not see on TV News today except perhaps Brian Williams who is about the only real newsmen left on TV. Bravo Mr Edwards and well done!

[@David-cz4xm]

Sad Day 😔

[@scottlowman.1044]

Good voice.

[@mackb909]

DE was a true gentleman.

[@awtribute]

or really, ANY bias.... I remember how surprised I was when I saw this originally. I didn't know he'd decided to leave CBS.

[@SailorCallie]

His last report is NOT an April Fools' joke, it was the real deal. He would die two years later in 1990.

[@sonoca12]

@ProgMetalLover Neither CBS nor NBC has newsbreaks anymore. CBS aired it's last newsbreak on September 18, 2009, which happened to air at the end of the final episode of Guiding Light. ABC airs the one remaining network newsbreak, which airs each weekday between One Life to Live and General Hospital.

[@freshstart3555]

Here because I wanted to see man whom my father named me after. My name is a mixture of Newsanchor and Weather man.

[@tkaye2]

Edwards was nearly 10 years younger than Murrow and was never one of "Murrow's Boys" in Europe. He came to CBS in 1942 after working at WXYZ in Detroit, where Mike Wallace was also on the announcing staff. Edwards was primarily in CBS' New York studios and was not given an opportunity to report from Europe until the war was nearly over.

[@tkaye2]

The TV job was offered to Edwards because, during the late '40s, Murrow and the like considered the new medium a novelty that was not worthy of their efforts. Edwards was the first television news "anchor" (a term coined by his producer Don Hewitt) and his style set the standard for those who followed, including Walter Cronkite.

[@MrJoeybabe25]

Is there a tape of Douglas Edward's last radiocast?

[@tkaye2]

Yes, it's on the audio page of Don Swaim's WCBS tribute site.

[@fromthesidelines]

Not only that, '10', WCBS-AM in New York allowed "THE WORLD TONIGHT" to run the entire 15 minutes that night, instead of usually cutting it off at the 10 minute mark {Edwards' usual outcue to cut away around 6:10pm- "Wall Street, on this 'World Tonight'"..}, since he was saying farewell to the broadcast at 6:13(et). Today, it is indeed "CBS WORLD NEWS ROUNDUP- LATE EDITION" at 7pm(et), for 10 minutes.

[@robertpatrick5188]

Long before he created and produced "60 Minutes," Don Hewitt produced "Douglas Edwards With The News." One day in the 1970s Hewitt was having lunch with the producer of Edwards' 1949-56 competitor, NBC's "Camel News Caravan" with John Cameron Swayze. Swayze's producer observed that it was probably inevitable that Edwards and Swayze would eventually be replaced, but "at least your guy (Edwards) had the class to stay in the news business. I mean, he didn't become a watch salesman" (referring to Swayze as spokesperson for Timex watches).

[@JakeMabe1]

Were these still live?

[@factsandfancies77]

He had THEE CBS voice!

[@wkat950]

He'd turn over in his grave if he saw what happened with "World News Roundup". It used to be news for those who wanted real news.

[@moviedudeinc]

Why was this his last report?????

[@slamiam]

THAT is some tight news editing, like it isn't done anymore. And some strange advertising, like they don't make anymore, good thing. Jerusalem is still confused, but at least Ed Meese has vanished from the public conscience. Contras? Just take Doans. RIP Mr. Edwards, father of my stepmother. .

[@10TVMan]

He retired.

[@mavamQ]

Anyone remember the typewriter intro that was more musical the typewriter noise. I've been searching for it. I can't recall if it was a radio intro or TV intro. I'm thinking radio, but not sure.

[@karlc2869]

God, we will give you Amy Robach, Matt Lauer, Diane Sawyer, Harvey Levin and Martin Bashir if you will give Frank Reynolds, Douglas Edwards, Jessica Savitch, John Cameron Swayze and Walter Cronkite back to us. Thanks.

[@SeattleBlythe]

Was he part of the Edward R. Murrow generation?

[@corrupt200]

WAAHH wheres the cbs id?

[@TVBob58]

Really? 40 years at CBS News and he says goodbye during a News Update? Shameful.

[@jasonking2943]

Bob Smith I thought the same thing. after 40 years he got 8 seconds of fair wel!

[@rjmcallister1888]

In his later years, Edwards spent most of his time on the radio side, and did some fill-in work for television. A quick goodbye was Douglas' style.

[@tkaye2]

There was a tribute piece at the close of the CBS Evening News the night before. On the radio side, he got a sendoff during The World Tonight. Since it was April Fools Day, he was given a "late breaking" story as a distraction while Dan Rather and Joseph Dembo (head of CBS Radio) came in to offer congratulations.