An NPR Icon Is Gone

A familiar name—and voice—to listeners of NPR is gone. Bob Edwards, who hosted Morning Edition for more than two decades, has died at age 76, reports NBC News. No cause of death was immediately announced.

• "He was Bob Edwards of Morning Edition for 24 and a half years, and his was the voice we woke up to," says Susan Stamberg, one of his former colleagues, per NPR.
• Edwards hosted the program from its debut in 1979 until he was replaced in 2004, a move that caused an uproar from outraged fans, recalls the Washington Post. Edwards was known for his "unflappable demeanor and a basso profundo voice made huskier by a pack-a-day smoking habit," per the Post.

• Edwards left the network after the 2004 reassignment and launched The Bob Edwards Show on XM Satellite Radio, according to his Radio Hall of Fame biography. It notes that the Kentucky native arrived at NPR in 1974 and joined Samberg as co-host of the new All Things Considered before the launch of Morning Edition.
• A transcript of the very first Morning Edition program via NPR shows how Edwards introduced it to listeners: "Good morning. Today is Guy Fawkes Day. Guy's plot to blow up Parliament was discovered on this day in 1605. Today is the beginning of National Split Pea Soup Week, and it's the debut of this program. I'm Bob Edwards."
• This video from University Press of Kentucky has highlights from Edwards' career and snippets from memorable interviews.

(Read other notable obituaries.)