Say It Isn't So, NPR

I will miss the mellow tones of Bob Edwards' voice on weekday mornings. Since NPR went on air in Amarillo a few years ago, mornings were better because of Bob Edwards. The suits at NPR are making a big mistake. If this is (fair & balanced) umbrage, so be it.

[x NYTimes]
NPR News Is Replacing Morning Host
By LYNETTE CLEMETSON

WASHINGTON, March 23 — Morning radio will soon lose one of its most familiar news anchors. Bob Edwards, who for nearly 25 years has greeted millions of weekday listeners with the distinctive and richly toned opener "This is `Morning Edition' from NPR News," is being replaced as host of that flagship morning program.

The decision was made by NPR management as part of an effort to update its programming.

"This is part of the natural evolution of NPR, and finding the critical mix of new voices and familiar voices," said Ken Stern, executive vice president for the radio network, which broadcasts to more than 22 million listeners on 770 public radio stations. "This is not about individuals but about goals for the show itself. Bob is not leaving. He's going to be on the air for years to come, and that is the context that this needs to be understood in."

Mr. Edwards, 56, has accepted a new position as a senior correspondent for NPR, though he said contract negotiations were not yet complete. "I would prefer to remain the host of `Morning Edition,' certainly through its 25th anniversary in November," he said. "But apparently it's not my decision. It's my baby. I was there from the get-go. I never had any plans to do anything else."

"Morning Edition," which is broadcast live from 5 to 7 a.m. and is rebroadcast throughout the morning, is the most listened to morning radio program in the country, with 13 million listeners weekly, NPR says, citing figures from Arbitron, which measures radio audiences. The show's audience has grown 41 percent in the last five years, NPR says.

Mr. Edwards said he found out early this month that he was being reassigned. "I was called into an office, and they said, `We're making a change,' " he said. "You get a line like that, and I guess you should come back with some snappy rejoinder. But of course I did not. I was very surprised."

The public radio network issued a news release on Tuesday morning announcing Mr. Edwards's reassignment after he had told his staff.

Mr. Stern said that no decisions had been made on a new host or hosts for the program. But two correspondents, Steve Inskeep and Renée Montagne, will be interim hosts beginning May 1, when Mr. Edwards begins a previously scheduled leave to promote his new book, "Edward R. Murrow and the Birth of Broadcast Journalism" (John Wiley & Sons, $19.95).

"People will hear from us about new hosting arrangements in coming weeks," Mr. Stern said. Mr. Edwards made no announcement on the air on Tuesday, and he said he had not decided when or how to tell his audience. "I would prefer not to say anything on air, because I would have difficulty explaining it," he said. "And it's not goodbye. It's just another role. I'm still going to be speaking to the same audience."

Colleagues, some of whom had heard rumblings about the reassignment over the past couple of weeks, heaped praise on Mr. Edwards. "He's been that strong steady voice, that glorious baritone, that has been just what people need to hear first thing in the morning," said Diane Rehm, who began as host of her own NPR program, "The Diane Rehm Show," two months before Mr. Edwards started "Morning Edition."

Nina Totenberg, who covers the Supreme Court for NPR said: "I will miss him on the air, as listeners will, but I also expect that I will like what I hear next. Nothing stays the same forever, and he deserves a break."

To prepare for the broadcast each day Mr. Edwards has, for two and a half decades, gotten up at 1 a.m. and arrived at the office by 2 to sift through newspaper and news service copy, interview overseas guests and crank through preproduction chores. For years he joked that his children, now adults, regularly tucked him into bed. "They used to read me stories," he said. "I'd go to bed at 6, and they'd stay up a while. I guess now I get to stay up and ask them to come to visit."

Copyright © 2004 The New York Times Company