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Douglas Edwards is one of the most renowned journalists who worked in the 1950's. He was born on July 14th 1917 in Ada Oklahoma. He is known for the customary greeting "Good evening, everyone, from coast to coast" to CBS News Television audience which was his greeting phrase for over 10 years. He was the first anchor of the television news report that scheduled regularly on CBS. This grew with time and in 1951 it was aired all over the country and "Douglas Edwards with the news" was shown live from Maine to California.
His passion for media started when he was quite young as he was always listening to a crystal radio set that he carried with him everywhere. He started his broadcast career at a tender age of 15 where he worked as a junior announcer on a radio station that he and friends had put together. This was a 100 watt radio where his first assignment was to report on fixtures on sports games that happened around his home area in Troy Alabama. He worked here for several years and his main duties included playing music, giving updates on upcoming programs and reading news.
He went to the University of Alabama with intent of studying medicine but his passion for journalism led him to study the program in the University of Georgia. While in college he continued working as a news reporter and announcer for two stations in Dothan, AL and Atlanta for WGAF and WSB respectively. He joined CBS in 1942 where he began his successful journalism career. He started out as an announcer but later found himself working as news reporter and as a news reader for the daily broadcast. One of his main broadcasting jobs was in 1943 when he stepped into the shoes of the regular announcer John Daly who was assigned to North Africa.
Edwards went for some duties overseas where he worked as the war correspondent. He returned to the country in 1946 and was chosen to be the lead anchor for the CBS World News Roundup. After this he became a major news reporter and had to take up television duties and reported thrice a week. He is a legend in television as he together with a small number of staff wrote and edited their own news and developed a format for television news reporting. He lived to a ripe age of 73 where he died after a long battle with cancer. He was recently elected to the wall of fame in 2006.
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