NPR's Bob Edwards to Speak at MHC

WFCR (88.5FM), public radio for western New England and a National Public Radio (NPR) affiliate, will launch its series of fortieth-anniversary events at Mount Holyoke with “An Evening with Bob Edwards,” host of NPR's Morning Edition, Thursday, March 15, at
7:30 pm in Chapin Auditorium.

Edwards, an award-winning journalist and author, will discuss his work with NPR and Morning Edition, for which he conducts more than eight hundred interviews each year, covering politics, international affairs, education, labor, economics, sports, the arts, and entertainment. He has hosted NPR's daily newsmagazine Morning Edition since its premiere in 1979. One of the most popular programs on public radio, it boasts 8.4 million listeners weekly. In 1999, the program received a George Foster Peabody Award, and Edwards was praised as “a man who embodies the essence of excellence in radio.”

A native of Louisville, Kentucky, Edwards began his career at a small radio station in New Albany, Indiana, after earning a bachelor's degree from the University of Louisville. While serving in the United States Army, he produced and anchored television and radio news programs for the American Forces Korea Network (AFKN) in Seoul. He later moved to Washington, D.C., where he worked as a weekend and evening anchorman for WTOP-AM, an all-news CBS affiliate, while earning a master's degree in broadcast journalism from the American University. He joined NPR in 1974 when it was in its third year of operation. Prior to becoming host of Morning Edition, he was cohost of NPR's evening newsmagazine, All Things Considered.

Over the past twenty years, Edwards has received numerous accolades, including a Alfred I. DuPont Columbia University Award for radio journalism in 1995 for his report “The Changing of the Guard: The Republican Revolution.” His five-part Morning Edition series about fetal alcohol syndrome, “Born Drunk,” earned him a Gabriel Award from the National Catholic Association of Broadcasters in 1990. In 1984, he received the Edward R. Murrow Award from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The accompanying citation noted, “Every station that carries Morning Edition can attest to Bob Edwards' extraordinary rapport with listeners… . In terms of his editorial leadership and on-air performance, Bob has created a standard for the industry.” Edwards is a national vice president of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA).

WFCR is a public radio licensee of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and operates under the auspices of Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and Smith Colleges. An affiliate of NPR and Public Radio International (PRI), WFCR serves more than 150,000 listeners in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, and New Hampshire, with news and information programming, and classical, jazz, folk, and locally produced music.
For tickets to “An Evening with Bob Edwards” contact the University of Massachusetts Fine Arts Center box office, 413-545-2511 or 800-999-UMASS. Tickets are also available online at wfcr.org. For more information on WFCR's programs and services, call 413-545-0100.