For NPR host, the final ‘Edition’

Bob Edwards, one of radio’s consummate interviewers, has found himself in his final days as host of National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition” in the awkward position of subject rather than questioner.

“I’m sick and tired of that, frankly,” said Edwards, who today ends a 24-year tenure at the helm of NPR’s most popular show.

His final days have been filled with running a gantlet of interviews, trading his usual jeans and flannel shirt for a telegenic pinstriped suit and answering scores of questions about his involuntary reassignment.

“I’ll be glad when it’s over, to tell you the truth,” said Edwards, 56. “It’s too much going on -- too much, and I’m still doing a radio program.”

Today he said he’ll take “part of a minute” to thank people, then he’ll launch into his final interview as “Morning Edition” host, with Charles Osgood.

“My morning competitor,” Edwards said of the CBS radio and television host, who was his first “Morning Edition” interview when the show debuted in 1979. Heard locally from 2 to 9 a.m. on KPCC-FM (89.3) and 3 to 9 a.m. on KCRW-FM (89.9), the show has a weekly national audience of 13 million, second only to Rush Limbaugh in all of radio.

Edwards was supposed to last only a month as host. The morning show was foundering even before its Nov. 5, 1979, premiere, and NPR executives asked him to take a leave from co-hosting (with Susan Stamberg) NPR’s afternoon newsmagazine, “All Things Considered,” to help launch “Morning Edition.” That leave turned into nearly 25 years.

On Monday he’s being replaced by a pair of colleagues in what one network executive called the relaunching of “Morning Edition” -- a change Edwards didn’t seek and NPR listeners didn’t welcome. More than 36,000 e-mails poured in protesting the move -- an unprecedented response.

“It’s been very heartwarming. Even though people are feeling negative, it’s positive as far as I’m concerned,” said Edwards, who has been at NPR since 1974. “You do something for 30 years with the same audience, you build up a rapport there.”

But listeners won’t be without Edwards’ smoky baritone for long. Monday he airs his first story from his new job as a senior correspondent: a preview of the World War II memorial on the National Mall.

Then he embarks on a tour to promote his new book, “Edward R. Murrow and the Birth of Broadcast Journalism,” with Southland stops that include a reading at Dutton’s Brentwood Bookstore on May 15, sponsored by KCRW.

Details are being worked out on how “Morning Edition” will change in the post-Edwards era. The show will have two hosts, with one of them based at NPR West in Culver City. For now that will be Renee Montagne, with Steve Inskeep, currently host of “Weekend All Things Considered,” in Washington, D.C., said Bruce Drake, NPR’s vice president for news and information.

He said the pair will be in the running for the permanent jobs, if they desire, adding that the network wants hosts who can also report from the field, handling investigations and breaking news alike.

“It’s not a question of deficiencies with Bob. It was an opportunity to see what value you could add to the show by bringing in people with field experience,” Drake said.

He said NPR will look both inside and outside the network for new hosts, though he said few outside the building have the skills or experience needed to helm such a show.

The demands of covering news events -- from the 2000 election to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq -- and the legion of new listeners that coverage drew to NPR compelled the network to beef up its news operation.

The March 23 announcement that Edwards was being replaced struck some listeners as uncharacteristically cold and corporate -- especially for a network so clubby with its audience that a 32-year Thanksgiving tradition has Stamberg sharing her mother-in-law’s cranberry relish recipe with listeners.

Even people who agree that a change could be good criticized the way NPR handled the announcement, and network executives, singed by the fury of Edwards’ fans, admitted it could have been handled better.

“It seems like they were not being very smart about it,” said Frank Lanzone, general manager of KCBX-FM in San Luis Obispo and KSBX-FM in Santa Barbara, and president of California Public Radio, a consortium of 20 stations from Chico to San Diego. “They should be taking care of Bob. He’s a national treasure, for crying out loud.”

Drake said he “read people opining that this was a sign NPR was going to dumb down, or cater to a younger audience. I think the show will be daily evidence that that’s not true.”

“There is never a good time to announce something like this, when you’ve had somebody who’s as visible for a long time as Bob is,” he said. “I’m not sure there would have been a silver-bullet way to handle this so there would have been no outcry. We said this show is good and strong, and there are ways to make it stronger.”

Stamberg and others at NPR said the flap over Edwards’ reassignment rankled not only listeners but also people within the network. But they predicted his new assignment will ultimately benefit him, NPR and listeners.

“Sure, there are bruises and sadness and some anger too, which I imagine is much the same as many of the listeners are feeling,” Stamberg said. “I also think that change is just fine, and it will be weathered.”

But, she added, “I sure will miss that voice waking me up in the morning.”