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TeleTales #56…Network Television’s First News Program

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Eyes Of A Generation.com

TeleTales #56…Network Television’s First News Program

In 1947, CBS began experimenting with a news show which was broadcast on Saturday night, but soon afterward they added a Wednesday night edition too. As far as I know, this was newsreel show with no on camera talent, but there was a live announcer narrating.

On May 3, 1948 introduced “CBS Television News” with a live host…Douglas Edwards. I say host, because use of the word “anchor” did not come about till 1952, when Walter Cronkite was deemed anchor man of the 1952 political conventions.

This was television’s first live news show and ran weeknights from 7:30 till 7:45. I think the one camera show originally came from a small newsroom office at the CBS headquarters building at 485 Madison Avenue with the film being rolled from Studio 43 at Grand Central. It later moved to Leiderkrantz Hall and finally to Studio 42 at Grand Central. To see all of todays stories, please remember to visit the main page by clicking on the blue text at the top of this post. -Bobby Ellerbee

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11 responses to “TeleTales #56…Network Television’s First News Program”

  1. Steve Phillips

    I’d take him and old black and white kinescopes over Brian Williams’ furrowed brow, loud ties, “I give a shit” voice, and his other bullshit about “being there as it was happening,” any time!

  2. John Mainelli

    Small screens, black-and-white and low resolution were very forgiving to scuffy desks, dingy walls and ratty drapes.

  3. David Breneman

    What about Lowell Thomas on NBC? Didn’t he start in 1940?

  4. David Fell

    Bobby, is that another mic hanging from the ceiling? What would its purpose have been?

  5. David Fell

    Jodie, I remember him from those days too; he worked up until 1988, the last few years in radio. At the time of this photo, he would have been 30, but he looks about ten years younger.

  6. Bruce Ferrell

    That lettering looks almost identical to the one over the window in the CBS Newsroom.in the 70s (remember the failed morning news with Rudd and Sally Quinn)

  7. Doug Cole

    That is Doug Edwards in the photo.

  8. Jeff Martin

    First person ever to appear on television via videotape!

  9. Lennard Young

    R.I.P Douglas Edwards:)

  10. Alex Streyer

    My Dad and Douglas Edwards roomed together in Atlanta when he worked for WSB.

  11. Ivan Suplee White

    Is that Douglas Edwards in the photo?

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