Bob Edwards to join Roundtable
Ratings may go "through the roof, and so forth": Bart
Bob Edwards, who was recently told he will be removed from the anchor chair at National Public Radio's Morning Edition later this month, will join the local program Teddy Bart's Roundtable on a semi-regular basis starting sometime this summer, sources say.
The management at NPR stirred up a hornet's nest when they announced that Edwards, the longtime anchor of the popular morning news program, will be demoted to "senior correspondent." It means that Edwards will have plenty of time on his hands to take on other tasks, such as appearing on Bart's radio show.
"I think having a broadcaster of Bob Edwards' stature will send our ratings through the roof and so forth," Bart says. More than 13 million listeners a week hear Edwards on Morning Edition, and having him on the air as a regular certainly will boost the listenership of the Roundtable, whose recent ratings on Nashville's big band-formatted WAMB-AM hover in the 45-listener range.
"Right now," Bart says, "we're also thinking about where Bob is going to sit." The Roundtable's current arrangement has Bart and co-host Karlen Evins welcoming three guests each day, one representing the Republican/right, one the Democratic/left and one with, theoretically, no ideological ax to grind. "Most of the time when we have a journalist on the show, they sit in the middle chair," Bart says. "But lots of people think NPR leans a little to the left, so it may be that the Democratic chair would be better. On the other hand, Bob is from Kentucky and has pretty solid popularity in red states, so the Republican chair may be right for him—we just don't know yet."
Edwards says it doesn't matter to him.
"I'll sit on the floor if they want me to, I don't care," he says in his trademark broadcaster's baritone from his office in Washington, D.C. "My opinion isn't going to change based on which chair I sit in. I'm just happy to have a chance to be heard by several dozen listeners on morning radio."
(The Fabricator is satire. Don't believe everything you read.)
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